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2020 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES: Joe Biden vs Donald Trump


Mrs Whiggins

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12 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

China owns 93% of all rare-earth minerals.

China is the #2 owner of US debt behind the nips - China owns $1T+, 15% of our total debt.

20% of all imports to the US are from China.

A move away from China requires:

A repaired and exponentially accelerated US economy that can catch up to and surpass the currently accelerating Chinese economy (4.9% yoy growth 20Q3, yes this summer):  3? 4? years

Untangle our supply chains, reshore what we can and rebuild our manufacturing capacity at a "loss" (i.e. cash investment) by the 1%:  10 years at apollo/manhattan levels

Source asteroids for rare earths and move them to a safe accessible orbit (for rare earths): it's up to Musk and apollo/manhattan-type funding.  2040? 2050?

Commtech hardware requires rare earths.  Like OPEC in the 70s, the Chinese need the west to nom nom nom those products, but we can't move away from China until that problem is solved.  Fortunately, there's a huge supply in the asteroid belt.

In the short term, the Chinese could dump our debt, crash the dollar, and fuck us hard.  The only ones who can solve that are the 1%.

We have the world's sovereign currency and the dominant military. China should appreciate the world order that gave her such prosperity. We prefer the status quo on the currency issue and global military order. Shake up the order of those things and there is chaos. 

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I’ve read it twice. It’s racist. Stop it. 

Yeah, the author himself admits “nips” is a racial slur when he defends himself for using it as accurate to the time period.

The WW2 part of the book is set in an era when the concept of racial sensitivity had not even been dreamed of yet, and so the characters see the world, and express themselves, accordingly. To me this seems more constructive than presenting a sugar-coated view of history, and the fact that the single most admirable character in the whole book is Japanese should put to rest suspicions about my motives. However, people who object to, e.g. "Huck Finn" on the grounds that it contains racial slurs may want to avoid this novel.
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"Our servicemen called them 'nips' so it's okay" is a pretty remarkable rationalization. They also called the Germans 'krauts' and the Vietnamese 'slant eyes' and the Iraqis "towel heads" and on and on and on. 

Also most of the people who use that term haven't read Cryptonomicon;  they use it because they believe it to be a slur and because they are racist. Because it is, and they are. 

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9 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

I’m being serious. What piece of legislation got passed?  Did he even try? All he did was write executive orders the entire time. 
 

The greatest economy ever is a lie. Just because he keeps saying it, doesn’t make it true. I guess maybe got the VA better organized?

I use the VA as my main service for healthcare.  What exactly is supposed to be so improved?  I guess I am unaware that there were mass changes that I have yet to notice.  Or they could be in areas I don’t deal with.

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7 hours ago, DigDug said:

I use the VA as my main service for healthcare.  What exactly is supposed to be so improved?  I guess I am unaware that there were mass changes that I have yet to notice.  Or they could be in areas I don’t deal with.

I am now able to treat active duty and retired military with very little red tape.  I can even refer them out for things like MRIs and send their meds to their local pharmacy, although if it’s not something urgent they usually get the orders from their VA PCP because although there is some lag time they usually have minimal to no out of pocket expense.  
 

I think Obama started loosening things up with referrals outside the VA system but Trump to his credit greatly expanded it. That’s about the only thing I can think of that he has done

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Trump signed a bi-partisan bill to create a national number for mental health emergency calls (988) that will go into effect in 2022. He gets no credit for it from me, but at least he didn't block it. That and the national park infrastructure bill are the only two things that I can point to. Too early to tell about the Israeli deals. 

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8 minutes ago, immamac said:

News flash Reagan wasn't conservative

This is a perception vs reality debate because to the majority of today’s self described conservatives, Reagan is the ideal embodiment of the modern conservative. 

If you’re going to claim Reagan wasn’t conservative, you almost to have to supply a contemporary actual conservative leader to compare him to. 

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18 hours ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

I can name one and mostly only knew about it because of my oldest out in Cali. He signed the Great American Outdoors Act. It was proposed in Congress under the Taxpayer First Act (that I didn't know and had to look up) by the late Democratic Representative John Lewis. Senator Cory Gardener reintroduced the bill later (with amendments) and it passed in the Senate 73-25 and the House 310-107. It had bipartisan support although later is was suggested that McConnell only let it pass to improve Gardener's re-election chances. The President signed it into law on August 4, 2020.

Without going into a lot of details, it addresses some of the maintenance issues incurred by the National Park Service, and also enables states (like California) that have large state preserves abutting federal lands the ability to co-manage and work together. The funding allowed Governor Newsom and the US Forest Service the impetus to forge the Agreement for Shared Stewardship of California's Forest and Rangelands to achieve the goal of reducing California's wildfire risk.

It was one of the actual positive things (as far as I can tell--I don't live there so I don't know if there are details that are not so great) that appeared to address a problem that the 'feet on the ground' people were trying to get solved for years and the Act itself was supported by conservancy groups.

Maybe the subsequent fires burned up some of the goodwill between the President and his 'blue state' governor since the conflagrations happened so quickly in the weeks post signing, but I would still say that I recognize that as something that could benefit all national park users nationwide. (provided the BLM guy doesn't sell off all the park lands.)

He signed it.  He didn't have anything to do with it otherwise.  It was a political move to help some R senators (Cory Gardner especially).  Let's not pretend for a moment he gives a fuck about national parks. 

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15 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

This is a perception vs reality debate because to the majority of today’s self described conservatives, Reagan is the ideal embodiment of the modern conservative. 

If you’re going to claim Reagan wasn’t conservative, you almost to have to supply a contemporary actual conservative leader to compare him to. 

Donald Trump. 

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5 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Not sure if serious but if you exclude their public facing rhetoric, Trump and Reagan have a lot in common on a policy level.  Trickledown, outrageous spending, law and order, playing to the religious right, appointing far right judges. 

Tell me more 

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10 minutes ago, immamac said:

Tell me more 

Okay, Reagan and Trump were both not knowledgeable guys but masters of perception and media manipulation which is no surprise coming from two men that built their careers on performing in front of a camera.  

Reaganism fundamentally shifted the country so far to the right that the democrats had to adopt much of their brand of neoliberal American exceptionalism just to compete in elections.  

Trump diverges from this a bit because he’s no longer promoting democracy at home or abroad but instead overtly works to undermine it which is something conservatives usually do under the radar. 

Basically, America has been living in the Reagan Era for the last 40 years and we still haven’t escaped it. 

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@everyoneoffended

i am not racist and have used the offending term in multiple non-cloaked forums on this and all precursor sites for more than 15 years with no accusation of racism.

i won't use the term in the cloak room any more because triggered.

in my defense, i have only started hanging out here in the past month after deliberately avoiding it since the beginning.

there are different rules here.  i get that.

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2 minutes ago, ChuckNorrisActionJeans said:

Years ago, I went to a screening at the Alamo Drafthouse of a compilation of old cartoons that can't run anymore because of how racist/inappropriate they came to be viewed.

One of them was "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips" 

carry on

When I saw nips I immediately thought of 

 

image.png.f0e09777b5deddf2119eec010e2b2a37.png

 

ok my immediate thought was like gator’s but my second thought was this

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4 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

@everyoneoffended

i am not racist and have used the offending term in multiple non-cloaked forums on this and all precursor sites for more than 15 years with no accusation of racism.

i won't use the term in the cloak room any more because triggered.

in my defense, i have only started hanging out here in the past month after deliberately avoiding it since the beginning.

there are different rules here.  i get that.

No one is offended. People are calling a spade a spade. Just because you used it on other boards here (perhaps daily texan or football?) and no one called you on it can be as much attributable to that is where a lot of the more right and likely racist posters as THIS place being the problem. it proved nothing. You can probably drop an N bomb at a Trump rally and not get looked at sideways either. What’s your point? 
 
Additionally, citing a fiction book by Neal Stephenson as a source for why it ISNT racist is a stupid defense. Just because the term was widely used by American soldiers and MacArthur at all doesn’t mean it wasn’t/isnt racist.  That it’s ok to call Vietnamese Gooks or Slopes? I mean American GIs did, it must be cool. 
 

you’d have better off just going with the Nipponese being their own name for themselves and you just abbreviated it, but even then that’s a tough row to hoe. Don’t bitch and moan about the CR. It’s wrong. You shouldn’t do it. 

Edited by SydneyCarton
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10 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

No one is offended. People are calling a spade a spade. Just because you used it on other boards here (perhaps daily texan or football?) and no one called you on it can be as much attributable to that is where a lot of the more right and likely racist posters as THIS place being the problem. it proved nothing. You can probably drop an N bomb at a Trump rally and not get looked at sideways either. What’s your point? 
 
Additionally, citing a fiction book by Neal Stephenson as a source for why it ISNT racist is a stupid defense. Just because the term was widely used by American soldiers and MacArthur at all doesn’t mean it wasn’t/isnt racist.  This it’s ok to call Vietnamese Gooks or Slopes? I mean American GIs did, it just be cool. 
 

you’d have better off just going with the Nipponese being their own name for themselves and you just abbreviated it, but even then that’s a tough road to hoe. Don’t bitch and loan about the CR. It’s wrong. You shouldn’t do it. 

Ok now you are just fucking with us

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22 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

No one is offended. People are calling a spade a spade. Just because you used it on other boards here (perhaps daily texan or football?) and no one called you on it can be as much attributable to that is where a lot of the more right and likely racist posters as THIS place being the problem. it proved nothing. You can probably drop an N bomb at a Trump rally and not get looked at sideways either. What’s your point? 
 
Additionally, citing a fiction book by Neal Stephenson as a source for why it ISNT racist is a stupid defense. Just because the term was widely used by American soldiers and MacArthur at all doesn’t mean it wasn’t/isnt racist.  This it’s ok to call Vietnamese Gooks or Slopes? I mean American GIs did, it must be cool. 
 

you’d have better off just going with the Nipponese being their own name for themselves and you just abbreviated it, but even then that’s a tough row to hoe. Don’t bitch and loan about the CR. It’s wrong. You shouldn’t do it. 

whatever, ya triggered libflake

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@everyoneoffended

i am not racist and have used the offending term in multiple non-cloaked forums on this and all precursor sites for more than 15 years with no accusation of racism.

i won't use the term in the cloak room any more because triggered.

in my defense, i have only started hanging out here in the past month after deliberately avoiding it since the beginning.

there are different rules here.  i get that.

 

Jesus, imagine being this much of a thin skinned pussy. No one said you’re a racist. Several pointed out that the term you used is considered a racial slur.

 

How hard is it to admit, “You know, I never knew that context. Didn’t mean anything malicious with it. Apologies and duly noted.”

 

And then move on?

 

Instead you double down. I have no idea why.

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4 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

@everyoneoffended

i am not racist and have used the offending term in multiple non-cloaked forums on this and all precursor sites for more than 15 years with no accusation of racism.

i won't use the term in the cloak room any more because triggered.

in my defense, i have only started hanging out here in the past month after deliberately avoiding it since the beginning.

there are different rules here.  i get that.

Would you call a Japanese person a nip to their face?

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1 minute ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Is jap or nip inherently racist?  It’s only used for the Japanese (nipponese), so isn’t it more like calling a german a kraut or a Brit a limey?

Or an Italian a wop? Or a Jewish person a kike? Or a mexican a beaner or wetback?

 

how about don’t do it? 

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1 minute ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Is jap or nip inherently racist?  It’s only used for the Japanese (nipponese), so isn’t it more like calling a german a kraut or a Brit a limey?

That's like saying calling someone a spick isn't racist because it's only used for Mexicans and not all Latin countries. 

If you wouldn't say it to a person of that race or ethnicity, it's racist and you shouldn't say it. Nip is racist as fuck and saying it is embarrassing and shameful.

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1 minute ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Well it’s obviously derogatory and I wouldn’t do it (pretty sure I never said I would), it was just a semantical question from me. 

That's fair. "Racist" may not be the exact correct term, but it's hateful and prejudiced and bad. It's a slur by any definition.

Edited by BradInATX
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3 hours ago, BradInATX said:

That's fair. "Racist" may not be the exact correct term, but it's hateful and prejudiced and bad. It's a slur by any definition.

So is the word trumpkin.

/not a racist

I FUCKING APOLOGIZE TO EVERYONE OFFENDED

can we please get back to slagging on cheeto?

brad and jimmy were the original offendees so the rest of you please allow them to have the last word and let's get back to important shit like cheeto and firing therm

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55 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

So is the word trumpkin.

/not a racist

I FUCKING APOLOGIZE TO EVERYONE OFFENDED

can we please get back to slagging on cheeto?

brad and jimmy were the original offendees so the rest of you please allow them to have the last word and let's get back to important shit like cheeto and firing therm

This "apology" is about on par with  Trump's denouncement of white nationalism.

You said some racist shit, got called on it, and can't even make a straight apology or even acknowledge that it was inappropriate. Just take your L and move on. It wouldn't even be an issue if you didn't continue to double down and attempt to gaslight the thread into thinking that Jimmy and I are the assholes for rightfully calling it out. 

We all want Trump out but most of us also want hatred and bigotry out and while you may not be a racist, what you said was bigoted and that shit deserves to be called out regardless of whether we're on the same team or not.

"I didn't realize it was considered inappropriate or a racial slur. My bad, I won't use that any more". 

It's really easy.

Edited by BradInATX
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