Formerly “MumboJumbo”
Join Date: Dec 2009
|
Quote:
Another one of these FEDERAL special elections for House, Senate, etc just finished up last night and the Democratic Party couldn't knock off a profoundly flawed candidate who had last minute scandal involving an assault charge. They console themselves that the "gap" of loss is narrowed but as with all of these special elections, they are pouring in massive amounts of outside money from national donors all to get that first win on which they will anchor their ready-made narrative that Trump is going to cost Republicans Federal control. You can go back for round three or four of implying that I really meant Trump would alter elections for dog catcher if you want. I could care less. Quote:
(perhaps more depending upon the figures you find) and what was shown for it? When Bush borrowed two thirds as much we could at least note that it was for pointless and endless wars that he lied about to get us in per the narrative of his critics. What did Obama do with all that money? I mean this as seriously as possible. So I don't think the impact will be as large as you imagine because there isn't much being delivered for that money. California is a prime example of that where we have among the highest gas taxes in the nation, and they are rising to be tied for highest gas taxes of all so we can have the 48-50th worst ranked road system in the nation depending upon the group doing the ranking. Claiming that the roads will be bad is an empty threat when they already are bad. Claiming that people will lose medical care when their "insurance" costs them several thousand dollars a year and has deductibles often in the several thousand dollar range before it starts paying out isn't much of a loss. At some point the threat becomes idle and that is why Trump was elected in the first place. As an example my father works in trucking. He claims he has already seen a massive change in trucking due to immigration enforcement. Likewise there have been articles about increased immigration enforcement noting deportations rising more than 30%. Finally we have articles noting that there are shortages for field work even with that work paying $15 or more dollars per hour. We shouldn't have record food stamp use and while having labor shortages in areas as varied as picking strawberries or doing tech work. I suspect that when there isn't a labor force undercutting real wages (field to H1B) and likewise no inducement to not work via safety net programs that are given to able-bodied people without children, then many problems will rectify. All this can happen whether or not there is a wall and I personally don't care for a wall. When the government is so bad, there's lots of low hanging fruit to fix. Allowing ICE to simply do the job they are paid to do becomes a double win. Immigration enforcement goes up as does government productivity. Having an EPA that is less interested in carbon credits and more interested in keeping lead out of pipes is another example of double wins and there are plenty of them out there to try to claim. If not, well there is always 2020 and again my view is there will be a recession somewhere in there regardless of who is elected. |
||
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: UK's most densely packed city. It's not London...
|
I find your quoting of me to be more reflective of your inability to construct a cohesive argument, but really, whatever floats your sinking ship.* The win in Montana wasn't shocking, 2/3 of votes were committed before the incident (if you actually look at the numbers the final tally was almost unbelievably close for fucking Montana), and it was in fact a close enough election to get Pence and a Trump spawn involved. Sure the GOP held onto the seat, and that's all they need to do. So the Democrats have more work to do. But your argument was not about holding seats (your statement would have had them gaining seats in any event, so you are either obfuscating or are fuzzy about the details when making statements, but I digress), it was about Trump being *good* for the GOP, and that remains an unfounded opinion...
Unfortunately, your perspective on how the economy works is somewhat limited. You are solely concerned about wages and not about productivity or the absolute need for the economy to grow. I know, I know -- in your view the economy is a zero sum game, but that is only the case when it isn't growing, but unfortunately for you the US isn't Japan of the last two decades. Labor shortages in farm labor doesn't rectify labor excess in non-agrarian regions or populations. Contrary to your evident belief, not everyone can pick crops for 10 hours/day, and not all unemployed people live where crops are picked. Anecdotes from your father don't count as facts (particularly not in a field where people may be making the rational choice to leave while the leaving is good given reports of automated delivery trucks being rolled out). Your economic view lacks the sophistication of understanding time, geography, migration trends, welfare limitations, etc. But you are not close to being an economist (nor a political philosopher if we are being honest here), and for that we should all be thankful. I do find it pathetic that you believe that California's roads are somehow reflective of the fact that as you say the increased debt incurred by Obama led to nothing -- worse I find it laughable that you believe California's roads are 'bad'; have you ever driven in the South East or cities on the East Coast (and what does any of this have to do with Obama's budget)? You must really be daft if that is how you want to phrase your argument. Why not look at where the debt came from and figure out what the US got from it: the numbers are there for the analysis and your feelings about this have shit all to do with reality. Nor do the feelings of Trump's supporters. Reality has a way of rolling over people who do not perceive it accurately, and that describes everyone who voted for Trump and everyone who thinks he's doing a-ok. Honestly, though, Nick. I am more interested in trying to help you argue better. This isn't fun when you are unable to express your thoughts in a consistent fashion and lean on logical fallacies (as you honestly always have). *[truth be told, this is a forum, we are involved in a simple back and forth with few other participants, your posts are permanently there to refer back to, there is zero need to quote -- unless, of course, you cannot construct an argument and instead have to rely on line by line rehashings. We've been over this before, at a younger age I got pissed at you for arbitrarily breaking my arguments into pieces, but I discovered that you are incapable of debating wholistically and incapable of self-critical reflection on the imperfections in the small arguments you make or the 'data' you introduce. You enjoy these back and forths because it makes you feel like you have a supported opinion -- you don't care what anyone else says to you about how poorly your argument fares when held to the light of truth and logic. I frankly enjoy them because I get to laugh at you, and point out how stupid some Americans can be in this age of Trump to my friends here in Europe. So as disingenuous as I am with these arguments with you, because my heart isn't really in them, I really wish my sparing partner was smarter and better equipped. Ah well.] Last edited by Dr. Bobsky : 2017-05-27 at 03:38. |
quote |
Formerly “MumboJumbo”
Join Date: Dec 2009
|
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/o...ught.html?_r=0
Look a unicorn and a pretty pony! A few key passages.... Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
I'm saying this because one of these big blue states is going to turn at some point. I live in one of them and so I can tell you what I've observed and what is happening. The threats of loss ring hollow because while the money was spent, the promised outcomes never arrived. Obama borrowed nearly $9 trillion supposedly to fix the country from the Bush wars and recession. That recovery never happened for those states and large swathes of the country. In California we have the CSU and UC system. Instead of free tuition, the costs have doubled. Then we discover that nearly a fifth of the available slots are going to out of state and foreign students. You find out Janet Napolitano has a $175 million slush fund while students pay more. The roads are terrible. The taxes are high and the threat is that if you vote for someone other than a San Francisco/Northern California elite politician supported by tech and entertainment money then evil Republicans are going to make your life worse. People realize at some point they can't make it worse. You don't have health care. You have a mandate to purchase terrible health plans. You don't have good roads or excellent state parks or fantastic government amenities for you kids. You have crumbling schools and roads while watching H1B visa holders take the jobs you were promised would be there if you got them through college in a STEM field. This "hollowing out" isn't hard for me to see. It's like watching cable TV crumble or ESPN go from revenue generator to revenue anchor around the neck of Disney. I can be crazy, delusional, argue poorly or mocked in whatever manner some prefer. I don't care about that. I see what I see and I know what I know and right now the major blue pockets are all around media centers. Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and some secondary markets are blue/pretty purple as well (San Francisco, Denver, Boston, etc.) The media is crumbling. Their ability to influence is waning and changes coming will be very large. In some ways it won't matter. Student loan debt is at over a trillion dollars owed to the Federal Government and it is the only debt you cannot discharge via a bankruptcy. Let's see how many of these young debt slaves become lifelong Democratic voters as an example. That doesn't mean Republicans have the answer either but status quo isn't going to fix it and doubling down on the bad solutions isn't going to fix it. Change needs to happen. |
||||||
quote |
Ninja Editor
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Bay Area, CA
|
Quote:
|
|
quote |
¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
|
So who would've thought that Donald Trump would turn the government of The Unites States of America into a sickening reality TV show after only 6 months in office? Not me, even as unhinged and idiotic as I thought he was, he has exceeded every gross expectation. For example, I will not, as White House Communication Director Anthony Scaramucci teases an upcoming episode, watch White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon suck his own cock.
These are the people in charge. So it goes. |
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Oct 2004
|
Quote:
|
|
quote |
¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
|
Because it is, and no-one should.
Today, Senate Republicans drafted (at lunch) a secret bill affecting the lives and health of millions of American citizens. The Republican senators will only vote yes on this bill tonight if they have assurances from the House Republicans that they will not vote yes on it. Because then, it's Trump's scribble away from becoming law. And the law would be terrible for the country. Fucking what. So it goes. |
quote |
Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
|
Saw three interesting bits of video from Washington this week:
1) Massive respect for John McCain. His hard earned POW and Veteran's cred took a hit for me with the whole picking insanely unqualified Palin debacle, but returning from Brain Cancer at risk of your life to make a brilliant speech in favour of a return to bipartisanship... Legacy assured... and then the final vote to seal the deal (and perhaps stick it to Trump)... if he popped his clogs tomorrow, I think history would remember him well. 2) Scaramucci, OTOH... geez... could his nose be any further up Trump's ass 💩? Anyone with access to video/Google can tell when he's being insincere... (hint: lips moving.) Scaramucci may be Trump's id unleashed (inappropriate language, bullying, paranoia... one id is bad enough... doubling up seems to be a train wreck waiting to happen) He (and Trump) seem to chronically be confusing Loyalty with Fealty. 3) Bill Browder's briefing to the Judiciary committee Clear history of the Magnitsky act and Putin's efforts to undo it (in part through the actions of Natalya Veseltnetskaya - linking Trump Jr, Kushner, and Manafort to the chronicle of evil action undertaken in the last decade by Putin's deputised lackeys as the Kleptocracy acts to try and hide their corrupt practices). If you can find his testimony on CSPAN or elsewhere, it's worth a watch. Riveting stuff that would hardly seem out of place in a spy thriller. All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. |
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
|
Browder's book is well worth reading.
As for the Mooch, SNL needs to cast Ben Stiller to play this guy. |
quote |
I shot the sherrif.
|
....and he's gone.
(I secretly think he wasn't fired for being vulgar, I think he was fired because he briefly took more of the spotlight than DJ T was getting, and DJ T got jealous.) Google is your frenemy. Caveat Emptor - Latin for tough titty I tend to interpret things in the way that's most hilarious to me |
quote |
Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
|
Quote:
DJ T id -vs.- Mooch as DJ T id was a contest only having one acceptable winner. Meanwhile, Trump seems to flip between Twitter and a staff of sycophants competing to serve up "Mirror Mirror on the wall..." validation and tell the Emperor what lovely clothes he has and how big his hands look... 🤦♂️ How long Gen. Kelly puts up with Trump ignoring or contradicting him is another matter... but it might get interesting. All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand. |
|
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: UK's most densely packed city. It's not London...
|
The US is certainly winning under Trump. So so tired of all this winning, just as the walking orangeade said I would be.
|
quote |
Ice Arrow Sniper
|
For those keeping score at home, Monclova Township (really unsure why the media keeps claiming Maumee - it isn't) was in my high school district. I wish I could say I'm shocked, but there are two different Nazi cells there amongst maybe a thousand people.
Authentic Nova Scotia bagpipe innards |
quote |
¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
|
Papadopoulos, the one name you can be sure Trump tweets "Isn't even real. Saw on Sesame Street once. Never met. FAKE NEWS. WHERE IS HILLARY AND OSCAR COLLUSION INVESTIGATION????"
So it goes. |
quote |
¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
|
Um... this is a very real thing btw. Imma start a new thread, since this one is ostensibly past its usefulness.
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Toronto
|
Brazile takes aim at Hillary Clinton. This is going to be entertaining.
|
quote |
¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
|
Doubtful. It's more an indictment of DWS, which everyone at this point pretty much has heard about and agrees with.
It would have been a more interesting story to hear how she fed questions to Hillary, not that she cried listening to gospel music while telling Bernie what he already knew. Hopefully you're right and it does get entertaining. Anything to shine a spotlight on election money, donors, and misuse. Maybe JoeBob will realize he's paying for TheDon and his family's legal bills, not for his coal job to come back as promised. So it goes. |
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Toronto
|
Quote:
|
|
quote |
¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
|
Or maybe some people did their research and came to the conclusion that it was a bunch of self-serving, exaggerated hooey. She's out to sell books, after all.
That's not to say the DNC doesn't have massive problems, but the more Brazile speaks the less credible she sounds. So it goes. |
quote |
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
|
|
quote |
¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
|
Ya know, I'm 50 years old, and if I was to date again (gods forbid) I'd probably be like "Well, somebody 10 years younger would maybe be OK, at the most 15" because you know, life experience, relatability, that sort of thing. It would just be too much effort to date anyone younger than that, right? The older you get it kind've gets more muddled I guess. Like, when I'm 60 I could maybe see myself dating a 40 year old. That's a huge gap, of course, but a smart chick at 40 knows what the score is.
That said, in my mid-30s I did not have any desire to date girls a decade-plus below my age. Teenagers (some barely) just weren't on my radar. Well, unless I just wanted to strip them down and have them touch my hard cock through my tighty-whities. But then I would be a disgusting, gross, creepy immoral person. Or the next Republican Senator from Alabama. But hey, Mary, Mother of God and Grace, was a teen and Joseph was an older dude, and they made baby Jesus. <-- actual, real defense. wtf Thank gods for Marshall Space Flight Center and addabox, otherwise I'd write the whole fucking state off as a loss. So it goes. Last edited by 709 : 2017-11-10 at 21:23. |
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: oaktown
|
I dunno man, if they vote him in we may need to write it off, the good graces of NASA and myself notwithstanding.
I mean, I'm seeing people say that they'd vote for him even if it's all true, because liberals are worse. So that's where we're at. The rightwing outrage machine has made of liberals such a black hole of evil that the target demographic would vote for a pedophile over one of "them." Openly and proudly. I wonder what else they'd be willing to tolerate? Serial killer? OTOH there's been a fascinating discussion of why Moore's behavior hasn't been met with more outrage in certain quarters: the homeschooling "quiverfull" wing of evangelical Christianity openly advocates for marrying girls off as young as 13, since that allows the safe passage of the sacred vessel of womenhood from paternal custody to spousal custody without a chance for the devil to get in there and fuck shit up. In their parlance, girls are like "apple trees" which the farmer (dad) has a duty and obligation to care for until the apples are beginning to "ripen", at which point he may distribute said apples to anyone he deems worthy or needful. Can't let those apples just hang there on the tree, and of course all the apples don't ripen at once so get while the getting is good. All of which is entirely nauseating, but within these closed communities girls have no agency whatsoever beyond being groomed for wifely duties, so apparently as long as everybody is godly it's all good. Hey, remember the Duck Dynasty patriarch? He figures 15 is a good age for a wife. Same dude who's buds with the extremely godly Mike Huckabee, among other right wing figures. You have to figure there's at least tacit aproval of this shit across the evangelical community. Should be interesting to see if Moore's troubles provoke an outing of the whole rotten system. They'll all cry religious freedom and persecution of "christians", of course. I feel like we're living through some genuine transformation. The constant drumbeat of revelation re sexual harassment, abuse and rape from now dozens of public figures, the panoply of people elected last Tuesday (including the trans women who outsed the guy who wrote the bathroom bill, in one of the sweetest moments of karmic justice I've seen in a while), now the Moore thing... like the lid is coming off. And it cuts both ways-- elements of the right that are frankly medieval in their outlook are obliged to stand up be counted, to drop the carefully coded language and yell "damn right women are cunts and chattel, damn right niggers are violent and stupid, damn right democracy is useless to us and damn right give us our authoritarin white theocracy right now." Like the jig is up and there's no more point in equivocating. Despite Trump's election and continuing support from what looks to be about 30% of the country, I don't think we're necessarily that. Trump won because the dems didn't give their constituencies enough to vote for, whereas he gave his the kind of blood and thunder, take no prisoners nonsense that stirs the belly while it dulls the mind. This talk of "working class white people" who apparently are to be considered the only true Americans is beside the point. The majority of Americans who voted for Clinton aren't some kind of occupying army, they're Americans as well. Normal Americans. And it is, in fact, racist to frame all of this as if the long suffering people of the heartland, plucked from a Grant Wood painting, have somehow an exclusive claim to grievance and authenticity. I mean, look at how the "opioid epidemic" (white) has been framed compared to "drug addicts" (black) if you doubt that white supremacy is alive and well. The former, a medical crisis that has tragically afflicted normal Americans, especially those self-same "working class whites", requiring compassion and investment. The latter, a manifest expression of low character and criminality, requring arrest and imprisonment. But change is afoot. The dems are getting better candidates. They too, are moved to speak more clearly as to their values, here in these vexed times. And just like overt racism or sexism or authoritarianism may drive certain voters to the polls, a candidate that's willing to stand up and be counted for unapologeticly progressive values is going to tap a perhaps heretofore undervalued constituancy. And the savage, brutal nature of the current Republican party is definitely pushing those candidates to run. Of the 15 seats the Dems flipped in the Virginia election, 11 were woman. Kind of instructive. There really is such a thing as liberal populism, but it isn't predicated on appealing to the lesser nature of working class whites by implying that their woes arise out of "those people" getting all the breaks, or "liberal elites" consipring to humiliate them. It starts by weaning itself off the corporate money that distorts any hope of genuine ecomonic reform, it instists on diversity as a asset, not a power grab, and it alligns the plight of pretty much everybody but the top 10% with concrete legislation to alleviate the insane decoupling of the wealthy few from the ever more burdened many. The Republican Party is already well on its way towards being totally dismantled in favor of an angry, nativist, paranoid minority of aggrieved whites who are literally beyond the reach of argument and who despise the foundational structures of the United States as corrupt and contemptable. They respond only to rhetoric that feeds into the belief that every aspect of a functioning democracy-- the courts, a free media, the electoral system, informed expertise, verifiable truth, the government itself-- is to be swept aside in favor of whatever a bellicose strongman deems to be necessary to "restore order." Incipient fascism, in other words. But the severity of this crisis means that the Democratic Party can undergo just as sweeping a transformation, one that emphasizes inclusion, economic justice, fact and science based decision making, and an overt championing of our shared values and institutions. That doesn't mean they'll have all the answers or usher in a golden age, but it does mean we might just have a chance yet of wresting our country from the forces that would make of us a banana republic. That which doesn't kill you weakens you slightly and makes you less able to cope until you're completely incapacitated |
quote |
Environmental Bloodhound
|
Quote:
But as someone that is actually in the mid-thirties age group and actively getting back into dating, your points ring true about the decade plus age gap. It’s just too much to bridge, and I feel so downright creepy when I give it a shot on the rare occasion when one shows interest. This whole sequence just shows how demonizing ideological divides just blinds people to just plain common sense and hunan decency. Formerly known as cynical_rock censeo tentatio victum There is no snooze button on a cat. |
|
quote |
I shot the sherrif.
|
If you just got done telling their mother you would babysit while the mom went into court, you shouldn't date them.
|
quote |
Ninja Editor
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Bay Area, CA
|
Quote:
When I was a kid, people who did wrong were punished, restricted, and forbidden. Now, when someone does wrong, all of the rest of us are punished, restricted, and forbidden... and the one who did the wrong is counselled and "understood" and fed ice cream. |
|
quote |
ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
|
Bill Clinton wasn't a kidfucker. False equivalency.
|
quote |
Ice Arrow Sniper
|
And if he was, he would have been ousted. Not celebrated, like the GOP voters are doing with the Alabama Diddler.
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: oaktown
|
If it wasn't for false equivalencies I'm not sure the right would have much to talk about.
|
quote |
¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
|
|
quote |
|
the secondary tier as quickly as most years, although there is definitely precedent for this. The biggest change that I see is the more public battles between the entire crowd. Audacity Find My iPhone Origin
|
quote |
Posting Rules | Navigation |
Page 60 of 61 First Previous 56 57 58 59 [60] 61 Next |
Thread Tools | |
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Obama's new campaign ad... | PKIDelirium | AppleOutsider | 21 | 2018-11-15 13:29 |
Election Day theme | kieran | Feedback | 30 | 2008-11-06 00:32 |
How are YOU watching the election? | Fahrenheit | AppleOutsider | 58 | 2008-11-05 03:45 |
New Mac ad campaign | defaultmike | Speculation and Rumors | 40 | 2006-07-13 07:10 |
The Campaign (the new iMac, not the other one) | psmith2.0 | General Discussion | 51 | 2004-09-09 21:43 |