Sounds like I whetted some appetites with yesterday’s Gundy post, so have at it in the comments.
Only thing I’ll add here is that, after seeing some of the terms of Georgia’s Amazon proposal, boy, am I glad it wasn’t successful. Talk about giving the store away…
Filed under GTP Stuff
“We remember the Sugar Bowl, I think it my junior year of high school, we let Alabama beat us twice,” Brinson said of a team that also lost to the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship game. “We’re not letting Alabama beat us twice. In the Sugar Bowl in 2018, they… thought they should have been in the playoffs and lost to Texas.” -- AB-H, 12/27/23
Get The Picture
I’ll start:
Your president skipped out on WWI ceremonies because the rain made it hard for the copter, and he claimed the secret service didn’t want him to use the limo like other leaders did. If this had been Obama, FoxNews would have demanded Trey Gowdy conduct at least 40 House investigations to get to the bottom of it. And, for crissakes, he may have worn a tan suit!
In other news, I guess that national emergency of the hundreds-of-miles-away migrant caravan is not so emergent any longer, since 45 no longer talks of it. Good thing we sent a bunch of military there (along with all of the border patrol already there).
Y’all are quite special to be on his team.
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Orange Man Bad.
Orange Man “Special.”
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Solid rebuttal of his points
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Its actually a summary of his points.
Also, did you just assume the gender of the original poster? Reeeeeeeeeeee
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Ah. You’re that guy.
Carry on, then.
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IF{Triggered=TRUE},
RunProgram{IndividualResponse.Outrage}
“How dare you assume genders, we are all unique and special! Orange Man Bad. Orange Man Sexist”
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I don’t understand this particular brand of trolling. Seen it the last 2 weeks. What am I missing?
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https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/npc-wojak
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I don’t care which side of the aisle you’re on, skipping that ceremony at an AMERICAN military cemetery was BS.
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I never, ever, want to hear again about how Trump “supports the troops” or “loves veterans.”
Fact – Canada and France both have heads of state that command more respect than the US President. On Veterans Day weekend the leaders of the free world paid tribute to the memories of the fallen of WW1 in a cold rain. Donald Trump sat in a hotel room watching FOX News and tweeting angrily.
What a fucking disgrace.
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So?
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Good point! Can you provide an annotated version? Hard to go through all that analysis without some structure.
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The President skipped something due to rain and the previous President didn’t – – so?
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So…Trump is a WITCH!!!
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It’s a fair cop.
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(We did do the nose)
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Nothing about being a witch disqualifying Mr. Trump as being your President in the Constitution.
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Until he gets wet that is….
He turned me into a newt!
I got better…
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It’s pretty clear his weathered coif would have suffered in those conditions, I am happy to not have to see it.
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Note that he did speak at a different cemetery on the 11th, after all the outcry (in the rain that day, too). One of his idiots pointed this out to me as an example of media bias, i.e., that few had reported it, while of course the idiot missed that the majority of the original reporting was from him skipping the first one on an earlier day and that his appearance at the next one was simply because the media had given him shit about it.
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I’m calling BS on him standing without an umbrella in a steady downpour. I watched the video, he is standing at the podium with hair perfectly coifed. Unless Rain-X has come out with a men’s hair product, those facts cannot exist together.
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You doubt the man’s coif’s ability to self-seal against the likes of simple French rain? Fake news, my friend, fake news.
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President Trump has been far more supportive of both out country and our military that Obama ever was. No longer does the leader of the world’s most powerful country has to feel he must apologize for out country. Our military deployment to the border is completely acceptable…we defend many borders from invasion throughout the world why not our own? Yes, I am fully on his team…he may be abrasive but he remains the best chief executive we’ve had in decades. Now, snark away!!
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I think Trump is doing a fantastic job and has the most bias media ever. If anyone compares the economy to the last few years you agree or your head is up your ass.
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“President Trump has been far more supportive of both out country and our military that Obama ever was”
This is fucking delusional. There is something wrong with you people.
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Dimocrats are corrupt and turning every place they’re elected into a third world shithole. Incompetence is their hallmark.
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Always trust a party that tells you government sucks and can’t do anything right to prove themselves wrong.
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Always trust the party that screws things up, then claims they need to elected a few more times in order to implement policies to fix the problems they created in the past. “Just a few more decades of banging our heads on that brick wall will work. We promise!”
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Haha, I know this one. “Just wait til next year”.
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Really? I guess that Republican-government-created economic crash in 2008, that Democrats spent 8 years fixing, was a mirage! Damn, I better go get my They Live glasses again (from Rowdy Roddy, no less!) so I can misremember properly.
So special.
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Facts have a well known liberal bias.
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I mean, clearly, as I even misremembered that amazingly competent war conducted by the neo-cons in the Republican administration of the early 2000s. Good times!
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Republicans are a bunch of shitheads. But at least they’re not useful idiots shilling for the dim/communists.
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Louie Gohmert is no useful idiot for the Koch’s! He’s a fucking genius!
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You pretty happy he didn’t go to Arlington?
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POTUS skipping out was fuckn lame. Bunch of damn draft dodgers and cowards the majority of ’em.
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Imagine the uproar if some “other” president didn’t show.
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It’d be about the same as it is now. It’d just be a different lot of em outraged.
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GOP created crash in 2008? I’m sorry which president signed the repeal of Glass Steagall? Which administration did the leadership of Fannie May come from? Remember when John Kerry and Al Gote brought up the housing bubble we were in? But, Bush was in office so we gotta blame him. It couldn’t possibly have been caused by bad monetary policy
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No doubt some (not all) democrats went along with market deregulation. (Like some Democrats agreed to give Bush authority to do whatever in Iraq.)
However, deregulation is a decidedly conservative not liberal idea. You’d have to think auburn runs a pro style offense to be dumb enough to argue that point.
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Some? You mean the leader of the Democrats? Market deregulation is only a mistake if it leads to private gain and public risk. Big govt, rich people, created the Fed Reserve to protect their wealth. The Fed misread the situation in the early oughts and caused the bubble. Same thing would have happened under Gore or Kerry. The gears were already in motion. Obama came in and terrified business much like FDR did. In both situations, we were stuck in long Econ dulldrums that were not fixed until they were gone
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I’ve simply noticed that people on the right will demean liberals or democrats interchangeably as it suits them.
Slavery? Democrats! How about they were conservatives? Huh?
Tragic deregulation? Democrats too! How about it was a conservative idea? Huh?
Iraq? Democrats too! How about it was neo-cons leading the charge? Huh?
You can blame share all you’d like and call certain politicians socialists but at least acknowledge that Bernie would not have voted to repeal Glass-Stegall. He would have voted to expand it.
Parties have tendencies but ideologies are better guides to where adherents land on issues.
In short, conservatives led to charge to deregulate and there were some fools on the democratic side who went along. Same thing with Iraq and numerous other bad “conservative” ideas like the “war on drugs.”
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I like how you have a little pet name for any Democrat that doesn’t tow your “Real Democrat” party line while attempting to chastise Republicans for pointing out that those things were all done by actual Democrats! Well played sir!
dawgxian is 100% correct that the housing bubble was caused by Barney Frank and his lover, hand in hand with the Clintons shaming/forcing banks to violate their well established loan practices in the name of fighting racism!
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You’re just wrong. Former Sen. Phil Graham of TX (R) lobbied on behalf of the financial industry that they were over-regulated a few democrats bought it. I don’t hold myself responsible for Barney Frank’s vote on it anymore than I hold you responsible for Mark Foley’s (R) being a pederast.
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Glass-Steagall had nothing to do with the financial crisis. Commercial banks got in trouble because their portfolios had mortgage-backed securities. That was always allowed in Glass-Steagall. Investment banks also held MBS funded by short-term commercial paper. That was also legal under Glass-Steagall. Both banks got into trouble because they invested in MBS, not because they were tied to each other, which was the only portion of Glass-Steagall that had been repealed. The MBS looked good because they were AAA rated, had good yield, and regulators didn’t require much capital. But the weak link was too few regulators? They were fooled just like everybody else. Arguing that a regulator bowing to political considerations can better evaluate risk than an entrepreneur risking his own capital is nonsensical.
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Which parent is more to blame for the house burning down, the dad who bought matches or the mom who not only knew the kids were playing with matches alone in their room, but couldn’t be bothered to get off the couch when she smelled smoke? Republicans controlled Congress and the White House from 2001 – 2007; they not only ignored the smoke, they told the kids where dad kept the lighter fluid.
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Republican-government-created economic crash in 2008
Somebody tell you that or did you figure it out alone?
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What Republican policies caused the crash?
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Deregulation of the financial markets. Letting depositor banks make investment decisions. Taking the teeth out of the SEC. Trusting that “moral hazard” would dissuade Wall Street decision makers from a royal fuck up that would cost the citizens of this country trillions of dollars.
The free market is great until you allow it’s speculation and greed to grind the credit markets to a halt. Then we starve and have to watch Grapes of Wrath years later.
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There were 115 state and federal regulatory bodies tasked with overseeing the financial sector at the time of the crash. You actually believe that having 116 would have done the trick? Why am I not surprised?
It’s amazing how much risk banks will assume when the government agrees to cover the losses. But we need more of that, right?
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Care to elaborate on this trillions of dollars? If you are referencing TARP you it proves you have no idea what you are talking about. Tax payers didn’t lose a dime and neither did depositors. Govt actually made a nice return on the tarp funds on the whole.
The shit storm of the financial crisis was caused by individuals over extending themselves and signing up for mortgages they couldn’t pay. The lack of personal accountability was the root cause. Did mortgage lenders and IBanks help accommodate this yes but that’s like blaming Bud or spirits manufacturers because you got hammered and got a dui.
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Losses directly related to the cost of a very deep and costly recession.
When the economy retracts, we lose money.
Dumb ass.
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When the money supply is contracted, we get a very deep and costly recession.
Here’s some deregulation for you: revoke the Fed’s charter
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@Angry American:
Incorrect… most people are fiscally irresponsible… fools… lenders know that… banks are in the business of selling money… when they used to sell their own money, they were diligent… but once they started securitizing the loans and paid the ratings agencies to let them, they were selling someone else’s money… for a commission… due diligence?… not so much…
Those over-extended individuals were simply taking what was offered… that’s what fools do… they are to blame for their own personal situation, but the banks are in the business of knowing better and are, thus, to blame for the macro-shitstorm… they didn’t “accommodate” it, they caused it.
To use your analogy, imagine if Jack Daniels wanted to increase market-share by going door-to-door handing out free fifths and the keys to a brand new sports car. Every person is responsible for their own decision to pound that brown and drive that car and should, obviously, bear the consequences… but I think you’d agree Jack Daniels is responsible for the holocaust on the freeway.
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LOL. Wow.
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And what did they do to fix it in those eight years? Either you have no sense of economics or you are another of the thoughtless followers of the “progressive” left. Pull your head out and see the improvements to our way of life!
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“that Democrats spent 8 years fixing…” Good Lawd, what was fixed?
10 years of ZERO INTEREST RATES has thrown up the facade of a repaired economy, yet all that free money has been used to do what? Buy back stock and inflate real estate prices over the ALREADY-artificially-inflated pre-2008 levels.
Results of this Democratic repair-job?:
1. an even wider gap between the ultra-rich and the rest of the world;
2. fewer domestic manufacturing jobs
3. a wealth effect coupled with low consumer lending rates driving excessive consumer spending and reducing the savings rate for 10 years;
4. ultra-low real yields on fixed income investment, forcing excessive risk-4. taking by should-be-conservative investors, namely public/private pensions, insurance companies, and seniors… the whirlwind from this is yet to be reaped…………
5. debt expansion (household, institutional, AND government) that has, without pause, outstripped GDP growth year-over-year so, in real terms, the economy has lost ground.
And let’s say the Fed is truly independent (hah!) and all of the above is simply due to monetary policy.
Zero, count’em ZERO criminal prosecutions of financial executives by Eric Holder and Obama DOJ, with deferred prosecution agreements and fines as the SOP consequence of corporate malfeasance, thus enshrining fines as a regular business expense and subjecting contemplated criminal behavior to risk-reward analysis. Moral hazard = rewarded.
A conspiracy-guy might even contend that staving off a depression with record low interest rates for his entire administration was a quid pro quo for not holding anyone to account… but that would be crazy-talk…
I’m no George Bush or Donald Trump apologist, but if you are going to take a position, be objective and legitimate, not a sheep – BLEAT-BLEAT…
asshole
Go Dawgs.
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Let me introduce you to Kansas, my friend.
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I don’t care because I’m a winner of an Amazon gift card from the Lucky Star Club pop up! Over and over and over.
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This for the win.
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Yeah buddy. That reminded me i need to install Adlock plus on my new phone.
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Adblock
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Politicians are for the mentally and physically lazy.
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Politicians are our elected representatives. They are a reflection of us. The problem is in the mirror. Take a look.
I don’t blame a politician for being a crooked scum bag any more than I blame a shark for eating a swimmer. What do you expect?
But we get a choice. We’ll get what we ask for every time.
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Politicians are not a reflection of us. They are a reflection of people who support politicians.
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What alternative plan do you have in mind? I tend to think the founders got it right going with a government of, by and for the people but Jefferson, Madison, Adams and Hamilton probably couldn’t withstand your analysis. So enlighten us.
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I don’t claim to have a master plan for all of society. Anyone who does is fooling you.
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…and the Constitution has either mandated the government structure we have now, or was powerless to prevent it.
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Well I’d suggest that you do your best to participate in what you’ve got while you’re thinking about it.
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Look, I’ll watch a good shell game and enjoy the showmanship. I’d be pretty stupid to start playing, though.
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It’s probably for the best. You no doubt have nothing to offer. Or worse.
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Enjoy your shell game. You’ll find the pea under the shell eventually! And then all will be right with the world. I’ll just continue tending my garden and helping my neighbors with theirs. Your politishun will save you!
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Don’t challenge Derek’s faith in his overlords and lack of ability to imagine a life where people don’t tell him what to do. He gets cranky and rude. Soon, he’ll start swearing, because that’s what big kids do when they’re frustrated.
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You support those politicians through your support or your apathy. But you support them one way or another.
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Chili, you’ll need to explain such a meaningless, vacuous contention. You’re making the assumption that not supporting the total shell game of politics is “apathy.” This is the mental laziness I was referring to.
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Mental laziness is making the argument that by choosing not to participate that you aren’t an active contributor to the state of government.
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No mental laziness is saying because I don’t choose Burger King or McDonalds, that I’m choosing Burger King or Mcdonald’s. Politics does not provide solutions to the problems that I see need help. So I choose not to support sociopaths. You are free to pick your favorite sociopath to rule you. I’ll participate in my society in other ways that do not involve sociopaths.
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The ignorance of that analogy tells me I’m wasting my time arguing with an idiot.
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Chili: claims to hate Trump. Acts exactly like him. When you say Trump is a reflection of “us,” you mean you. You’re projecting yours and Trump’s personality traits onto “us.”
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Man, that grammar was atrocious. My sincere apologies.
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Correct analogy is: 1) your mom asks what you want for dinner. You say hothing, so she says well it’s going to be Burger King for McDonald’s. 2) your mom asks you which would you prefer, you say nothing. 3) she brings home Burger King and you face the choice between eating it or eating nothing.
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You have to choose one. If you don’t choose, you’re still choosing.
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Your analogy assumes I live with my mom. While the failure to graduate to adulthood is certainly true of people invested in politics, it’s not true of everyone. I don’t choose Burger King or McDonalds. I’ll just cook myself some tacos.
And that meme…You can stick your fork in a socket and bear the responsibility of the actions that either Trump or Hillary commit against their fellow mortals. I will not be a participant in electrocuting myself. Yall go’head.
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I MUST stick a fork in a socket? No, I’ll just walk away and leave that socket to the people who stick forks in them.
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True to Poe’s Law, you weren’t capable of detecting my sarcasm. My parody of stupidity is too close to the actual opinion of statists. Carlin more accurately conveyed my opinion.
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Very similar theme to Dylan’s Gotta Serve Somebody.
The idea you can just “opt out” is for fools and cowards.
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Dylan was high. The idea that you must kneel to a fellow mortal is the lie the slave tells himself.
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That’s not at all what the song says and Dylan was smarter than you no matter what was in his blood stream.
Listen to the song again. If you’re here, alive and breathing, you’re either serving good or bad in everything you do. It’s up to you. Just don’t pretend to be ignorant of the fact that your actions have consequences and meaning for yourself and others and that most actions, outside of bodily functions, have some moral dimension. You don’t have the choice of not playing, other than to jump off a cliff. That’s all he’s saying. And it’s brilliant. Like a lot of what the man says.
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So, I have to support a politician to do good? If you’re not saying that, then we agree.
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No. I’m saying have a take and do the best you can with it. Don’t act like you’re helpless or that your participation is pointless. Make as sound, defendable and informed judgment you can that one candidate or the other is better/worse for the political office sought. Lessor of two evils is still a choice right?
If you truly believe both are intolerable evils, start a new one. It worked for the Republicans. It will happen again.
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Why do I “have” to do the hest I can with politicians? Explain that…why I “have to.” An odd declaration. Start a new party of politicians? Have I not made myself clear about my lack faith in any politicians?
I have made an informed, defendable position as to how to positively interact with society, it just doesn’t involve politicians at all. Why does your worldview make them necessary?
Why is individual, or non-coercive collective action such a foreign concept in this age? It’s as if you can’t imagine doing anything without a ruler telling you to do it. You’re an adult. You should no longer need parents.
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Because, unfortunately for the rest of us, you’re a citizen.
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Being a citizen of any nation is a circumstance of divine chance. It is only your imaginary dogma that declares such a circumstance obligates me to align with your personal view of citizen responsibility. By whose decree am I obligated to participate in your authoritarian political system? Yours?
“Have to.” Nah.
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LOL, we got ourselves a “sovereign citizen” here y’all.
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Never heard of natural rights? Why am I not surprised.
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I don’t agree with a lot of what you say but completely agree on this point. Politicians are a reflection of us.
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You can speak for yourself, Charlotte, but don’t speak for me. 😀Politicians are not a reflection of us. They are a reflection of their supporters. Trump is a reflection of the vitriolic authoritarian right. O-Cortez is the reflection of the economically-lobotomized left.
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Wrong. Trump is a reflection of the system which elects people like Trump because apathetic moderates stay home and let the fervent radicals make all the decisions.
Trump absolutely is a reflection of America – proudly ignorant, vindictive, self-centered and lacking empathy on an almost sociopathic level.
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You’re grouping me into that by saying “us.” You could not be more wrong. Therefore, your statement is inaccurate. You can say Trump is a reflection of YOU and his voters. You can not accurately say he is a reflection of me. Again, being apolotical is not apathy. I would argue using the ballot box to pass the buck to a politician to solve the problems you see in the world is apathy. “Here, YOU do the things I want done.” That’s apathy.
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I think I see a little of what Josh is saying and agree with it to an extent. You all seem partially right on the subject with nobody being completely wrong. My mom used to talk about voting for “the lesser of the two evils.” I think this is where Josh is going. I don’t care for most people running for office nowadays like Josh. Most are narcissists in some way or alot, like Trump.I do tend to vote for what I think might be the one to do me and society less harm but it has been a long time since I voted “for” someone. Josh seems to have no one left to vote “for” so he works to help his community and country in other ways.
I do a lot in my community to volunteer to help others. I think Josh is referring to that when speaking of solving our problems.
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I’m always interested in seeing how people invested in politics react when I tell them that their revered politicians may not even be necessary to solve problems. It usually ends with someone calling me an idiot. What I’m saying isn’t even that controversial. In fact, people live it every day, and yet the response is usually “your alternative is a pipe dream.” Yet, saying that their politician won’t help society, that people acting benevolently in their indivudual spheres does, in spite of mountains of evidence, always brings a caustic reaction. It’s as if someone said their religion was silly. Well, the religion of politics would be extremely silly if it didn’t result in so many millions of deaths and humans in cages for victimless actions. But its followers, both right and left, are more dedicated than the most devout jihaadist or crusader. I mean, look at the moronic arguments that are happening right now. Your neighbor needs groceries. Go buy them.
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It’s not an either/or proposition, it’s both/and. I would much prefer a society that better reflects the the principles of subsidiarity in structure and practice. But it’s personal responsibility, not religion, to accept a role in the hand that your dealt, as much as it may stink.
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Again, according to whom is it my “personal responsibility” to participate in the political system? If that’s just your personal opinion, I would strongly disagree. I would say using the force of the politcal system to get the things that you want for all of society is passing your personal responsibility onto others. And harmful to society.
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Im with you Josh. I hate politics myself and I haven’t voted since I came back from Iraq. They are not a reflection of me, nor do the represent me.
Trolling here, but what if more people agreed with us. As in everyone got sick of who was promoting themselves to be politicians and didn’t vote.
I bet the democrats would still win.
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There’s some truth to JoshG’s position. To tend your garden and help your neighbors is the most direct and controllable form of civic duty, and likely the most important. But ultimately, there are larger forces at play, systemic structures and policies and injustices and (intended/unintended) consequences that “we the people” have to take responsibility for setting into motion via the decisions we have collectively made, whether directly or indirectly, complicity or implicitly, as activist or apathetic bystander. To see politics (and its admittedly filthy stench) as some abstract sideshow of no concern is an attempt to absolve ourselves of our full responsibilities to self, neighbor, and country. Who fights the wars? Who gets bankrupted by medical bills? Who goes to jail for weed? Who loses the homes while the banks get bailed out? Who loses their livelihoods and pensions? Neighbors, not politicians.
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Politicians will save our neighbors from politicians? By participating in the political system, and lending it legitimacy, you bear some responsibility for whatever evils it does that you listed. It is inconsistent to complain about the evils done by a coercive system when your participation is the only source of its legitimacy. I definitely believe, personally, that I have certain responsibilities to my fellow man. And using the political system violates every one of them.
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Look, if you are a conscientious objector to government in general or the current political system on purely moral grounds, I respect that. A lot of it is repugnant. But on practical grounds, you should also reconcile the costs/benefits of our coercive/violent non-legitimate government versus the realistic alternatives.
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One can only do an accurate cost/benefit analysis for his/her individual circumstance. I would not enforce the findings I’ve made for myself on others, or pretend such an analysis for “society” could be based on anything other than pure conjecture. That doesn’t stop politicians or their followers, though.
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I think Franklin said it best:
“In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.”
I’d say, as a society, we’ve hit that “become so corrupted” target and are getting only that of which we are capable, unfortunately.
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“They are a reflection of us”
Derek if you’ve ever been wrong about anything, I pray it is this.
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The problem is definitely in YOUR mirror!
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Re: Amazon
As long as governments are playing that game I can’t blame the companies from taking advantage. Competition is great, but it also produces fuck ups like the contracts signed by Gus and Jamarcus. It’s good to be wanted. I wish Amazon was moving near me. Long term I’d be willing to bet the winners will be happy. As far the poor who will soon be priced out of their homes? They were fucked to begin with right?
I don’t know the specifics nor can I cost it out but I’d be willing to bet that Alabama and South Carolina have gotten a substantial net plus from all the incentives paid out to get foreign manufacturers into their states. Those plants have been in rural areas so I don’t think displacement has been an issue there. There will be more pain in urban areas for sure.
Re: Gundy
I think it’s pretty fucking dumb for anyone in the party of Little Lord Fauntelroy and his bone spurs and blowing through daddy’s inheritance to complain that liberals are the “soft” ones.
Can I blame conservative Ike because Bear ran off more than half of A&M’s roster in 1954?
It’s not just wrong, it’s plain fucking stupid.
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All things considered, Long Island City is the best possible place (within NYC) for Amazon employees as it’s much closer to some of the somewhat affordable areas.
DC though? This smacks to me of craven rent-seeking and probably signals that in 50 years, Amazon will be as much a part of the military industrial complex as Boeing is today.
The upside? Tech bros will design hot looking droids (that will murder us all)
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I just watched that movie recently and found it highly disturbing.
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FOOD FIGHT!
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Deficit spending is way, way back up under an all-Republican government. $100 billion last month alone, over a 100% increase from the same month last year. Reagan, Bush and Bush all inherited zero deficit spending, and those 3 alone racked up almost $9 trillion in debt in their 16 years in office. They left annual deficits of over $500 billion and $1 trillion, respectively, to the next administrations.
Why is this a non-issue when Republicans are running the show? And why hasn’t a Republican President or Congress, in my lifetime, done more to tackle deficit spending than passing massive tax cuts at the top of the income ladders?
This was the main issue that drove me out of the party, btw. Just curious to know how people are rationalizing it these days.
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I have an idea: CUT TAXES FOR THE RICH!!!
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Why not cut taxes for the rich?
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Exactly! After all we’ve got the king of debt in charge!
That’s the best slogan ever! I’m the best at spending more than I got! Ever!
How do you NOT put that guy in charge?
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so the “King of Debt” is in charge and that’s why we should cut taxes for “the Rich”?
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Your sarc meter is out to lunch I suppose.
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Just because I work for UGA doesn’t mean I take lunch at 9:47 am, how would we ever fundraise with a relaxed work schedule like that?
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How has Trump’s increased standard deduction affected fundraising efforts?
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In all honesty and no joking — I don’t know.
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I’m completely shocked Trump is spending like a drunken sailor. Shame on the Repubs for going along with it.
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Note: They are all talk on responsible spending. They’re a long way from Hooverism.
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See Paul Ryan, exhibit A
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Ugh. No thanks.
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This is the fault of Republicans.
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Sorry the title didn’t import. It’s a graph of the federal budget.
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Which the Republicans have complete control over. And have had complete control over during the majority of our running up trillions in debt.
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Republicans have had complete control over federal spending since WWII? That’s your position? Are you familiar with Wikipedia? You might want to Google some things before you spout off beliefs like that.
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Can we please discuss how our crippling our red zone performance and lack of recruiting a big time running back / receiver / quarterback / defensive lineman on this recruiting cycle is all due to our lack of BLACK JERSEYS? I mean, when is Kirby going to buy in and accept what all the recruits, players, and fans want. Kirby is missing the forest for the trees. Yes, we want division crowns, SEC banners, and the crystal trophy. We want a packed stadium every game, we want players that want to come and suit up for our beloved team. And what does all of that have in common…black jerseys. It IS the magic bullet. They will line up for those black jerseys: recruits, fans, and alumni.
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Negative, this is the PlayPen
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Take your black jersey and stick it up your ass! UGA’s red jerseys are the classiest in college football.
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I agree about the red jersey, but the black jersey is damn good as well. There’s a reason about every recruit’s photo has them in the black … they are sharp looking with the silver britches.
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They screw with the QB’s mental programming to look for and calculate the speed and direction of the red jersey downfield. Stay with red..Fromm is used to picking it up. He’s been throwing to red for two years…don’t screw with it. In fact, LSU is smart for wearing white even at home..it makes it easier on the QB’s eyes to pick up who’s where downfield.
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Herschel wore red pants. I think we need the red pants back…
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I like the red pants, too. Don’t know why we went completely away from that look. I like the silver britches most of the time away, but wouldn’t mind an occasional changeup.
I kind of like the black jerseys at home, but I don’t think there’s a better look in college football than red jerseys and silver britches. No matter what the opinions on pants and jerseys are, though, I think we can all agree that you DO NOT MESS WITH THE HELMET.
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Never touch the RED HAT..
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I’m afraid that I like the traditional red jerseys. If we are truly an iconic program than we want the other team to see us come in and say something like “Oh $#it ! It’s Georgia” rather than “Look dude, it’s the Power Rangers.”
On the other hand, I’m an old geezer so what the heck do I know about what gets an 18 year old geeked up enough to knock people down on a Saturday afternoon. The last time I did that was decades ago.
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If I was lined up across from Ben Cleveland, I don’t think his uniform would keep me from thinking anything but, “oh, shit.” Get the Jimmies and Joes, don’t worry about clothes.
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^This.
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Not sure if any of you watched/listened to last week’s Ohio St game, but sure enough the commentators started talking about all the adversity tOSU had to overcome due to the preseason distractions. By the time football season rolls around next year, people will be saying “Zach who?”
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Not as long as Zach has a twitter feed, Urban remains a pompous hypocrite, and McMurphy has a pulse.
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After watching and suffering through the complete overhauling and rebuilding of the I-75/285 exchange, and every road within miles of there…the millions of man-hours lost sitting in traffic jams in said areas, the amount of gasoline and diesel wasted during those jams, the amount of pollution put in the air during those traffic jams..the intangible costs….I don’t see how the Braves/ SunTrust deal will ever even up. The Amazon deal wasn’t even close to giving away so much.
I’m very happy that Amazon went elsewhere, BTW.
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Those infrastructure changes had nothing to do with the Braves. They were already in the works prior.
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Greatly expedited and modified. You cannot seriously claim that infrastructure changes weren’t made for STP.
You cannot seriously that the cost to taxpayers and esp. Cobb Co. taxpayers will ever be recovered.
Unless you are a stakeholder in the Golden Triangle, you got screwed.
The Braves and STP are private entities and should not be gifted with taxpayer’s money to benefit (kickbacks) politicians and contractors.
This is what happened. Dance around it all you want, but it’s wrong.
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“Talk about giving the store away…”
Free shipping, though.
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There was a prominent post Czarist politician, a member of the Duma, that described the agitating Bolshevists of the time as a collection of anarchists, rootless Cosmopolitans( a Soviet term), and imbeciles. That exactly describes the extreme left of the Democrat Party of today and their supporters. For reference, look to Vol. I of Kotkin’s three volume biography of Stalin. My profuse apology to anyone on this blog who feels personally slandered. As my old 5th grade teacher used to say, hit Dawg hollers.
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The opposition to the proletariat should at least acknowledge that the czars were complete and total muthafuckas. I’m not an ideologue of any stripe. I’m as opposed to Hitler as I am Che. But I know how they got into power. Somebody fucked up.
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I recently read the two Kotkin tomes (don’t drop them on your foot!) and was fascinated how the bolsheviks came to power. They literally were the minority of the anti-Czarist factions but they called themselves bolsheviks which translates to “the majority”.
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I read the new Jack Reacher novel on my Kindle app.
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LOL…If you like Reacher, also check out Peter Ash books by Nick Petrie. https://nickpetrie.com/books/
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I’ve read several of the Reacher books. The first few were pretty good, but the last few read like Childs was working to a word count. Wordy, repetitive, predictable, boring.
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I’ll try them out. Thanks for the tip. I also like to point out that I’ve read the complete Calvin and Hobbes collection as a literary achievement.
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There are some who would tell you language and words don’t matter, so stop being so politically correct!
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Cut taxes or don’t cut taxes..it won’t make a shit. Politicians will spend every penny they can get and borrow to spend even more. They all seem to be millionaires when they leave office too. That goes for BOTH parties and especially at the State and Federal levels. The problem is spending. The crap we pay for is ridiculous..on both left and right agendas.
The only cures I can imagine is a sincere and impossible to get around Balanced Budget Amendment. A real one.
The other thing would be term limits.
(and prohibiting “caucuses” and even outlawing political parties would be nice too)
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That’s what i said when we were running a surplus in the late 1990’s! Fuck it! Let’s have 2 unfunded wars, 2 unfunded tax cuts for the rich and an unfunded Medicare prescription plan! Who cares? What’s the worst that could happen? Nothing right? It all went great didn’t it?
Ignorance is so blissful ain’t it?
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Thank God Obama ended those wars like he campaigned on, rather than surging troops into Afghanistan and bombing every country in the region in the name of regime change.
And hey, New Deal and Great Society programs are the tits, amirite? Given that we’re already bankrupt from those, what’s a little more bankruptcy from Medicare Part D? Or do you just hate old people? #MillionsWillDie
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And how ’bout The War on Drugs?
Good grief..what an awful waste of lives and money.
We learned nothing from “Prohibition”.
As well intentioned as these may be, they are practically stupid and destructive.
When things people want are prohibited, it creates a black market, which drives prices up, which creates a war on that market, which sheds blood and drives the industry deeper into the darkness..which drives prices up..which causes the customers…some of which are desperately addicted, to steal..which causes more police work, fills jails, etc.
Think about this when you want anything banned. There are better ways to move society forward but we aren’t grown up enough to try them. Probably never will be.
I find myself more and more leaning Libertarian.
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They’ve told us why:
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people,” former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman told Harper’s writer Dan Baum for the April cover story published Tuesday.
“You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said. “We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
They’re fucking evil.
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The War on Drugs is over 100 years old. It was racist from the start. Nixon may have been a bad guy and a racist, but so were politicians of all stripes since the early twentieth century. It never ceases to amuse me that you are only capable of seeing the sins of one party, yet insist you’re not an ideologue. You’re the worst kind of ideologue. You’re either dishonest to the world, or you’re dishonest to yourself.
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And how ’bout The War on Drugs?
Did not fix anything, but we built a munch of great prisons..
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Wars on nouns invariably wind up being wars on our civil rights.
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Republicans are red
Democrats are blue
Neither one of them give a f*** about you
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Not sure what has me more bothered; Kemp refusing to recuse himself from conducting the election..which looks dirty as hell, or Abrams digging up felons and illegals to vote “provisionally” and complaining about being turned away at the polls. Long lines my ass. What a cluster%$#@. Our great state is going to hell in a handbasket.
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Kemp didn’t “conduct the election”..good grief. By you’re thinking a Secretary of State would not be allowed to run for any office without recusing himself first. We’ve had SOSs from both parties run for office and this has never been a problem.
The long lines were because the Georgia Democrats sued to have the old type ballot machines which take forever to use. This was their fault, not Kemp’s. (BTW..I am not a big Kemp fan..I voted for him because he was the only real choice I felt like I had..but I had to hold my nose).
The real issue here is pure and simple. Some people think that if they holler and scream and pitch a fit that it will give them what the only came kind of close to winning. And why not? It’s worked many times before, but only in one party’s favor…twenty something to zilch on recounts.
There are stinking rotten things happening in the good ol’ USA.
And yeah…”to Hell in a hand-basket seems to be the destination of our whole society.
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“Conduct” was a bad choice of words. The job of his office was to supervise the election. Knowing how close it was going to be and also knowing what his candidate was going to claim, he should have recused himself and saved us all this bullshit.
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If he’d recused himself, the next man/woman/person up would have been accused of favoring Kemp because reasons… No win situation.
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I understand that, dmk..but we would have had the bullshit anyway..that’s just how radicals roll.
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I haven’t read what the state and the city were ready to offer Amazon. If it’s as much as it seems, no way do I wish Atlanta had gotten HQ2.
The DC area was a no brainer. A company like Amazon wants to be close to the regulators. As I heard a CEO once say, “If you aren’t at the table, you’re on the table.” The tech giants are the epitome of those engaged in crony capitalism.
The NYC area goes along with Amazon’s brand and its politics. Their customer isn’t the Wal-Mart customer.
I hope those cities get what they hope to get from Amazon.
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#CONCEDE
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Still waiting on Roy Moore’s concession speech.
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Actually, I hope she doesn’t…just makes her look small, and that ain’t easy. Dems ran the perfect candidate in GA at the perfect time, it almost worked. I think she’s the worst candidate to ever for for Gov in my lifetime. YMMV.
FWIW, Kemp is right up there.
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Georgia will be solid blue within 10 years. Enjoy the time you have left.
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I’m as Libertarian as they come. But the Dem candidates will be much better than this gal, the ones that may win in the future anyways. Living in the Metro ATL area, I find it funny, folks move South to get away from HIGH taxes, etc…then vote for HIGH taxes etc….sort of like the frog in the frying pan.
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The cities will continue to be blue and continue their slide into shitholes. Population will increase in the cities enough to eventually swing the state blue in federal elections. State Legislature should remain Red resulting in gridlock at that level. Enjoy your shitholes city boy.
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@PTC: Abrams is the worst candidate I’ve seen, Kemp is second. His campaign ads with the pickup and the shotgun while speaking in an ostentatious drawl were insulting to me. He’s just another comical southern stereotype running a fear-mongering campaign and saying what he thinks people want to hear to win. I found no clear agenda in his campaign other than to gain office.
If Kemp’s opaque agenda was not reassuring, Abram’s agenda is downright scary. Her apparent apathy for tax dollar responsibility is truly frightening. Who’s going to fund her pie in the sky programs? I’m enough of a cash cow as it is. No thanks.
Again, I felt like his election was forcing me to choose who I thought would do the least amount of damage, which would be Kemp, and not caring enough to bother with it.
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Man, “slide into shitholes”? I don’t know how old you are, but the gentrification and revitalization of many major US Cities and return of the wealthy and upper middle classes to city centers in the last 20 years has been amazing. White flight in reverse. If you’re not old enough to compare urban areas now to the 1970s, then so be it, but there is plenty of data out there to show that housing density is increasing, particularly in the wealthiest subsets. But if you are old enough to remember, you’re just spouting nonsense.
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Sure,there are nice areas in all cities. But when you step out of those gentrified places you’re in a shithole. There are some damn depressed areas in the country. The poor aren’t as mean though.
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“Outside of those gentrified places” – in other words, rural areas where Republican voters live. Those are the shitholes.
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I think the horse gave it
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LA Times reporting that the President “has retreated into a cocoon of bitterness and resentment, according to multiple administration sources.”
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-absent-20181113-story.html
Hilarious language. But also made me wonder…where was he before? In a hive of bitterness and resentment? Flying the open skies of bitterness and resentment?
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“LA Times reporting…”, now there’s a lead-in that inspires belief!
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That’s a really pathetic response. If you take “LA Times reporting…” as prima facie evidence of falsehood, then the world must be a really challenging place for you.
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Donald Trump is a raging jackass. This is not news. Everyone knew this going in. However, the collective temper tantrum of the Libs/Dems/media since November 2016 is f’ing embarrassing. Period.
And there’s a reason Dems lost in 2016 and can’t keep up in the Senate: the party has become the political equivalent of the island of misfit toys.
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Those are some interesting alternative facts.
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I think there’s something to be said for: “let HIM be the asshole.”
Fighting him and treating him like he deserves just demeans everyone else and makes him seem normal if not proportionate in his responses.
I think acting as if we expect him to really be President and watching him step on his own dick over and over would be more effective.
Stop laughing and pointing and getting angry. (Unless you’re an anonymous blog poster who doesn’t matter.)
Disappointed and respectfully scared shitless would likely have a more desired effect. The people who are already pissed don’t need further agitation.
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Man, far be it from me to make overarching political takes, but I think you are taking a serious misread of the midterms, given the results in the House and on the state level.
The Republicans held the Senate because the races this cycle were extremely favorable to them. Even so, a 2-seat pick up in good economic times is a bad sign. The 2020 election is far more favorable to the Democrats, so you might want to wait and see before making definitive pronouncements like that.
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There, my friends, is a person who knows about misreading midterms, and who doesn’t know his own party.
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I don’t have a party. Used to be a libertarian, but they’ve gotten too nuts for my taste.
I don’t see anything in your response that constitutes a thoughtful rebuttal, either.
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An African American woman won what is easily the most affluent congressional district in the state – in the northern ATL suburbs no less! That is an epic change that ranks up there with Roy Barnes being defeated.
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Oh yay, people above calling other people shitheads and fucktards because of ideological disagreements. I love a good political discussion, but is it too much to ask to keep it above board? We can disagree and even be dismissive of bad ideas without being assholes about it.
Senator, on Wednesdays can you maybe post two forums? One for political talk and another for non-political talk? You know, if we want to talk about movies or music or whatever pop culture loves we have outside of sports? Separate the two, so if we have something political to say, we can wade into the Pigsty and if we don’t, we can go to the Playpen? I don’t want to give you more work if you don’t want it, but I think separating the current Playpen into a Playpen (open discussion, non-politics) and a Pigsty (only politics) would be a good solution, in a King Solomon kind of way.
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I would like to see a Playpen and a Thunderdome.
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Pigsty or Thunderdome… whatever you want to call it, I think it would make everything a little better if we have one open forum to discuss any non-sports, non-political topic, and another for just political topics.
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Look, it’s a football blog. I created one off-topic forum to clean up comment threads for all the football posts.
The Playpen exists for that sole reason. If you don’t like the tone or content of the comments here, don’t read it.
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The Playpen is my safe space.
I posted that in a black UGA jersey and no pants.
USA!USA!!USA!!!
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Not really what I meant. More the creating two open, non-sports forums; one for politics (no matter the tone) if we want to wade into that crap and another for everything but politics. But if it’s just to be one single forum, so be it.
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I think he understood what you meant, but disagrees all the same. It seems that the Senator has given all the latitude he’s going to give in relation these types of topics, and I think he’s been pretty patient and generous about it.
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You mentioned something about adding porn a while back… Any update on that? Asking for a friend.
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Now we’re talking…
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Does “your friend” have any particular tastes in that direction, ugafidelis? 😉
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🤣
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Agree, the name calling is juvenile. and one of the reasons we can’t have any discourse in the Country. It didn’t use to be that way. It doesn’t have to be that way either.
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I posted this elsewhere in this thread, but Dan Crenshaw, newly elected representative in Texas, had a good take on this. He was the guy Pete Davidson made fun of on SNL because he lost an eye in Afghanistan.
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Movies this holiday season
Are there any movies anyone is particularly interested in seeing this holiday season?
I’ve already seen Bohemian Rhapsody, and while it pretty much is a paint-by-numbers musical biopic (think Walk the Line or Ray) and it’s NOT a Freddie Mercury biopic if that’s what you want, it’s actually pretty good. The film moves quickly, the music is of course amazing, and while it suffers from the same kinds of historical inaccuracies these kinds of movies always do, as someone who loves Queen, I had a good time.
I also saw The Girl in the Spider’s Web, which is just okay. If you really liked The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I actually think you may not like this film unless you really enjoy just the characters themselves. It’s not a bad matinee if you’re looking for 2 hours to kill.
Some other films I’m looking forward to always encompass the extremes of the movie landscape, because you know, the mid-budget movies made for adults are more difficult to find, though The Front Runner looks pretty good. There are either the tentpole CGI-fests like Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald, Wreck it Ralph 2, and Aquaman, or there are smaller, low-budget Oscar bait films like Green Book. All of which I want to see.
I have high hopes for Creed II, even though Ryan Coogler didn’t write or direct it. I loved the first film and am just really hoping to be pleasantly surprised by this one.
Is there anyone excited about any other films coming out later this year? Mary Poppins Returns? Maybe for those of you who are part of that weird cult who worships the least Constitutionally-sound, most ideologically-biased Supreme Court Justice since the 1840’s, are you looking forward to the RBG biopic staring Felicity Jones?
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Vice. Love the casting.
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I just saw the preview for that yesterday and I though “Holy $&%! Is that Christian Bale?!”
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I love Sam Rockwell as W. Perfect.
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While the cast is great, I worry that it would devolve into playing to the preconceptions of like-minded people, as these things usually do. Like W. did. While I love Sam Rockwell, what they showed in the trailer of his performance pretty much tells me what I need to know about this film going-in, and that it’s not looking to tell a down-the-line story, which given the subject matter, would still be thoroughly entertaining.
As much as Barry was a ridiculous hagiography, I’m guessing this is going to be the complete opposite, and yet, also beloved by the same critics. Which also tells me what I need to know.
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We’ll see if it tells the story or if it has an ax to grind. Still interested.
I’m thinking it’ll be more American Hustle and less Michael Moore or Dinesh. It was crooked as shit Democratic NJ pols in that but it was a great movie and ideology had nothing to do with it. Hell, everyone was a bad guy in that if you think about it. Even the feds. Great flick.
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Well it’s an oldy, but being as it’s Thanksgiving next week, my daughter and I will renew our Thanksgiving Eve tradition of watching the single greatest holiday movie ever, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
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I may quibble with “single greatest holiday movie ever,” but PT&A is definitely the greatest Thanksgiving movie ever!!! 🙂
Anything you’re looking forward to seeing this year that’s new?
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Green Book and Overlord.
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How old does a kid need to be to watch that? I like that tradition!
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I’d say once your kid grasps the concept of not repeating cuss words, since that’s the main objectionable element to the movie. It’s usually on TV that night somewhere though, so I’m sure that version would be cleaned up some.
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Cool- thanks.
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Well tomorrow Space Jam will turn 22, so there’s that…:-) “Released theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures under their Family Entertainment label on November 15, 1996 Space Jam opened at No. 1 in the US and grossed over $230 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing basketball film of all-time.”
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Damn son, I wish I had enough time to go see these movies. I can’t even get through a season of Ozark in a month.
I’m pretty excited about the new Narcos Mexico. I wonder if the caravan will be part of the story line?
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There are a few Netflix shows that I love, and F is for Family is definitely one of those. Narcos is on the long and growing list of things I need to watch. Check out this F is for Family trailer. If you think Bill Burr is hilarious, as I do, you’ll like this!
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Saw “First Man” the other day and there was a preview of “Green Book”. It looks good, both guys are good actors. I’ll go see it. There are some others I want to see but can’t think of them right now.
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I didn’t shine to the trailer for First Man. It seemed… antiseptic to me. And I love media about the space program. The Right Stuff is one of my all-time favorites, and Apollo 13 and From the Earth to the Moon are both great as well. But all that had… I dunno… charisma? The trailers for First Man lacked in charisma. Ryan Gosling is a great actor, but I dunno… I’ll catch it on Netflix or Hulu or whatever.
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“First Man” was overly dramatic to me. However, I think it did a good job of capturing the “feel” of Neil Armstrong. He was a man of few words and the movie certainly portrays that.
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Definitely gonna see “Green Book” (Viggo Mortensen fan & Mahershala Ali looks like he’s a great actor) and Boy Erased (one of my sons is gay and I’m curious how the film portrays things). “Mid 90s” looks like it’d be interesting to me but I haven’t read any reviews of it. “Overlord” looks great. I’d like to see “A Private War” just because Rosamund Pike is in it but haven’t heard any reviews either.
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The original Swedish Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy is superior to the Americanized remakes.
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Dan Crenshaw had a good statement on getting along.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-made-amends-with-pete-davidson-on-snl-but-thats-only-the-beginning/2018/11/13/e7314fb0-e77e-11e8-b8dc-66cca409c180_story.html?utm_term=.c5e6dc504a7f
And then there’s this:
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While not a movie and since Corch’s new WR Coach threw out some movie recs, the 100th Anniversary of the Armistice got me to thinking (I know, light me up accordingly) and I’m re-listening to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History Podcast: Blueprint for Armageddon. I highly recommend it, be prepared it’s in six parts and close to twenty hours (I’m breaking it down to an hour at a time on the treadmill at Ramsey). Many of y’all that might listen to audio books during commutes or traveling might enjoy it. Warning: Dan Carlin is a different cat the way he looks at things, but his narrative of WWI really comes off well in the long form narrative and he pulls from a ton of material.
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Sounds interesting.
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I think we get back to sane politics by all making a concerted effort to brush up on our civics classes and embrace our institutions and guard them with jealousy. Think about the phrase “of the people” vs “by the people”…. IMO “of” being the nod to republican (small r) with “by” being the democratic (small d) flavor of our compound bicameral system.
Want to cool the rhetoric in Washington ? Maybe get back to small ‘r’ republicanism. Less shouting mob and more cool headed appointments. My fantasy prescription would be a compromise on the 17th Amdmt. Instead of full repeal have 1 legislatively appointed and 1 put in by the current popular vote. Or double the Senate to 200 and have 2 appointed and 2 elected, with the appointed senators responsible for Admin agency oversight.
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https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nationalreview.com/corner/publius-the-institutionalist/amp/
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It’s funny. I think there is just as much divisiveness in politics as there has ever been.
IMO- The difference between now and 1984, 1994 or even 2004 is the amount of media (social, TV, print, internet, etc.) stirring the general public up. With the MSNBCs, Fox News’ creating so much confirmation bias that people have divided themselves into different factions and now have much more angst and visceral toward the other side.
Civics these days is, unfortunately, being taught through the media.
I write this as a right-leaning independent that lives in a very liberal neighborhood. My neighbors are flabbergasted that anyone could actually be right-leaning and have a civil conversation about politics, issues, etc. The expectation is that I should be carrying a pitchfork and yelling at them for voting for pro-environmental issues and for tax increases. They look down their noses when I say I voted for the Republican Senator and are shocked that I voted for the Democratic Governor. Contrast this with my relatives that moved from small-town Texas as yellow-dog Democrats. Constantly being demonized and looked down on because they believe in higher taxes and helping the poor (a bit too lib for my taste, but to each their own).
I believe we’d be a lot more civil if we shut off the media for a LOOOOOONG time.
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I agree that many folks today get their civics education from the media they consume. Of those same people, I think that most of those people are lazy and depend on 1, maybe 2 primary sources. In relation to their information source(s), they’re too lazy to (1) fact-check/investigate their claims/reports, (2) realize that there may be other opinions/slants of the same claims/reports. IMO, properly participating in community/state/country civics is an “activity” (root word = active) and doing it passively is the lazy/easy way out. Almost anyone can use the recall button on their tv remote control and alternate between their two favorite news channels. I think if you really want to have an informed opinion, you gotta put in some work to make sure you truly believe what you are hearing/reading. #TrustButVerify
I understand what you’re saying in your comment about both parties having preconceived expectations of the folks on the other side. While today’s political environment has turned many into “us vs. them-ers”, the only way we’re going to better understand the opinion/beliefs of others is to talk civilly to each other. Sure, maybe it won’t change who I or you vote for, but it does give us a view into how other folks see an issue/problem/solution. #Perspective
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Term limits imo are the only way we stop this political shit show.
I am pretty sure the founding fathers didn’t invision folks making a career of politics where their sole interest is getting re-elected. I don’t care which side of the aisle.
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There’s always an easy solution to every human problem—neat, plausible and wrong.
H.L. Mencken
It always amazes me that nobody sees what a federal bureaucratic power grab term limits would represent.
You need representatives who understand how shit works. Rolling them in and out before they understand their ass from a hole in the ground would be disastrous.
You don’t like your current rep then vote for the other guy. If I like my rep, you don’t get to decide for me that I’m incapable of that choice.
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Ya know, I’ve never thought of it that way, but what you say makes a lot of sense.
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The argument of federal bureaucratic power grab has superficial appeal, bit doesn’t hold up to close scrutiny. First, the absence of term limits doesn’t seem to have restrained bureaucratic growth. Next, administrative power growth is a function of legal interpretation of the Administrative Procedures Act (Chevron Doctrine and that crap), and more dangerously of congresspersons and executive branch people abdicating responsibility for doing their jobs. Next, and this is a straw man, people say you need experienced legislators to decide these complex issues. Response: then why is the president limited to two terms?
Term limits can be justified solely by the fact that they make legislators go home and live under the laws they pass for everybody else. Make ’em think about that.
The thing that makes the tenure problem even worse is the fossils who stay in Congress until they’re way past senescence. Why the hell are there 90 year old people in Congress when they’d be retired from any other field of endeavor? The Supreme Court too. All these senile creatures think they’re indispensable. Well, one of my favorite sayings: “The graveyards are full of indispensable men.”
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Limiting presidents to two terms right after FDR saved our ass in his third is among the dumbest goddamn things I’ve ever heard of.
It was always a tradition not a bar before that. I’d be fine with getting rid of it.
How many people are really good and that job and want it for the 9th year and beyond? Obama would have said no thanks. W was done. Reagan had gone senile. Ike would have wanted to play golf.
Clinton would have done it forever. We could have skipped W.
I think we would have been better for it.
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FDR saved us by what, getting into WW2? It is to laugh.
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Is ones easy, “no lawyers need apply”. All those damn lawyers get bogged down in bullshit. It’s what, 700 lawyers trying to not lose and keep their positions? Yeah, that doesn’t work. Need a different native language for that to end well.
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“This ones easy”
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I heard once, ‘Good lawyers practice law. The rest go into politics.”
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Exactly, elections are term limits!
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My counter is: you make a point, but in this republic of a largely disinterested electorate, inertia and the advantages of incumbency are strong enough to require remedy.
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Term limits are a cop out.
If you don’t like your elected reps, vote ’em out.
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So you would support allowing President Trump to run for as many terms as he wants. That’s a pretty good idea. Glad you came over from the dark side.
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I think term limits are dumb, so sure… except Obama would have been able to run for as many terms as he wanted, too. 😉
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Good point. I actually would love to see Obama vs Trump in 2020. Talk about a heavyweight battle. They are both naturals. Clinton was a natural also. W, not so much.
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Senator, thank you so very much for the playpen. Thank you for an outlet that allows whiney-ass, mouth breathin’, knuckle draggin’, nose pickin’ buttercups to get on their soapbox & spew random bullshit @ others who simply disagree. F auburn
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Yeah! And the worst are the people who disagree with me!
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Earlier ASEF asked a semi-rhetorical question about deficit spending increasing again under Trump and a Republican congress. I am post a new main comment so that this does not get lost in the fray above. Here is some analysis / opinion on the topic.
There are two ways to guarantee that you will have ballooning deficits. The first is to have the Democrats control congress regardless of the President. People forget that they controlled congress from January 2007- January 2011. The second way is to have a Republican congress coupled with a Republican President. The only strategy that has been semi-successful at curbing deficits in a Republican congress and a Democratic President. This was the case in 1994-2001 and 2011-2017. The only reason this happens is because Republicans go into obstruction mode and nothing gets done. This allows economic growth to slowly reduce the deficit.
The Republicans only care about deficits when there is a Democratic president because it is good for campaigning. The vast majority of congressmen, regardless of party, are corrupt pieces of shit that do not care about you or the state of the country. Deficit spending is a way for them to get the personal benefits of spending (e.g. vote buying, campaign contributions, junkets, lobbyist kickbacks, etc.) without have to raise taxes in order to get the revenue. Nothing pisses off voter more than increasing their taxes. People want the spending. They just don’t want to pay for it.
This has been a highly successful strategy for politicians to get vote from Baby Boomers. This is how the debt has gone from around 1 trillion dollars when they ascended into political power to 21 trillion today. That will not change at least until boomers start dieing off in large numbers.
The entirety of revenue is consumed by Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, military spending, and Interest on the debt. Everything else is deficit spending. With the realigning voter constituencies you will see the following proposals:
Republicans will try to maintain Social Security and Medicare in their current forms. They will want to block-grant Medicaid. They will push for more military spending and ignore interest on the debt.
Democrats will want to expropriate the money in 401Ks and IRAs in order to prop up Social Security. They will also advocate “VA for all” under the name “Medicare for all”.
If there is any hope of getting the deficit under control, the following things will need to happen:
1. Personal Income Tax rates as preferred by Democrats
2. Corporate Income Tax rates as preferred by Republicans
3. Regulation levels as preferred by Republicans
4. Transition Social Security to something like Superannuation in Australia. I.e. private accounts that invest in equities and are used to buy an annuity at retirement. These accounts would carry a government guarantee of paying at least the amount Social Security would have promised. The issue is that the current fund are “invested” in 30-day T-bills collecting no interest. Instead they prop up federal debt.
5. Governments (Federal, State, and Local) will have to remove the dumb policies they enacted when they had to solve the first Healthcare Crisis. That “crisis” happened in the early 20th Century when healthcare was too cheap and working-class persons had leverage over doctors in negotiation.
Most of our unfunded liabilities are related to healthcare spending. People forget that the government already pays more than half of all healthcare spending. The best way to cut the deficit is to reduce the price of care. That is how you cut spending without cutting delivery of care.
None of this will get done because people are dumb and want free shit.
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Seriously? Why don’t you get doctor’s to accept less?
Is it because they want “free shit?”
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So healthcare costs consist only of payments to doctors? That is a dumb strawman even for you.
The entire point there is that market forces are not at play when people are choosing or receiving healthcare. No one knows how much it will cost to get their gallbladder removed. They have no idea what their out of pocket cost will be, what their insurance company will pay, etc. When in the hospital, you are never told the price of some medication, test, or procedure will be. There isn’t even a way to find out. When someone has a condition that has 3 possible courses of treatment, they can’t get information about pricing or relative effectiveness so that they can make an informed decision. All of this BS is because of previous government intervention. The current systems for healthcare were not determined by the market.
Under Lodge care, we did not have these problems. Groups negotiated a price that covered all members for the entire year. If people were consuming unnecessary services, the price would go up for everyone the next year. If the doctor didn’t perform enough services or perform them well, he would lose that contract. There were market forces at work to keep cost low and quality high. We no longer have that.
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That’s exactly what I said. Good point. Stupid.
We pay roughly 16% of gdp on health care (highest on the planet) because we have a patchwork of third party payors. Some government, some private insurers. Government payors actually do better at cost controlling than the insurance companies who are pocketing 18% off the top.
France is more like 8% of GOP and the WHO ranks them #1 in the world.
When doctors and drug companies had to accept what people had in their pockets, service was relatively cheap. Now they suckle at the teat of this grossly expensive system. You know, free shit. For docs and drug companies. You think we need a Walgreens AND a CVS on every corner?
We need to go to Medicare for all. If you’re rich enough to opt out and do your own thing, fine. Otherwise, let’s quit acting like we can avoid the realities the entire western world has dealt with and gone with public health care. Which those democracies never vote to get rid of by the way. Probably because it sucks so bad. Democracy? Horrible way to decide shit right?
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It isn’t even anywhere close to what you said, dumb-ass.
Bullshit. You will not find an insurance company that makes more than 4% margin. 8-10% of Medicare payments are fraud. Medicare also has about a 2% overhead rate. That puts it in line with the efficiency of Health Insurance companies in Switzerland (around 90.1% goes to healthcare expenses for the minimum plans). It isn’t a government vs private issue.
It is actually 12%, but I don’t expect you to actually look up factual numbers. The French also don’t invent anything medically related anymore. Compare them to Switzerland or Germany.
The fuck we do. The only European government that tries to handle things at a National level is the UK. Everywhere else handles healthcare at a local level. The Federal Government is way too corrupt and way to too incompetent to handle something like this.
The CBO, which has underestimated the cost of everything it has evaluated, estimates $32T for the first 10 years. There is no mechanism to prevent fraud, and there is no mechanism to limit unnecessary or unnecessarily expensive care. Medicare is a part of the reason that health care expenditures are as high as they are. We already face $40 trillion in unfunded liabilities for Medicare. The chance that the federal government will raise enough tax revenue to pay for things is beyond naive.
If we are going to do anything successful, Switzerland is probably the model.
Separate Health Insurance and Accident Insurance. They are separate risk profiles and should be separate products.
Medicare, Medicaid, and employer health insurance plans would go away. They are one of the two main reasons that Obamacare was doomed to be an epic failure. All the sick people got stuck in a small pool.
The state governments would negotiate universal pricing in the state for services with each hospital, clinic, doctor, pharmacy, etc. Now people know what services cost and would basically end up basically the same as current Medicare rates.
People and the government will have to accept the fact that wealthy people have better housing, transportation, food, vacations, clothing, etc. than the poor. They are going to have better healthcare as well. The idea that everyone has the same coverage is asinine.
The Federal government would establish a committee of health professionals that would determine what would constitute the minimally acceptable coverage for a person. This isn’t a Cadillac plan. It wouldn’t include all the crap that is in the essential services BS that is in Obamacare. Basically, it would be what is covered by Medicaid.
Health insurance companies would be required to offer that coverage at a choice of deductibles / coinsurance to anyone at the same pricing based on factors like age and location.
*They would also offer this coverage without profit. Revenue that did not go to coverage / overhead would be refunded.
Persons of low income would receive a subsidy to cover costs. In Switzerland, no one is expected to pay more than 8% of their income.
After that, the companies could offer any insurance product or service they want in a completely free market. Employers, trade groups, hobbyist groups, or individuals could negotiate anything they wanted.
Switzerland has 60 registered Health Insurance companies to cover a population the size of Georgia. Obamacare has 1 provider here.
Switzerland manages to get American quality and wait times while having costs basically the same as Germany. Part of that is the competition among the companies limiting unnecessary or unnecessarily expensive options.
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You make some good points. But Switzerland has a different population and culture. I think a big issue is the fact that people have to accept the fact that we all die. A tremendous amount of money is spent in the last 3 months of life. The end of life decisions have to be taken out of the hands of the emotional family members. I can’t tell you the number of patients who go to the operating room because the family want “everything done”. The much more humane thing to do is make the poor guy comfortable and let him go.
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I’m with you, but Switzerland has that problem too yet has the same quality care for less money. To me, end of life counseling is a separate but important topic. What I do know is that prior government intervention has led to a collection of health care systems (Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, Obamacare, the VA, employer based plans, temporary plans, etc.) that are a combination of dumb and expensive.
We are facing a severe problem and no one is talking about actual practical solutions to unwind problems the government has done and address the fact that people are irrational and will not purchase sufficient health coverage in an open market. The Republicans have dumb ideas like adding on HSAs. Democrats do like Derek just did: “you see France, they spend less than us so let’s do ‘Medicare for all’ which is completely different than what they do in France and ignore the numbers and pretend that we too wouldn’t have to control costs by rationing care via long wait times”.
We are basically at an impasse. People expect a nationwide solution, yet politics basically prevent us from doing anything. Hell, we can’t even talk about the issue responsibly from a position of facts.
One thing about the numbers comparing costs between countries is that they are not adjusted for things like obesity rate and car accident rates. I would really like to see what the numbers were like if the average European or Japanese person was as fat as your average American.
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Actually, you can solve a lot of the issue of end of life care by not making most of those treatments covered under the basic plan. People that are willing to pay for the higher coverage could have them, but end of life counseling is something that is greatly needed in this country… along with recognition that the idea that “everyone needs a natural death” is inhumane. The terminally ill have a right to live or end their life on their own terms. I find the idea that many Christians think that other people should suffer the worst of stage-4 colon cancer so that they can feel like they are “good Christians” to be morally reprehensible.
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Liar: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/health-costs-how-the-us-compares-with-other-countries
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And you posted a link that supports Anon’s claims. LOL. I’m not surprised that you either didn’t read it, or didn’t understand it.
You should stick to your standard arguments like, “ur mom gay.” It suits you better.
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I’m not sure what you are accusing me of lying about. The info you linked from PBS completely supports my claims. My numbers were right. The article agrees with my reasoning as to why our prices are higher: insurers and consumers have been stripped of the market forces that could keep prices down, and our governments do not use the cost cutting measures (like government price negotiation for services or tiered care).
Also, as I mentioned before, none of these numbers are adjusted for Americans being a bunch of lard-asses. I would like to see all of these numbers adjusted for health indicators such as obesity, tobacco usage, diet, and sedentary lifestyle. Japan has health care quality like the U.S. or Switzerland but with costs well below the OECD average. I think a lot of the cost difference is due to lifestyle.
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I should add that the $32T is in addition to the %5.5 of GDP Medicare already spends plus the copays, coinsurance, supplements, and prescription fees that people on medicare currently pay and new consumers would pay. It is highly likely that spending would still be 16% of GDP. I have not seen any analysis to calculate the total costs.
The keys are to lower the cost of each service, to reduce the amount of services needed, and to reduce unnecessary or unnecessarily expensive services.
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Senator, you may want to re-think this whole PlayPen idea. Someone is eventually going to have a heart attack or stroke posting here.
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Nah, as long as it continues to gather all the vitriolic crap in one place, it’s a good thing. I like reading about football without all the outrage.
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Man, if you saw the emails I used to get from folks complaining about the comment threads being deluged with political vitriol, you’d know it was me who was going to have a stroke if I didn’t come up with something. 😉
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I’m sorry…
I could sense the strain….
This is much better IMHO.
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Says the guy with the Walter Sobchak avatar.
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Earlier, Uglydawg posted a recommendation for a Balanced Budget Amendment. Here is why you can not have one..
You can not have a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution so long as our we have a debt-based fiat currency and fractional reserve lending. When loans are taken out, the money is created from nothing but has to be paid back at interest. The money that is paid in interest goes to the back. The money paid as principle literally goes out of existence. Unless every bit of the money paid back in interest is released back into the general economy, the loan is actually impossible to pay off as the money is not available.
This applies to the economy as a whole. You have to have a constant expansion of debt in order to create the money needed to pay off old debt. This is why the Great Depression happened. It was a deflationary debt spiral. This insight is why Milton Friedman won the Nobel Prize. This is also why the Great Depression was so “Great”. Everything the FDR and the Government did to try to fix the situation did not work as it did not create the required amount of currency.
In times of economic malaise, people and corporation will not undergo unnecessary debt. If there isn’t more debt, you end up with the debt spiral like the Great Depression. This is also why Keynesian policies don’t work. They only work if you can trick people into thinking it will work and educated people know what you are trying to do.
This is also why Ben Bernake engaged in “Quantitative Easing” during the last recession. It was simply printing money to guarantee that the money was available for people to pay their loans. Without new government debt there wouldn’t have been more debt for there to be more money. The key to QE was that the debt could be sold back to the public to spur future inflation. Without that check, you end up destroying those on fixed incomes through massive inflation.
Jefferson killed Hamilton’s First National Bank. Jackson killed the second bank. I can’t see anyone ending the Fed.
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If you all would have elected me as your Supreme Leader and Overlord I would have fixed all these issues. I am 100% Bipartisan, I only care about me and making cpj the life long coach at gt.
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