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Gatorubet

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Gatorubet

  1. Back in the day they had these things called tax returns. And 1099s. Rumor has it that the government would know all kinds of personal things about you, like how much you made in interest - and how much your employer paid you - and what your capital gains from sale of stocks and real estate were. Those bastards also knew how much you had in retirement accounts when you hit 73 and older, and would check to make sure you took minimum distributions based on the amount of the account. Some say you would pay a greater Medicare premium if you made more money and junk. I think Big Brother can come up with some sort of way of knowing if you earned too much to get full benefits.
  2. it is fair because it was meant to be insurance for old age upkeep. That is why the most Elon Musk can get from Social Security is exactly the same as someone making 10,000 times less. It was not supposed to be a personal savings account that reflected exactly how well you did financially. (and yes, I know there is a cap on Social Security at about $175K and no cap on Medicare earnings so that Elon did not pay the same share of his earnings for Social Security) It was a depression era program created to keep people from starving to death while being homeless. If someone makes ten million a year and are bitching about not getting their Social Security, then they are a selfish asshole. Obviously, the devil is in the details, and in this case it depends on what income level you start means testing. That is a legitimate point of discussion. Edit: Troph beat me to it
  3. Maybe Trump thinks that he will unite the GOP rurals and the urban Democrats when the rurals have to go into town to access the bread and soup lines…
  4. I guess in your state that won’t attract the pythons..,
  5. My complete thoughts on the subject are actually the two posts. There are idiots who really don’t follow any of the news - but all of their friends and family and church members are big GOP types. Since they don’t follow what is going on, they essentially fall back on “ I don’t follow who to vote for, but all my friends say vote for these guys, and they seem really upset if you are a Democrat, because it’s bad, so I guess I’m voting Republican” My work colleague I mentioned was one of those people who weirdly was extremely religious, but seemingly completely uninformed on anything political. My small point was that people like that were not voting for Trump because they were racist and liked racist policies, some of the idiots had bought into three decades of “Democrats bad, GOP protected family values”, and they feel pressure from a societal point not getting sideways with all their friends and family and fellow church members. You are exactly correct that if the people voting for the GOP knew exactly what the fuck was going on, but supported the GOP anyway to not get sideways with friends and neighbors, then those people get no pass whatsoever. In a way they are worse than the actual racists because they should know better. Since all of the politicians know exactly what is going on, they are the ones who have simply no defense of any kind. I could’ve been clearer in my first post, but you can’t make me change my scotch drinking habits.
  6. Did the subject matter of the email say Muledick?
  7. Sometimes the answer is right in front of you.
  8. For some, sure. But I think you are perhaps biased due to your education, intellect, and that handy (or cursed) thing of having a photographic memory. You seem to reject the possibility that there are just a bunch of dim goobers who go through life not looking at anything political, not knowing any current events, not having any idea of civics, who literally have no idea what the hell is going on in the world and who vastly prefer it that way. And more importantly, these people have absolutely no intention of changing their behavior. Just like it is unwise to conclude malice when simple negligence or stupidity is at fault, I think it unwise to always attribute the worst personal characteristics of people when it can truly be said that they are so ignorant and uninterested in all things politics that they are only vaguely aware of the things intelligent, motivated, well-read, watch the news daily people are aware. That latter condition certainly does not give them a pass, but it does not make them inherently evil either. our current crop of GOP politicians? I agree with you 100%.
  9. and how did the original poster claim to get what I assume is still confidential flight recorder data?
  10. I’m a bit conflicted by this. I’m hoping that smearing a really good étouffée over my door jam will cause God to skip my house.
  11. Gotcha. Agree. I also liked you pointing out the no God before me concept. Before my paternal grandfather was kicked out of the Mormon church for his alcoholism, that side of the family were all latter-day Saints. The interesting thing about them is they are actually a polytheist theology. And I believe Joseph Smith referred to that particular sentence to validate the fact that there was a cosmic father and mother producing spirit babies, and the teaching that with enough time and adherence to theology that a human man can eventually become a God worshiped by people on other planets. I have to say, that is a hell of a lot better than hanging around on a cloud twanging on a harp.
  12. Sure. But you may have noticed that the easier thing is to ignore facts that oppose your worldview and accept facts that confirm it. I had a work colleague who was very Catholic and would use his lunch hours to go pray for his various deceased relatives. I kept asking him how he could support the GOP doing all these bad things, and he literally looked me in the eye and said I have to support family values. He was not being snarky. He had simply fully adopted the bullshit party line from the 90s and felt comfortable ignoring any negative - as he viewed himself as a family values supporter - which allowed him to disregard any critical thinking about the policies the family values party was actually adopting. He would probably be OK with concentration camps as long as there was no abortion going on at them.
  13. Mary is flat bringing the truth here. Not all, to be sure. There are people too ignorant and gullible to get out of the bubble of self-selected facts. I know several non-horrible (not racist or nativist) Republicans who have empathy for other people and are not hate fountains. They live in all-MAGA families (and neighborhoods), and are people who place more value in not destroying relationship with those family/neighbors/church members than they do voting against Republicans and losing the societal acceptance that they feel they cannot live without. We are a tribal species, and we sometimes forget how important that is to humans. this does not excuse them or forgive them, rather, it explains the incongruous behavior. But for elected Republican leaders - almost every one of them have no character and are finally happy to be able to say out loud the personal beliefs that they hold.
  14. Not a criticism GOLL, but I disagree with the bolded statement. “Protestant” includes everything from the Anglican church to evangelical snake handlers and the abomination that is the politics-centric cowboy church. The term protestant is perhaps the least theologically exclusive term you could find…they cover the theological map from Catholic-light to bat shit crazy. And if you are approaching this from the Catholic perspective, that church has a list of rules and requirements for salvation that appear nowhere in the Bible - yet make up some of the core tenets of the mother church (the list of sins requiring confession to a priest, last rights, Papal infallibility, etc.)
  15. I have no problem with means testing. That also means that if that rich person loses everything - then they have access again to their Social Security retirement benefits. The program was supposed to keep people from starving and being homeless in their old age. It was not meant as extra income for wealthy people to pay their country club dues and make stock investments.
  16. No hookers. Would not attend.
  17. He meant, “to blave…”
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