The Simple Truths Silver Mine

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Quick, think of a famous zinger with which Bill Clinton humiliated his debate opponent.

For that matter, think of any famous Bill Clinton quote other than "I didn't inhale," "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," or "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is."

No cheating.

....

Ronald Reagan is objectively the superior politician of the two. Moving past notable and quotable moments, Reagan won two of the largest landslides in American history while moving his party away from the center, while Clinton won two slightly-above-average victories while moving his party toward the center. He also for a time governed in so tone-deaf a manner that his party lost huge majorities in both houses of Congress for the first time in 42 years, and never regained them both until 6 years after his presidency ended. It's hard to imagine a hypothetical Democratic Reagan making such a mistake.

Reagan got his transformative tax cuts and military buildup through Tip O'Neill's House, while conceding little other than not cutting spending as deeply as he wanted, while Clinton got no significant left-wing legislation past Newt Gingrich's much smaller majority that I can think of, and everything that did go through was legislation on which his administration agreed with the GOP, and/or compromised with or made concessions to them.

Also, not to state the obvious, but Reagan was faithful to his wife and never sexually harassed anyone.

This is not to say Clinton is a poor politician. Nobody becomes President who is a poor politician, and Clinton is well above-average even by Presidential standards. It's just that Reagan was one of the most skillful and natural politicians who has ever lived, and so virtually anyone would come up short compared to him. To say otherwise is to either be pretty hackish or to betray your second-half-of-the-1990s birthdate.

[IceSpear]

Mondale, a true patriot cut down by that treacherous dog, Reagan. 

Me: Dole

Being progressive means not aligning with joke parties who nominate idiots like Cynthia McKinney. 

[Mechaman]

I love all the turds in this thread going on about how being a 'poor' county qualifies it for being one of the worst counties or the worst counties in the country. I would personally say that the worst county is the country is whichever has the highest median income, because that would have the highest concentration of useless social parasites in need of a play date with the National Razor.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Well, to be fair to SAP (which is not something I'm not very fond of being) the centre-left is 16 seats short of a majority, so it's not as if they have very much of a choice at this point.  

That's the pragmatic and careful approach - and Löfven is a very pragmatic and careful man, but there is the alternative of promoting your own policy and letting the opposition shoot it down, giving them the responsibility for a political stalemare and then taking things to the voters.
Also, in this scenario SD would be forced to either back the governments socioeconomic policies or be identified as economic right wingers, which would harm them.

So its not as if SAP had no choice, they just chose the way all SocDems in Europe seem to choose these days.

I may be biased by having the Danish experience in my mind, where our SocDems clearly messed up by going down the path of accommodation and "bourgeoisation" (probably not a word in English.. ), but I think SAP made the wrong call on this one. Sometimes its better to fight than to be pragmatic - still I know Swedish voters love pragmatism, so maybe it will work in Sweden.

[traininthedistance]

Everyone wants a different third party, though.

[traininthedistance]

I don't put people ignore. That sort of goes against the point of this forum.

[dead0man]

I love all the turds in this thread going on about how being a 'poor' county qualifies it for being one of the worst counties or the worst counties in the country. I would personally say that the worst county is the country is whichever has the highest median income, because that would have the highest concentration of useless social parasites in need of a play date with the National Razor.

[IceSpear]

We already have a centrist party. They're called Democrats.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Actually, I though he accused us of seeing him as "less than normal society."  I see him mainly as an attention whore, which around here is normal society.

Of course, he does take whoring to the next level.  With most folks it's just "By the way, I'm gay, please take a moment to respond to my gay poll" or "hey guys, I'm taking time off the forum because I'm suicidally depressed, please discuss with maps" or "hey guys, I got a lap dance from a stripper who goes to my hipster church; has this every happened to any of you?" rather than a detailed description of every meal and every interpersonal interaction each and every day.

[Paul Kemp]

Er... The Godfather, obviously. Jesus people, what's wrong with you?

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Any job that pays less than $500 per 40-hour work week is effectively slave labor. #fact

[courts]

In fairness, this thread is more symptomatic of rather than a cause of the economics boards general crappiness.

Yes. The state of the board is generally tragic. About a fifty-fifty split between awful think pieces and things like WHAT IF WE ABOLISHED JOBS.

[Paul Kemp]

It seems to me that the more acerbic the moderator the better they are at moderating.

[politicus]

It seems to me that the more acerbic the moderator the better they are at moderating.

BS

[Paul Kemp]

It seems to me that the more acerbic the moderator the better they are at moderating.

BS

Beautifully Said?

[memphis]

On top of what everyone else has been saying... beer!  The proliferation of small breweries has led the quality of beer in general to go up in many countries.  Talking about a "good American beer" is no longer an oxymoron.

This is true for food as well. Even a medium sized city like Memphis will now how countless good restaurants with food from all over the world.

[Maxwell]

Personally I'm not big on the whole "drunk sex=rape" thing. Now if you get someone drunk to have sex with you, that's one thing, but if you're both drunk and you both decide to go at it, that's not rape. To quote an article in Time Magazine, "I'm not as concerned for my daughter being assaulted on a college campus as I am for my son having his life ruined when he has sex after a party."

I think that's just an argument based on the ambiguity with the word drunk.  There's drunk and there's drunk, right.  I think a reasonable interpretation would be intoxicated to the point where you can't truly consent.  So, being tipsy is obviously not drunk for these purposes.  Unable to stand up, slurring your words, being unresponsive, vomiting, eyes glazed over, that's drunk and no decent person would accidentally have sex with someone in that position.  A person with a moral compass takes care of that person, makes sure they drink some water and potentially seeks medical attention for them.

So, there is no mutual drunk sex by that definition.  Just think about when you've been seriously, blind drunk.  You're in no shape to have sex, the only physical urge you have is to void the contents of your stomach and get the room to stop spinning. 

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I don't think Bushie can go in and quit tomorrow. I'm pretty sure he'll be greeted at his desk by his boss and let go. I don't even know if they'll have a "talk." I think his boss is just fed up with his performance and didn't even want to wait until November 1st.

[IceSpear]

All of the sudden, Oklahoma is in the news and not in the way we want.

Is it ever?

[politicus]

moving from place to place and job to job, often with addictions that drain their money

That sounds exactly like everybody in the United States.

In thread about sociopaths.

Obviously not a 100% true if taken literally, but still pretty accurate.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

We have a third party in the U.S. It's called "not voting."

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Just wondering, but what exactly is so different about supporting protectionism now, and supporting it then?

Maybe nothing on a "left-right" scale, but it was a decidedly pro-business policy back then when the US was still a developing/emerging economy and the world economic environment was very different than it is today.  Today, you won't see many business leaders calling for higher tariffs, as they no longer benefit from them.  There's a reason the GOP dropped a protective tariff like a rock mid-20th Century.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I respect the movie for its technology and film-craft... but otherwise I find it generally insufferable.

This; Gone With the Wind is a mysogenistic and extremely racist film.  It is one of the two chief embodiments of Hollywood's historical romanticization of the Confederacy.  It is a "great" film in the way that Birth of a Nation or Triumph of the Will are sometimes referred to as "great" films.  Like those films it was a remarkable accomplishment in a technical/filmcraft sense, but (also like those films) it was also propaganda for a fundamentally evil societal system.

This is true, but that doesn't make it worth not seeing.

[Lief 🗽]

oldies stop trolling

[King]

At least Oldies finally put a one liner he likes where it belongs and not in the Good Post Gallery.