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NBMisha

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Posts posted by NBMisha

  1.  

    Good numbers.  But even the WSJ showed a chart yesterday.  Since 1980, GDP is up about 150%.  For the top 10%, its about 200%.  For the remaining 90%, up about 40%, over almost 40 years.  This is for the US.

    With these kinds of distributional effects it is not surprising to hear claims that the system is failing US society as a whole.  

    Yes, capitalism is the system to provide the most prosperity overall for the most people.  But the version we have know is open to legitimate critique.

     

    • Like 1
  2. 51 minutes ago, EMAWesome said:

    Just remember the entire report is something like 300 to 400 pages long.  It's not going to be a Dr. Seuss book, more like Dune.  It's going to take some reading time to comprehend everything if it has any worth at all.  Anyone spouting out an hour after it has been released has not read all of it and probably hasn't read any of it.  Just remember that when the talking heads start blabbering about it fifteen seconds after it's release.  Anyone actually bothering to interpret and understand it is going to be quiet until tonight at the very least and the most credible folks won't be stating their opinion on it until tomorrow.

    Kill me fucking now.

  3. Talking with a fishing buddy yesterday:  his son in law is the new offensive coordinator for Georgia Tech, coming in from Temple with the HC.  He was talking about the GT-Temple matchup next season and possibly going to it.  I replied with the LSU at UT matchup, in light of the handling of Georgia.  He says Georgia mailed it in.  I really had to choke back the shit talk - our wives were right there.   The SEC suckfest is more widespread than I had imagined.

  4. 13 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

    There are a lot of folks that gravitated to the Libertarian thing that aren't Ayn Rand fetishists.  Living in a purple state, I know a lot of people that love guns, find the Democrats unfocused, and too quick to try federal solutions for any problem with little regard for cost.  They don't care for identity politics either.  That said, they're equally repulsed by Christian Sharia, laws specifically targeted at restricting minority groups, the gluttonous military budget, the war on drugs, et al.  I can see why the label of Libertarian appealed to them.

    At this point, pretty much everyone I know like this is voting for Democrats in 2020 because Trumpism is a bigger affront to sanity than anything they've yet experienced.

    In other words, they see as equivalent things that may or may not  help (federal solutions, identity stuff), and things that are already abject moral crimes (Christian hegemony, minority targeting, military gluttony, war on drugs, etc.).  In fact they are resolved to tolerate the latter, but will, in the end, work against the former as they may impinge on their comfort.

  5. 2 hours ago, tjhooker said:

    Watch this.  It will be the Obama economy until it starts to dip then it won't be anymore.  I see how this works.  It's his economy for years on end apparently.  

    BTW the president has little affect on the economy regardless of party.  Doesn't matter.  Economy is going to do what it is going to do.  Presidents can help congress pass policy that can massage the edges but overall a president doesn't make or break an economy.  If you have to assign credit Congress has the power of the purse.  I don't even give them that much credit either way.  The fed chairman may have more impact than all of them. 

    Well, based on, say, third grade arithmetic, when the recovery gets to be about 15 years old, and if Trump is still president, then it will be the mostly Trump recovery/economy.  No need to "watch".

  6. 9 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

    this timeline we are in has highlighted to me that there is a virulent strain of asshole out there that was always bubbling under the surface. these assholes were always there, but trump has emboldened them to speak their thoughts aloud rather than keep them to themselves. because he is chief asshole, other assholes think that they can now also publicly asshole about without ramification. of course, they do not realize that by assholing around with reckless abandon, they are ruining any positive opinion people might have of them, but it doesn't matter to them, because asshole.

    Ha.  Reminds me of that little gem of a book from a couple of years ago "Asshole, A Theory".  Alas, there is nothing to be done with one.

     

  7. 12 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

    To debate the issue honestly requires an understanding of where the electoral college came from and why it exists. 

    The fact is, the founders understood that simple majority votes get you Brexit and California's direct legislation and sought to prevent that.  They pretty expressly devalued majority votes on a national level, instead confining them to local and state elections where smaller groups of people vote on issues that more directly affect them.

    So until you consider the wheres and whyfors of the electoral college, with accurate facts, you are just pissed about the outcome it generates.

    You seem to say that not having a national popular vote is undemocratic.  Well, guess what, national popular elections are undemocratic:  they dilute votes.

     

    TH

    I have considered the why's and wherefores.  My point is that the thinking in 1787-9 was not perfect, and could not anticipate the situation we have now.  They were trying to protect a geographic minority from the tyranny of the majority.  What we have now is quite different, unforseen in the underlying debate records.  And the country, the nation, is those of us now living, responsible for now and the future.  

    The fact is the minority in question will veto any dilution of their power until hell freezes over, and keeping hold on power is the only logic operating.  I don't find that logic convincing, and don't find the founding logic to be pertinent to today's problem.

    Finally, your suggestion that any view not structured like you own is not honest, is, well, regrettable.

    • Like 1
  8. 16 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

    Don’t confuse this board with facts.  

    The issue is how well, or poorly the system is working now and for the forseeable future.  The instutionalized veto power and half the time hegemony of a permanent minority is hardly a defensible model.  It pisses on the dignity of a majority of the country, and protects no enumerable rights or otherwise of the minority.  Just power.

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