The Virginia Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of High-Quality Posts

[Badger]

^odd definition of "high quality" there.

Yeah, while I am genuinely flattered, Antonio, if anything this might belong in the sulfur burn mine. I wouldn't Sully this honorable thread by including my lashing out dash dash no matter how justifiably dash dash at Sanchez.

Though admittedly, after we reading this I have to concede I do good work when angered.

[Badger]

Obama didn't use his brief chance to pass a major infrastructural revival and this is the end result.

He pushed Obamacare first.

The Trump agenda is privatization to monopolistic profiteers in return for what in many cases might best be described as maintenance.

The stimulus came first, and it only had about $100 billion for infrastructure and science out of a total cost of over $800 billion, with actual transportation infrastructure at about $48 billion. We knew since the mid-00's that our nation needed at least $1 trillion in infrastructure spending to repair or replace everything. This was the case of Democrats being too timid, thinking that if they kept the cost of the stimulus down then they'd get less public backlash. They should have realized that you either go big or go home. If you're going to do a big spending bill, then do a really big one and get everything you need, because it will be less likely you get another chance. And by doing a smaller bill, it ends up being less effective at getting the economy going. They passed the stimulus in Feb. 2009 and other than a few months in spring 2010 due to census hiring, we still had monthly job losses in Sept. 2010. So with an unemployment rate of 9.8% in Nov. 2010 and the ugly fight to pass Obamacare they got destroyed in the midterms.

Wow. A really good post from jeffster. Who knew?

[Badger]

I'm a pre-med student right now and were single payer to pass my career would be over before it starts. Liberals have to realize that healthcare is somebody's labor and you are never entitled to somebody else's labor (slavery) doctors and nurses are overworked as it is and healthcare is 16% of the economy. All those jobs in the insurance industry would be destroyed and people will be out of work (probably what democrats want). I understand some people can't afford it, but why should they be entitled to care on the backs of people who already busy their asses taking care of their own families. Despite the feel good high school musical "were all in this together" mentality of most liberals, sorry we're really not. I have my own family and friends to worry about and I'm sorry, but I'm not concerned for someone who isn't a part of my life.

Your "career will be over" if we move to a watered down Canadian style system? Dramatic much? Are you under the impression that there aren't any doctors in Canada?

The big issue i have is I want to be a doctor who works with individual patients. I do not want the government running my work place, and effectively making me a government worker. If i wanted to do that i would'nt be busting my ass for pre-med and med school in the fall. We already have a single payer type system here. The VA. The VA is an absolute disaster which shows exactly what government run healthcare does to people. Veterans died on the waiting lists, and nobody is held accountable. Our system right now int perfect but we dont have the ridiculous waits that people in other countries have, which is why we have a big medical tourism industry in America. I for instance have been diagnosed with skin cancer twice and i was able to get it treated on the spot with no wait. In other countries, who knows, it couldve eveolved into melanoma before the bureaucracy got around to it. People from Canada, Asia, and Europe come here for procedures that they would otherwise need to wait in some cases several years for. Additionally, if you put the government in charge of the medical system, they will be able to step in and make decisions for the doctors and the patients, not allowing them to make their own. See the recent story of the 10 month old baby in England whose parents raised over a million dollars to bring him to the United States for a potentially life saving expirimental treatment. The NHS stepped in and refused on the grounds that it would cause the child to suffer, and they are pulling life support either today or tomorrow. For the government to not allow parents to make one desperate attempt to come to the US and save their child's life is disgusting.

Wulfric, you should be ashamed for posting that pile of nonsensical talking point goat droppings in this hallowed hall.

Bad! Bad weirdo moderate hero!!

[Badger]

I wouldn't necessarily think that the "better economics -> better racial relations" argument would apply at all to year-to-year changes - or even to those who are already fully grown and developed. I think if there is an argument to be made there, it relates more to a sustained economic effort that eliminates negative racial, ethnic or other types of sentiment from forming and hardening in those who come of age after the fact. In effect, it would take multiple generations.

For instance (in the context of this argument), the Civil Rights Era wouldn't have blossomed in the way it did because a bunch of 40, 50 and 60-somethings at the time benefited from the New Deal over 20-30 years and likewise suddenly changed their minds: it would have happened because those being raised and coming of age in the 1940s and 1950s had far more opportunity and were less likely to blame others for their malaise.

[Badger]

The war against improving the standard of living outside the cosmopolitan major urban areas, waged by socially liberal laissez-faire capitalists (or corporatists) that views Everytown, USA as a blighted uncultured wasteland because they don't have a mosque or tax breaks for tech start ups or a tesla charging station or whatever - thus deserving to fall into ruin and drug addiction.

Bernie derangement syndrome is real on this board because the wealthier members resent being called the villains of society, and this board skews wealthy.

Yeah, that's a damn good post indeed.

[Badger]

From the "What's the worst effects of the (Trump tax cut)" Thread:

The biggest negatives are:

1) It will make more effective varieties of fiscal stimulus politically harder to enact, because it successfully bamboozles people such as yourself into thinking that it implies anything whatsoever about Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid.

2) It increases inequality even more, especially by increasing profits relative to wages - property income is less equally distributed than wage income, so increasing corporate profits increases inequality by more even than simply just reducing marginal income tax rates in brackets.

3) Corporations will use most of the additional profits in order to buy back their own stock shares, and also to increase dividend distributions which will mostly be re-invested by share-owners, thus having the same general effect as stock share buy-backs. As far as the stock buy backs go, although in the short term this is a good thing because it helps to inflate asset prices and thereby promote bubblish tendencies in financial asset markets, in the long term this is a bad thing because... it helps to inflate asset prices and thereby promote bubblish tendencies financial asset markets... What makes this worse is that in the short term, since corporate profits do actually go up, it seems initially like expectations of higher profits that seem to justify higher asset prices are being fulfilled. This increases the confidence of investors in financial markets, drives them to take more risk, and pushes up asset prices further. Again, this is good for the economy in the short term, because it promotes bubblish tendencies, but bad in the long term, because it promotes bubblish tendencies. As far as the increased dividend distributions that corporations will make are concerned, see point 2. To a significant extent, since even the income tax reduction portions are geared towards high income earners, a significant portion of the extra after-tax income will go towards purchasing and re-purchasing additional financial assets, thus also tending to further inflate asset prices.

4) To the limited extent that it helps the economy, it also increases greenhouse gas emissions and further damages the environment. This is not a contradiction with recognizing that it is (slightly) beneficial to the economy; it can simultaneously be good for the economy when the economy does better in economic terms, but also bad for the environment when the economy does better in environmental terms. That is a trade-off we have to simply have to live with as long as we don't have a major sea change in attitudes and major reforms towards making the economy more 'green.'

5) Since the US has slashed corporate tax rates, this creates pressure on the rest of the world to likewise slash corporate tax rates so as to 'compete,' thereby promoting similar problems in the rest of the world as well. Corporate tax rates are already lower in many of these countries than in the US.



The biggest positive is:

1) It will have a small positive impact on economic growth, not by increasing corporate investment (investment is caused by sales, not profits - profits are likewise caused by sales, so the causation runs from sales to both investment and profits, not from profits to investment and sales), but rather by increasing the disposable income of the very-well-off, and thereby increasing demand for things such as yachts, private jets, and gold-plated toilets, thereby creating some additional jobs in the yacht, private jet, and gold-plated toilets and industries.

[Badger]

This sort of argument is something folks don't know to be true, but because folks like to repeat this mantra to others, it feels like the truth.

I am a public employee.  I won't discuss what I do online, but I will tell you that folks crassly disrespect me when they call me and my peers "Bureaucrats".  That term is, in fact, a vicious slur against folks who are public employees.

Folks who chose public employment DO get good pensions.  They get them because (A) they often have had to adhere to a higher standard of personal conduct than those in the "private sector", and (B) they understood that they would not be getting rich on the public dime.  (I've only received two (2) one-thousand dollar a year raises in over 10 years, except for when I was promoted in 2016.)    We traded other opportunities for promised stability, and most public employees perform functions that are necessary for the stability of a middle class society, but cannot be profitably delivered by the private sector  And there are some occupations that, as a matter of morality, should be delivered ONLY by the public sector.  The next time you here of a lobbyist for a Private Prison company urging legislators to pass bills involving longer sentences and more minimum mandatories, upgrading misdemeanors to felonies, remember this post and think about whether this is an issue public safety or private greed.

Much of the folks who attack public employees resent their security (which is not what it used to be; pols are always jerking us around, threatening budget cuts, etc.).  These are the same folks that cry foul when someone here would point out the ratio of a CEO's pay to his employees.  They act as if there is no social contract that is involved here, but I remember my first week on my present job (decades ago, now), my employer sold the job with the explicit promise of long-term stability.  What saddens me about so many of my fellow blue avatars here is that they wish my employer to have greater latitude in dealing with me capriciously and unjustly.  (Fortunately, I do have a union, of which I am a dues-paying member.)

I've called the left out on their Chicken Little cries of "racism" and such.  Now I'll call the right out.  Just exactly what are these egregious examples of "incompetance" that mandate changing the rules on this matter?  Just who are these "bureaucrats" that are incompetant; indeed, what is a "bureaucrat"?  If "bureaucrat" is a job description, and not a slur, just exactly what does the job of "bureaucrat" entail, and how can one be incompetant at it?  I really want to hear answers on this from those here who seem to resent the very ideas of public employees.

Speaking as someone who spent almost two decades in public service with my law degree until 2 years ago, this whole post cannot be embraced enough.

[Badger]

The IG report confirms what we already knew from the Rosenstein memo. Comey, a hedge fund multimillionaire with a grudge against the Clintons going back to the early 2000s, a max McCain/Romney donor, a man photographed with a Trump sign on his front yard, an agent of the taxpayers, a government official in charge of the nation's highest law enforcement agency, in a breathtaking and unprecedented departure from his own's agency's practice, insubordination of his superiors, dramatically tipped the scales of a national presidential elections in the last 11 days.

Trump was right to fire him.

He deserved to be fired, but let's not kid ourselves that any of these things had the slightest bit to do with his dismissal. If anything, these factors helped him keep his job. The sole reason Trump despicably let him go is that Coney, to his one bit of credit, stood firm and wouldn't play Patsy Waterboy for Trump.

[Badger]

Guys, although I at times hijacked threads as well, kindly take it somewhere else. Okay?

[Badger]

The Democratic party must become staunchly pro-coal, firmly and openly denouncing anti-coal individuals as deplorable in the party platform and in TV Ads. Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, and Joe Biden must also make a joint address on National Television in which they profusely apologize for being anti-coal, beg for forgiveness, and then become unmistakably pro-coal.

Wulfric, did you seriously just quote yourself in the high quality posts thread?

Yes. I truly find my own posts amazing sometimes.

That is amazing wulfric. Truly amazing.

[Badger]

It's a shame protesters couldn't be bothered to behave more like humans, and less like animals. Such as when one of the guys in our group was punched by a protester (she was arrested, and he plans to press charges), and another group of protesters that blocked our path to Jeff Flake's office and screaming "Traitors to women, traitors to history, traitors to humanity".

wow, FF! sad she only got one of y'all

You'd have to be a pretty scummy person to wish that people you disagree with are assaulted for simply exercising their constitutional rights. I'm not even angry that you hold those views, I feel sorry that you feel the need to act like every other edgy internet socialist to feel better about yourself. 

you have this weird trait of attempting to psychoanalyze people who disagree with you. it's not particularly charming or effective and really ought to be left to trained professionals.

if i may indulge in a bit of it in return, it's indicative of an extremely limited worldview wherein people who disagree with you must be defective in some way -- seeking validation, mentally ill, whatever other label you like to throw around ("subhuman," perhaps!). you simply cannot come to grips with the idea that someone might disagree with you, perhaps even vehemently, on any sort of legitimate grounds. personally, would recommend getting outside for a bit and talking to your neighbors for half an hour. i think it'd do you a world of good.

anyway, cath is right -- i believe that you are promoting an effort (is aiding and abetting too edgy?) to inflict mass violence of vast swaths of the american (and by extension global) public, which i view as morally abhorrent. you cloak your violence in the tools of the state and excuse it with the framework of "constitutional rights," which is fine, and typically enough to persuade most liberals that you are "in the moral right" in some sense, insert Voltaire quote here. i'm not particularly persuaded by that framing and, in the broader scheme of things, am not interested in condemning one of the victims of the violence you are promoting for attempting to hit back. after all, isn't self-defense against an unjust state what you people are all about?

(edit: deleted bc i'm trying to get off this place, not bc i don't stand by it)

Damn, what a post.

[Badger]

Post of the month.

I honestly can't believe people buy the Ford accusations. It was the biggest gaslighting effort in ages and completely insincere, only aimed at partisan goals: slowing down the process in order to make sure Democrats win back the Senate before Kavanaugh could be confirmed. Casting doubt and creating smokescreens for no real reason other than pure partisanship. And it is Democrats who should be ashamed of this, not Republicans. Just like Republicans should be ashamed of not organizing hearings for Merrick Garland.

No, I don't view a testimony as "evidence" in itself, polygraphs are not very reliable, there are holes in Ford's testimony, I don't think Kavanaugh liking beer is a problem, I also don't think Kavanaugh downplaying him liking beer during what is essentially a job interview is a problem, and obviously one can find enough people seconding your story once a SCOTUS nominee of a party disliked in your social circles can be taken down.

I don't know anything about the accusations by people other than Ford, and am not particularly interested in learning more about them. They should have gone to court before if they had a problem with him. End of the story.

In the abhorrent crappy posts by people utterly lacking a clue contest, yes it's a hands-down winner.

[Badger]

The burgeoning Raleigh/Charlotte suburbs will destroy Trump in NC if he makes it to 2020.

You have to keep in mind that the Raleigh/Charlotte suburbs are Southern. These suburbs will never vote Democrat because despite the delusions of some here they are very, very INELASTIC.

Not sure how this qualifies for the Wellspring of ignorance thread. While it might be debatable, and I certainly don't claim to be an expert on the politics of suburban Charlotte, isn't it something of a given that southern suburbs are markedly, dramatically more conservative and Republican than Northern suburbs? There was some change in that in the last two elections, but comparing most southern suburbs with say Suburban Philadelphia, Oregon suburban Chicago, are two dramatically different things.

Again, more than willing to be educated about the on ground realities of Mecklenburg County politics if anyone can offer a knowledgeable first-hand perspective.

[Badger]

The burgeoning Raleigh/Charlotte suburbs will destroy Trump in NC if he makes it to 2020.

You have to keep in mind that the Raleigh/Charlotte suburbs are Southern. These suburbs will never vote Democrat because despite the delusions of some here they are very, very INELASTIC.

Not sure how this qualifies for the Wellspring of ignorance thread. While it might be debatable, and I certainly don't claim to be an expert on the politics of suburban Charlotte, isn't it something of a given that southern suburbs are markedly, dramatically more conservative and Republican than Northern suburbs? There was some change in that in the last two elections, but comparing most southern suburbs with say Suburban Philadelphia, Oregon suburban Chicago, are two dramatically different things.

Again, more than willing to be educated about the on ground realities of Mecklenburg County politics if anyone can offer a knowledgeable first-hand perspective.

It's truly incredible how completely oblivious to sarcasm Atlas users can be sometimes.

The written word can be deceiving on nuance. Based on only this two post snipet from the thread, it was not possible to realistically detect sarcasm.

Fwiw looking at the original thread now, it appears others didn't detect your sarcasm either.

But hey, I'm still interested in learning whether the Mecklenburg County suburbs actually have some elasticity to them.

[Badger]

Dear God, there's so much wrong with this post that I don't even know where to begin.

1. Greenhouse gas emissions and particle pollution are not the same thing. The Paris climate accord dealt with the former, this infographic deals with the latter. It's quite pathetic that you don't know the difference.

2. Madagascar most definitely doesn't contribute as much to environmental chaos as the US does. This may come as a shock to you, seeing as I'd be surprised if you had ever seen a globe, but the US is significantly larger, more industrialized, and more populous than Madagascar. While Madagascar's cities may be more polluted on average, the US contributes significantly more toward the total amount of pollution in the world. And, by the way, the US pumps out 17 times more greenhouse gases per capita than Madagascar. The US has among the highest rates of per capita greenhouse gas emissions in the world. It's absurd to suggest that we're somehow not responsible for the ongoing climate crisis.

3. Other countries are held to the same standard. That's literally what the Paris agreement did before our dimwit in chief pulled out of it. You say we need to enforce climate regulations around the world, yet you disparage one of the only major, commendable steps we made in that fight.

In summation, my opinion of your contributions to this website has sunk even lower. I'm disappointed that I was forced to read this bucket of ignorant slop and I'm disappointed that I was forced to waste my time educating a grown man on basic vocabulary. Please try to do better.

CC The Burn Ward thread

[Badger]

Hillary supporters essentially elected Trump by knowingly supporting an unelectable candidate whose policies caused millions to die.

In a way they are closet racists or atleast responsible for most of Trump's policies. At the very least they should apologize for enabling murder & racism.

The garbage post thread is that way.

[Badger]

Yes, we would. That's the difference between us and the so-called party of personal responsibility.

I'll hold you to that once the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut's investigation into the origins of the Russia probe are complete, too.

And I'm sure that you wouldn't want to get bogged down in a debate about impeachment as you call it. That would just prove that you are Republican first and American second. And you're crying and whining and moaning and simpering about but the Democrats would do it to just makes you seem pathetic. Pathetic.

This whole idea that if you oppose impeachment you're not an American is pure, unadulterated BS. Sorry. This isn't a dictatorship where anything but the Badger way (a.k.a. the Democratic party way) is "un-American." Funny how dissent from the Democratic party line is never "patriotic" - but "un-American" or racist or some other ist, and Republicans can't be Americans, too.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!

[Badger]

yeah, the PRC and USA are pretty much the exact same when it comes to censorship <biggest rolleyes in the world>


The only question left now is:are you lying or are you stupid?  Maybe some combination of the two?

Lol, be as snarky as you want from your isolated little corner of the world. The point of this thread is evidently just to further the perception of ignorant Americans who know nothing of the rest of the world that China and many other places across the world really are some terrifying totalitarian regimes where people are getting run over by tanks for playing some silly game.

I'd make many real criticisms of the Chinese government just as I would of the United States. But rather than sitting and complaining about things beyond my scope of knowledge or experience on the internet, I have actually helped people get access to uncensored information.

And, none of that's illegal by the way. Western media would have you think people are getting cops at their house for posting Winnie the Pooh gifs on WeChat. That's simply not the case, and there are just as many ignorant people in China with similar views about life in the West. VPNs are legal. Educated Chinese people are on average pretty well informed about Western culture and viewpoints. The same for educated Westerners and Chinese discourse is not the case whatsoever.

Ok. Let's have a talk about what I, as an "ignorant American," know of the Chinese government. I mean, you're right. I have never lived in China and my experiences with the CCP's rule are limited. All I can really rely on are my friends from China, or my other friends who've actually been there and experienced the CCP firsthand.

My girlfriend was born in China and spent the first 15 years of her life there. Her school taught revisionist history and fired teachers who went off-script from the CCP's narrative of Chinese history. Her parents are not party members, so they are occasionally forced to go to Marxist reading sessions to ensure that they are not subversives. When her grandparents were growing up during the Cultural Revolution, they were forced to kill their own teacher. We use WeChat to talk to one another, but I have found my account deactivated whenever I send her something that even vaguely criticizes or makes fun of the CCP. I have to be careful about what I send her because I don't want her to be harassed by government officials when she goes home to visit her parents.

My roommate in my Junior year of college was a Chinese exchange student; he became one of my closest friends and we still keep in contact. Though I liked him a lot, he was completely brainwashed by the CCP and followed the party line lockstep. He genuinely believed that nobody but Xi Jinping could possibly do the job of leading China, and that nobody else wanted the job anyway. He routinely used tired arguments of cultural relativism to explain away the differences between our systems, even as he showed genuine fear when we discussed things that the CCP would rather we didn't talk about. This included Tiananmen Square, the crimes of Mao, and Deng Xiaoping's reforms-- he insisted on calling China's system "Communism with Chinese aspects" despite all evidence to the contrary, because it was what he'd been told from birth. His mixture of blind loyalty and subconscious paranoia is pretty much par for the course for those living in a surveillance state. He, like other victims of authoritarian regimes around the world, is in serious need of psychological help.

My other roommate during Junior year went to Hong Kong during the protests last summer. He saw protesters getting beaten, gassed, and arrested for trying to preserve a semblance of democracy in their city. The Hong Kong police are not officially part of the CCP, but they do its bidding, and they engaged in absolutely brutal tactics to quell the protesters. The extradition law was 100% the product of mainland meddling in Hong Kong, and sadly the strong response to it will probably only end up postponing the inevitable.

So no, I don't know everything about the CCP... but I've heard enough to make a judgement. The Communist Party of China is an evil organization that has subjugated and attempted to brainwash a great nation-- a nation that deserves far, far better than the leaders they have right now. The CCP has tried to keep the populace placated through vague platitudes, historical scrubbing, and GDP growth (the product, of course, of pro-market reforms). However, it will not last forever. The Party has built itself up as a benevolent power that genuinely wants the best for the Chinese people. It has expertly used the humiliations suffered by China in the past as a springboard to create national unity and a sense of collective sacrifice. In doing so, it has assumed paternalistic responsibility over its citizens, claiming credit for their higher standard of living and powerhouse economy. But the good times will have to end someday (they may even be ending now), and when that happens, the veil will be lifted. In a democracy, there are built-in mechanisms to cope with social upheaval and dissatisfaction with the government. In a country like China, the only available mechanism is revolution. I sincerely hope I live to see that day come. The Communist Party must be destroyed if China is to flourish.

Stop playing apologist for a regime that is currently engaged in a literal genocide and start engaging with reality. You might like it.

cc: Sulfer mine burn thread

[Badger]

They are using unmarked cars because the Mobs in the streets are attacking and vandalizing police cars.  It's an appropriate tactic in the face of a lawless, Marxist mob.

People have committed crimes during the violence in major cities.  Those who have need to face the criminal penalties for these acts.  The hysteria is deception, and is a means the left is using to assist the Marxist Rioters guilty of crimes to avoid prosecution.  I'm very definitely not OK with that.  These people are not peaceful protesters; they are persons committing crimes.  And the municipalities where they are committing these crimes are simply not enforcing the law.  Why taxpayers and ordinary citizens should be OK with that is beyond me.

The sh**tpost thread is that way.

[Badger]

I don’t know what’s sadder to watch, OSR go all “notice me senpai” for Sanchez or Fuzzy white knighting for Reaganfan

Blue avatars on this site have a mentality that they’re all being targeted and therefore when one goes down for being a racist or whatever, they all take it as an attack. A lot of the blue avatars here are good posters, not racist, not like the outliers mentioned in this thread. But much like IRL Republicans, they stick together and only walk as fast as their slowest member. If Reaganfan is banned for violating the ToS because he could not stop being racist, the others must flock to his defense because they’re worried that they’ll be next. Never mind the fact that, you know, as long as you don’t say racist sh*t you won’t get banned no matter what your ideology is.

This is a really really good analysis, not only have Republicans and conservatives on this forum, but all across America. Seriously insightful. It totally explains Trump derangement syndrome on the right.

[Badger]

F

In the Soviet Union there were no homeless people, science was prospering, no mass migration from the Soviet Republics due to Moscow giving subsidies to less fortunate republics and kept developing their infrastructure, everyone was treated as equals, no drugs and HIV epidemic, Soviet engineering was the envy of the world, elders got respectful pensions, everyone had jobs, no wars & conflicts inside the state, their army wasn't filled with psychopaths hazing new recruits, etc.

I'm not sure which bewilders me the most. That's sir Woodbury of all people would make a post defending communism, that even he could be so incredibly wrong about every factual allegation made therein, or that anyone actually thought this post somehow worthy of being entered in this thread.

[Badger]

cc Burn Thread

I've never had any respect for people who call themselves "libertarians" but vote Republican.

Dude... You can be a libertarian, not believe any of the nuttery that was asked in the poll, and still vote Republican for a multitude of other reasons, as I have done before. It has to do with the weighting and importance of certain issues. I guess you have no respect for me, somebody who agrees with you on almost every issue. I know many libertarians, yes real libertarians, that voted for Trump for real reasons (namely the authoritarian lockdown policies advocated by the Democrats, which you seem to not talk about to get popularity by the red avatars). This kind of self-righteousness is toxic and disgusting, and it's very unfortunate that a "true libertarian" like yourself is engaging in it, but it is likely that I'll be attacked viciously for even saying this.

So let me get this straight: We have a president who orchestrated a (failed) fascist coup by marching his violent inbred supporters to the Capitol in order to murder and kidnap our elected representatives. He has expressed a willingness to quash free speech, a genuine hatred for nonwhite people, and has routinely attempted to undermine our democratic processes and institutions via dictatorial fiat. He has appointed activist right-wing judges who will attempt to eliminate abortion rights, and he used his position as president to embezzle taxpayer dollars. He used US aid-- which was approved by congress-- to extort a foreign leader into participating in a smear campaign against his political opponent. He gassed peaceful protesters and has turned a blind eye to human rights violations worldwide, including the Uyghur concentration camps and the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. He has used the pardoning power to pardon dozens of people implicated in his scandals and schemes, including a disgraced US general who has publicly called for "suspending the Constitution" in order to turn this country into a dictatorship.

And your response to all of this is to say "But what about muh restaurants? Why can't I sit indoors and cough on other people in peace?"

LOL, just freaking LOL.

[Badger]

Insane Black-Muslim terrorist.

But despite this guy and the Arab shooting around and killing 10 in CO, it’s still the Republican Party and Trump supporters who are the biggest terrorists in your country.

It literally is. I say this having worked in a national security think tank for 2+ years and reading loads of jihadi propaganda about why they are the biggest and baddest kids on the block. Some things to consider:

1) Numbers alone: There are a lot more right-wing crazies in the US than even the broadest definition of "Islamic extremists."
2) Ability to advertise, recruit, and train in the US: See how long it takes you to find a newsletter or a "contact us" for a right-wing militia group. Then try that for a group like al-Qaeda or ISIL. (NoI is a notable exception for this, hence my post earlier in the thread about why I expect that not to last much longer).
3) Visibility and openness: How often have you seen news interviews with right-wing militia members vs. jihadis or other Islamic extremist groups in the US? When was the last time there was a no-kidding Islamist rally in the US where al-Qaeda and ISIL flags were flown on the scale of Unite the Right or January 6th? If such a rally happened, how long do you think it would last before being shut down and everyone arrested?
4) Sympathy from higher-ups: No presidential candidate has ever called Islamic extremists "very fine people," and Islamic extremist groups have considered every American politician their enemy, including people like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who have made Muslim civil rights cornerstones of their campaigns.

One good anecdotal example of this is that, when I was specifically working on trying to assess the threat of al-Qaeda-aligned Syrians (admittedly only a small sub-section of a broader network) conducting an attack in the US, basically the only evidence of a actual presence I could find I could find was a series of photos taken Pennsylvania by someone for a pro-al-Qaeda magazine based in Syria. Meanwhile, even despite living in places like Seattle and DC, there is a very obvious presence by groups like the Proud Boys and to a lesser extent the Oath Keepers and III%ers that has led to overtly violent confrontations in both cities multiple times in the last 5 years. If the question is which I feel threatened by, it's the one that burned flares and waved their flags outside the store where I was going Christmas shopping back pre-COVID, and they definitely weren't shouting "Allahu Akbar."

[Badger]

It did, however, demonstrate solidarity with families of POWs and MIAs whose whereabouts have never been confirmed.  It was a source of comfort to many of these families.  And the difference between this issue and others is that it was our Government for whom they fought and were captured and/or died.

Our POWs that came back DID suffer torture.  I suspect you care not one whit about that.  They weren't liberals.  They were brave, they were held captive, and the North Vietnamese DID ignore all standards set by the Geneva Convention as to how to treat Prisoners of War.  Perhaps you could recognize that.  

I'm sorry, but how on Earth did you enter this banal response to my pointing out that the idea the North Vietnamese retained us POWS because they're evil inscrutable Asian communist basically meant that I did not care that our veterans had suffered horrific torture in pows camps, as remotely worthy of this thread?

I can genuinely say stepping back and removing the gross personal insult to myself, if it had been ordered to anyone else here, it would not only be a grossly unwarranted insult based on the response, but frankly such a non-sequitur and disingenuous response that it truly belongs in the bad post thread.

Seriously, what part of you thought that a responding to truthfully stating American pows remaining in North Vietnam is a groundless conspiracy theory I'm making the in comprehensible and frankly rather ugly conclusion that individual doesn't care Americans were in fact tortured in Vietnamese prison camps somehow equates a quality post, or even a non sh**tpost for that matter?

[Badger]

Andrea Stewart-Cousins will be acting Lt Governor as Senate Majority Leader.

At most, ASC will only serve as Acting L.G. for the presumably few moments between Hochul's accession to the governorship & her appointment of a new permanent L.G., as she said during her press conference yesterday that she'll be selecting said appointee prior to becoming Governor, during the transition period in which only 11 days now remain.

Remember 2009 when no one knew who was Lt Governor because of the control of the State Senate being disputed?

No matter what else can be said about David Paterson, it simply can't be denied that he made up for his blindness with the sheer size of his political balls. Skelos v. Paterson was a landmark ruling in NY constitutional law, & it wouldn't have happened if he hadn't decided to just say "f**k you petty-ass bitches, MTA legend Richard Ravitch is your tie-breaker now."

Don't forget the whole "Believe all women who don't accuse a powerful Democrat" thing.

https://jacobinmag.com/2021/08/elite-liberal-feminism-times-up-roberta-kaplan-andrew-cuomo-metoo

Every mainstream Democrat under the Sun believed the women who were accusing a powerful Democrat & so called for a verifying investigation, which is why that Time's Up chairwoman whom you point to - let alone, y'know, Cuomo - has been forced to resign-in-disgrace. If there's a point which you're trying to make here, it's not being made in any successful way.

If Cuomo is indeed guilty he should be prosecuted, but it's too bad the current POTUS (against whom there are more credible accusations) isn't held to the same standards.

I do think this is largely a ploy to hurt DeSantis. Democrats can say they got rid of their governor who screwed up his state's Covid response the worst and drive public opinion against DeSantis for how he has handled Covid in Florida. I don't agree that he has screwed it up, but since I think DeSantis is a poor candidate and a neocon I don't mind if this happens.

Those are certainly all words.