The Good Post Gallery

[Lief 🗽]

When he's not being purely condescending and intentionally opaque, Al makes great posts like the following:

Because that pretty little chart that has become so absolutely and utterly ubiquitous on the internet does not actually represent any kind of reality. Political parties represent interests, in one way or another, and that's how they win votes (or don't).

[Lief 🗽]

Oakvale is way too good of a poster.

[Lief 🗽]

except for the last paragraph, I hope RomneyUtah is never banned and continues to update long after we're all dead

[Lief 🗽]

Beet's posts in this thread are f'ing fantastic: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=156803.msg3373766#new

[Lief 🗽]

Sometimes it's fun to play video games on the easiest setting.

[Lief 🗽]

Hopefully he'll embrace his Jewish heritage. Also 'economic populism' sucks.

I love this post because it perfectly encapsulates your posting. The latter inflammatory sentence has basically nothing directly to do with anything the topic set out to discuss, but you feel the need to post it, because you super duper want people to notice you're a neoliberal, a term virtually nobody proudly labels themselves with, because it's used almost entirely in the pejorative sense, unless they're trolling or completely oblivious. You are trying way, way too hard.

[Lief 🗽]

So the logic here is that because Ryan's mom is on Medicare, he would never consider cutting it? Let's forget entirely about the fact that these people don't need Medicare, and jump to the track record that refutes this:

• Paul Ryan's family built their contracting business in large part through government contracts to build roads and bridges, yet opposes any plan to rebuild these sorts of infrastructure today in our country using government assistance
• Paul Ryan received Social Security as-is and unlike most beneficiaries, hadn't even paid into the program, yet has supported eliminating its effectiveness and reducing benefits as opposed to raising FICA revenues to make the program solvent
• Paul Ryan attended public school - something his wealthy family chose - yet support massive NDD spending cuts that will eviscerate the Department of Education
• Paul Ryan attended a public college subsidized by state and federal governments via taxpayers, yet support eliminating $170 billion in financial assistance for college students
• Paul Ryan has been in Congress and earning paychecks for the past 14 years - with an expansive health care plan to boot, yet supports revoking access to health care on multiple fronts to tens of millions of Americans

Face it: this guy's been on the government tit since he was born, and is nothing more than the byproduct of redistribution from others. I think at his core, Paul Ryan hates himself for being such a hypocritical welfare queen, just like his idol.

[Lief 🗽]

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=157910.0

Meeker's trolling in this thread is exquisite.

[Lief 🗽]

I'm gonna print this post out, frame it, and put it on my wall:

Pretty much every economic indicator has improved since the end of the recession in mid-2009. Unemployment is down, unemployment claims are down, jobs created are up, corporate earnings are up, total debt is down, the deficit as a percentage of GDP is down, GDP growth is up, credit card and mortgage delinquencies are down, TARP has gone from a $700 billion bailout to $66 billion with a project profit, the banks are in better shape, AIG has turned to no taxpayer loss, Fannie and Freddie have gone from multibillion-dollar quarterly losses to profits, the housing market has bottomed and is turning, the automakers are revived and sales are growing, manufacturing is up, industrial production is up, consumer spending is up, real personal income is up, exports are up, we are more energy independent, and interest rates are down.

Policy is better. The financial system is better regulated, banks are required to have higher capital, more children are covered under health insurance, another estimated 30 million people will be covered by health insurance at no cost to the deficit, standards have been raised for for-profit student loan institutions, numerous successes have been achieved in foreign policy. The only major outstanding policy incomplete is long-term deficit reduction, but there is already an outline for a deal based on the Obama-Boehner agreement of 2011 and/or Simpson/Bowles.

So many predictions haven't come to pass. The predictions of bond market vigilantism from not just the likes of Niall Ferguson but more respected names such as John Taylor back in 2009-- didn't happen. The predictions the economy would never recover without a much deeper liquidation from people like Peter Schiff and Karl Denninger-- didn't happen. The predictions of high inflation-- didn't happen. The predictions of a double-dip recession that seemed to reoccur every season-- didn't happen.

So many disasters have been survived or averted. The Arab Spring. The Japanese tsunami. The euro crisis every season.

The ironic thing about Obama? Back in early 2008, when he was an overrated empty suit with nothing but a couple of corporate slogans that everybody now admits was hollow and false, when he hadn't achieved anything in his life worthy of being his party's Presidential nominee, and much of what he had achieved frankly was aided by a kind of affirmative action, everybody loved him, he walked on water, he could do no wrong. But after 3.5 years of actually working so hard and achieving so much good substantively for this country, it seems that a lot of swing and moderate voters aren't impressed at all. They loved him when they should have hated him and they hate him when they should at least recognize that he turned this country around, even if we're still travelling too slowly.

"Disappointing." Sigh. In the end, that's what it all comes down to. "Disappointing." Life may not be fair, but you sure wish it was.

[Lief 🗽]

The rhetoric of reform applied to an agenda of destruction is at the heart of the neo-liberal project.

[Lief 🗽]

In all the areas where it isn't doing as well (low aggregate demand, income inequality, poverty, full employment, poor infrastructure) are areas that Democrats have been saying are problems for decades, even though Democrats have been constrained by things like the overton window and the GOP from doing very much about it. In all the areas where it is doing well, they're areas that Republicans have said for decades are the standard-bearer of a good economy: low taxes, thriving companies, wealth for the rich "job creators", low CPI inflation, cutting government spending and employment, cutting union membership and power. Republicans are in the strange position of trying to denigrate an economy where the most potent chief complaints are those coming from the left of the Democratic Party.

[Lief 🗽]

Glad I'm not the only one that loves super corrupt and "unlikeable" Democrats. They're some of my favorite politicians!

[Lief 🗽]

I do not need to do this. I am voting for one of His followers and chosen representatives on Earth over the follower of a false prophet and false church and his atheist-worshipping running mate.

[Lief 🗽]

No, I only recognize good posts when I see them.

[Lief 🗽]

Bravo BRTD! The last two lines especially.

And for the record, McCain has really done nothing in service to the US. He fought to defend a fascist regime that in no way benefited US interests and simply bloated and benefited the military-industrial complex, was imprisoned by an enemy of that regime for several years, and then used a political career rife with corruption to benefit individuals like Charles Keating, attention whored the hell out of his limelight for a couple years just because he managed to lose to an even worse human being in the GOP primary, in his own campaign picked someone as his running mate that basically forever destroys his credibility on stating if someone is qualified for ANYTHING, lost, and then pandered to the far right to survive a primary challenge only to end up a standard backbencher tool of the GOP leadership. He is nothing more than a bitter washed up old man. Obama appointing Rice and getting her through would be another fantastic showing of his superiority over McCain and how McCain can't ever beat him. Obama beat him in 2008 and should use every opportunity to beat him as much as possible from here on.

[Lief 🗽]

Maher seems to like him, so he can't be that bad.

Bill Maher liking somebody is a liability, not an asset.

If someone can provide me with a reason not to like Bill Maher other than "he's an a-hole", I'd love to here it.  He's insanely rational and logical and tends to come out on the right side of every issue. 

Believing that vaccines cause autism is neither rational nor logical.

[Lief 🗽]

I never really got how people elevate "constitutional" to the level of a moral imperative.  In what system of ethics does a very murky question of law affect whether or not something was right or wrong?  I get so weary of seeing people flog the Constitution in political debates as some kind of moral stance, when they're using it to conceal their support for truly vile institutions like segregation.

Alternately, "Stop quoting laws to us, we carry swords."  -Pompey the Great

[Lief 🗽]

I can't say I feel bad about this. Sounds like good news.

You're disgusting.

Cheering the news that a dictator has fallen ill and might not longer be in power is horrible now?

Chavez is a democratically elected president in a country where the opposition controls most of the media. His governing style may be authoritarian, but he is not a dictator.

Thanks.  I needed a good laugh.

You have no reason to laugh.
 
Its a fact that the government controls only 5% of the TV channels. The rest are overwhelmingly owned by a few Venezuelan upper class families that hates Chavez. Its true that they have to show some of his speeches and other government propaganda, but it is just 24 minutes a day on average and only the "true believers" watch that stuff.

Newspapers are also controlled by the Venezuelan upper class. In radio its more even, because there is a number of local radio stations run by cooperatives that supports Chavez. I would still say its 60/40 in favour of the opposition.
 
But TV is what matters in Venezuelan and its dominated by very Conservative capital interests and are highly critical towards Chavez.

About the TV market situation:

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/who-dominates-the-media-in-venezuela 

[Lief 🗽]

The old theological debates between jmfcst and supersoulty were the best.

Thank you, angus, for revealing the futility of this thread, or the discussion of any 'favorites of the forum' or even discussion of the quality of the forum in general - because the forum is a shadow of its former self.

Yes, there are still worthies here in shadow form, but after one of the pantheon was ripped out for nothing - just to demonstrate the power - well, here we all are.  Sad days.

rip jfcmts

[Lief 🗽]

cool righteous indignation bros

[Lief 🗽]

Mr Lief, there is an inksing huge difference between "contrary opinions" and this kind of bullinks:

It's a good thing this country prioritizes low taxes and the rights of paranoid rednecks over mental healthcare and gun control.

Is there? Most opinions on this site that are contrary to my own seem like bullinks to me, but you don't see me making a whiny thread about, complaining that I'm a persecuted victim, and then running away like a baby.

I'll admit, you're right on this one. Instead, we get to see you deride and call for the figurative crucifixion of anyone who disagrees with you. It's much better, see.

Who do I deride and figuratively crucify? Is he still mad because I suggested that Oldiesfreak was a bigot because he called Janet Napolitano and Tammy Baldwin "space bikers"?

If someone is using homophobic or racist language, I'm going to call them out on it. If I use that sort of language, I'd hope people do the same.

[Lief 🗽]

You didn't seem to like it that much when you were called out on wishing the death of Jews.

Ah, there's Mr. Strawman, barging into the thread right on cue.

[Lief 🗽]

Porn is a horrible curse and so are functioning libidos.

Haha, it is testimony to the prudishness of this forum that one cannot be certain you are joking here.

[Lief 🗽]

but people should have a bit more compassion.

Yes, Thatcher's lack of compassion was an awful thing. Led directly to the wrecking of countless lives.

[Lief 🗽]

Came here to post that! Great post.