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  1. Brisketexan

    Brisketexan

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    atomheartbevo

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    Cheeseweasel

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  4. Deej

    Deej

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Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/25/20 in all areas

  1. Take your politics back to CR you fucking mongoloids. All you fucking pussy ass bitches who think your random politics jabs are ok outside of CR should go fuck yourselves.
    16 points
  2. Can someone please shut down this sock and keep this thread to actual news, questions, and updates?
    14 points
  3. emphasis and brackets mine. replace sonia sotomayor with antonin scalia and the trump administration with the obama administration, would you be making the same argument? it's a fucking dissent. it's supposed to be critical and make a message. this is more disingenuous republican bullshit. they are fundamentally dishonest.
    13 points
  4. I suspect that his pills are served hidden in a piece of hot dog.
    13 points
  5. Yeah it definitely had nothing to do with the stonewalling of a record number of judicial nominations by McConnell which led to the record number of nominations by trump. Classic anastasia - misrepresent the fact pattern and leave out critical context to justify a farcical """centrist""" both-sides position. Shine on, you intellectually dishonest diamond.
    10 points
  6. Fantastic post by Cooter....and utterly depressing. Because Twice is also correct in that the two major parties haven't had much to offer the lower middle class for several decades. And even more depressing when the loudest message to that demographic has been Trumpism: blame the weakest (to divert attention from the real systemic problems at the top), xenophobia, and lies (dude...NOBODY is bringing back coal, stop lying to those poor fuckers in W. Va.). It's certainly why Bernie is an attractive alternative -- he's speaking very loudly to the problems of the lower middle class (what we used to call the working class). My response to every right winger who hollers about "YOU WANT SOCIALISM!" is "nope....I just want us to be where we were economically (on an individualized basis) in 1988 or so -- however we can get there is great, but I don't see you putting forth any fucking ideas on how to do that." I support pathways to making college, housing, and healthcare cost the same percentage of family income that they did 30 years ago. That's it, it's not radical, it's common sense. And we continue to ignore it at our peril. "The stock market is doing great! Look at your 401k! Don't you love your tax cut?!?!?" -- all bullshit to everyone on that graph above. Almost every metric of "the economy is great!" favors the top 5% -- and at best they're neutral to the remainder of the population, but in many cases, they are at the EXPENSE of the other 95% (newsflash -- e.g, all the great "tax cuts" that resulted in slashing state support of universities helped lead to skyrocketing tuition that Joe 95% has to pay). I have zero optimism that anyone will -- or will be able to -- address this issue meaningfully. It's only going to get worse. A lot worse. We're going to create a nation of two classes: the wealthy, and debt slaves. We're well on our way to that.
    10 points
  7. For lack of a better thread to put this, this is an interesting article simply explaining why the middle class is broke as fuck. This chart is the best explanation of middle-class finances you will ever see Christopher Ingraham Can't understand why people feel financially stressed in a booming economy? Check this chart out. Economists and financial experts have been telling us for years how great things are for U.S. workers and consumers. The stuff we buy is dirt cheap, and living standards are higher than ever. Wages are keeping pace with inflation. Inequality probably isn’t as bad as you’ve been led to believe. The stock market is booming! So why, then, do so many of us feel like we can barely make ends meet? A new report published by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, offers a clear explanation for the disconnect between the economy described by economists and the one experienced by regular people. It all boils down to the startling shift illustrated in the chart below. Lead author Oren Cass distills it as follows: “In 1985, the typical male worker could cover a family of four’s major expenditures (housing, health care, transportation, education) on 30 weeks of salary,” he wrote on Twitter last week. “By 2018 it took 53 weeks. Which is a problem, there being 52 weeks in a year.” Cass calls this calculation the Cost-of-Thriving Index. It measures the median male annual salary against four major household expenditures: Housing, defined as the annual rent for a three-bedroom house in the 40th percentile of the local housing market. Health care, defined as the annual premium on a typical family health insurance policy. Transportation, defined as the average cost of owning and operating a car driven 15,000 miles per year. Education, defined as the average cost of tuition, fees, and room and board at a four-year public college. In 1985, the typical male breadwinner could cover those costs and still have 22 weeks of pay left for everything else a family wants and needs, such as food, clothing, entertainment and savings. Today, the typical salary doesn’t even cover the four basics. It’s worth noting that Cass constructed his index around male earnings because men historically were more likely to be sole breadwinners. Plus, polls show that Americans still view men as the primary provider within a family, even though that’s increasingly no longer the case Cass also ran the numbers for female earners, whose median wage is about 80 percent that of men. In 1985, the typical woman needed to work 45 weeks to cover the four big annual expenses; today she needs 66 weeks. That means it was easier for a female breadwinner to provide for her family in 1985 than it is for a lone male earner today. On the cost side, the decisions are more straightforward. Cass notably bases education costs on one semester of public college. That’s because putting two kids through college would require socking away nearly a semester’s worth every year for each year of their childhood. As for health care, even those with employer-sponsored insurance have been steadily contributing more toward their coverage. The share of the non-elderly with employer-sponsored insurance is actually falling, meaning many families are having to purchase health care plans on their own. Additionally, the cost of health care is a major concern for many families when a parent switches jobs or is laid off for an extended period. “A generation ago,” Cass writes, the typical male worker “could be confident in his ability to provide for his family not only the basics of food, clothing, and shelter but also the middle-class essentials of a comfortable house, a car, health care, and education. Now he cannot.” Families, of course, have had to adapt to conform to these new realities. Families have become reliant on government for health care. People find ways to skimp on medical care. Some are taking on more debt to pay for housing. But Cass contends that every adjustment represents an economic challenge. If both parents are working, who is supervising the kids after school? What happens if a family is maxed out on their mortgage, then one spouse loses a job? How long can you avoid the doctor before chronic health conditions catch up with you? It’s these realities, Cass writes, that are most salient for the middle-class families who tell pollsters they live paycheck to paycheck and worry that their kids’ standard of living will be lower than theirs. Traditional economists might look at the plummeting price of flat-screen TVs as a sign that standards of living are increasing. But how useful is a cheap TV when you can’t afford your insulin? In recent years, long-held orthodoxies about economics have been challenged by a new generation of liberal economists who see the free-market embrace of staggering economic inequality as a threat to everyone’s well-being. Similarly, Cass’s work pushes back against those same orthodoxies — but this time, from the right. His concern about what he calls “market fundamentalism” derives from the way those markets are failing American families. “You can have a rising GDP,” he told The Washington Post’s James Hohmann last week, “but if it’s in the context of collapsing families and people no longer getting married and declining fertility rates and so on and so forth, you haven’t necessarily enhanced well-being.”
    10 points
  8. Just got back from an awesome 3-course prix-fixe dinner at a chef-driven spot. And what I see here, but awesome support. Thanks, you guys! I'll know better going fwd. If any of you happen to be visiting Philly and I'm free, happy to buy you a drink.
    10 points
  9. "I've been told that my pussy is too tight"
    9 points
  10. 8 points
  11. 1 -- the cops can lie to you to obtain evidence. If you trust a cop, you're making a mistake. 2 -- the cops used a clever way to get evidence that didn't harm the third party (the person giving the sample). I actually respect the creativity. 3 -- your son probably shouldn't have killed that girl.
    7 points
  12. This is the most disturbing “asking for a friend” I’ve seen in quite some time.
    7 points
  13. The Great Pyrenees puppies are almost 6 weeks old. It is going to be a sad day when they leave, but I won't miss cleaning up the endless amount of shit. The rescue has officially put them up for adoption. I don't think it is going to take long. Here are some pictures from this weekend.
    7 points
  14. https://reverb.com/item/10710457-fender-60th-anniversary-58-jazzmaster-2018 Just ordered a Jazzmaster '58 VRI 60th anniversary special edition. Should have NGD by next Monday at the latest. Hoping for Friday, though. Excited to share with y'all.
    7 points
  15. Someone needs to get Trump's nose to distract him for a year.
    7 points
  16. Boise State hasn't won a game in 40 years.
    7 points
  17. I knew my lifelong practice of reclusiveness and aversion to other humans would prepare me for something, someday.
    7 points
  18. We are paying for the wall. We are Mexico. Therefore, Mexico is paying for the wall. 8-D chess.
    7 points
  19. And how will they make sure that they don't collapse
    7 points
  20. Which is why "white male privilege" pisses off so many people who are white, male and broke as a fucking joke. If you are working your ass off and falling further behind, no one should see you as "privileged". That's the context of out-of-touch condescension that allows someone like Trump to rise up and take control. We are increasingly becoming a country of haves and have nots and the haves have done a masterful job of turning the have nots against each other.
    7 points
  21. this was supposed to be a selfie
    7 points
  22. And this is a thread in the current events section of Surly sharing info and discussing the virus, which is a current event. The President and one of his advisors spoke publicly about the virus today, which is also a current event. The President’s actions and comments concerning this current event, and those of his cabinet, directly impact all of us during this current event. If you have information that he and Kudlow gave accurate information about this current event, and that there was probably only 10 Americans, and that it’s contained, then share that information with the rest of the class, so that we don’t strip HEB bare.
    6 points
  23. Bloomberg not a fan of weed, is about a strong overseas military presence and a supporter of Netanyahu.
    6 points
  24. Which one of you lives in Denver?
    6 points
  25. Person in our office came back from China last month. Sat out two weeks. Today drops the bomb that she "had the worst flu while I was there."
    6 points
  26. You know the rules cunt. You want to talk political mismanagement, start a thread in CR. Your political opinions are not exempt because you deem them legitimate. You are not special.
    6 points
  27. 6 points
  28. I would think the president would say remain calm and be vigilant. And I would think the CDC has been waiting its whole existence for such an event. I've worked with the CDC's infectious disease team to develop products. I respect the institution. But they are about to become a leader in the US where people will listen to them before any other person or entity in the US. What do you think would happen if a large meteor was headed towards earth? The president would say remain calm, we've got this. NASA would say prepare your anus. What I am saying is that each group has its own agenda. The president's agenda is to allay fears and instill confidence. The CDC's agenda is to get the virus under control and to do that it needs to get people to prepare and follow protocol.
    6 points
  29. I picked a hell of the time to quit my job and create a start up
    6 points
  30. Nope, not done. The g in gif should be pronounced the same as the g in graphics. Doing it differently is just stupid.
    6 points
  31. When we’re governed by a toddler, we have to use toddler tricks.
    6 points
  32. Okay, that’s fine squishy analysis. But you’re ignoring the mathematics of it. The current data points to a 2% mortality rate. An expert in epidemiology, having studied other relevant statistics about the disease, is predicting 40-70% infection rates. If those numbers are correct or approximately correct, then the fatalities will be along the lines of what I posted. That’s just math. Now, the experts might be wrong and the data might be skewed. But I’m not going to take some random message board dude’s word that “It’s just another cold.” Because you have cited absolutely zero data to support that view.
    6 points
  33. I think the really interesting part is when Brett and Lauren start to realize their lives are closer to S and C than Trump/Bloomberg as well: Are living paycheck to paycheck - it's a bigger paycheck and there may be some savings, but they also have bigger bills, the mortgage, student loans etc. If in a marriage, both parents are working Are having their children educated by a decaying and underfunded public system - or paying too much of that above paycheck to get them into a private school/ or higher mortgage for the better public Have little to no savings - they have some, but again, bigger bills Have little to no equity in their home - they might, if they were ever able to get a down payment together to buy that house Cannot afford to educate their children past high-school without crippling debt Would be wiped out by a job or health emergency - better able to handle the unexpected simple knee surgery, but one major care wreck could really tilt their world upside down The family breaking out of this caste often requires some generation to literally or metaphorically hit the lottery - better odds than the former, but the ability to afford their children's college and their children's access to traditional gate keeping institutions (the Ivys, certain prep schools, unpaid internships, connections, even acting/music etc.) is getting smaller
    6 points
  34. To complete the comparison of Shaniqua and Cletus: Are living paycheck to paycheck If in a marriage, both parents are working Are having their children educated by a decaying and underfunded public system Have little to no savings Have little to no equity in their home Cannot afford to educate their children past high-school without crippling debt Would be wiped out by a job or health emergency The family breaking out of this caste often requires some generation to literally or metaphorically hit the lottery (good enough to play pro sports, etc...) Compare that to Trump & Bloomberg: Are free from financial want and worry No one in the marriage is really working anymore Children are educated by the finest private and preparatory schools Have inexhaustible wealth Own multiple properties outright and never have to worry about the roof over their heads Children go on to well-regarded universities and emerge with no student loan indentured servitude Have the resources to withstand any emergency Wealth is passed from generation to generation, perpetuating the elite status of the family unless there is some gross mismanagement involved (even a Trump was able to avoid this) Shaniqua is not Cletus' enemy, and vice versa. They are in the exact same leaky life-raft in the middle of the ocean trying to paddle to shore with a popsicle stick. All while the Trump's and Bloomberg's are busy erecting barriers at the shoreline while yelling "Shaniqua! Look at Cletus popsicle stick! Its bigger than yours!" and "Cletus! Shaniqua wants your popsicle stick and will kill you to take it!"
    6 points
  35. Well, that explains the difficulty in containing the virus in China. They've been putting the PPE....... .....in your coke.
    6 points
  36. Great post. The privilege still exists, but it's not exactly like most of white maledom is really wielding it like a cutlass. It's something that everyone, including white males, should be aware of and conscious of, but not made to feel guilty about it. Obama and others had points and were not wrong-wrong with the guns and religion, etc., but politically it lit a fuse that led almost directly to Trump. Neither party has had anything to say to lower middle workers for 20 years or more.
    6 points
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