Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
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GasBandit
Staff member
Under George W. Bush, we spent more than under every other president combined.
And then we did so again under Obama, including GWB.
Obama just submitted the budget he wants for this year. It's 4 trillion dollars.
These people must literally think money grows on trees.
The ECB seems to have had this same idea. Frankly, as long as we common folks keep doing what we do, central banks can just keep adding zeroes to numbers on their computer and buy up all impossible-to-repay debt from all banks everywhere.
Seriously, it's what supposedly killed the Japanese market in the '90s, but all the big governments and central banks are doing exactly that. Government borrows money from banks, ECB buys up debt of banks and gives them more money to lend out to governments again. There's nobody who controls the central banks other than the governments, and they obviously don't want this cycle to end, so...Hey ho. Of course this means an ever-increasing amount of (virtual) money (and debt that's several times bigger than the actual world economy several times over), and thus devaluation, but hey, that means more potential for growth and that's good right?
This is what happens when your economic system is run by bonafied high functioning sociopaths and your political system is run by an oligarchy that undermines the ability for the common people to determine their destiny.
GasBandit
Staff member
Psht, the common people only care about their destiny insofar as it includes a big screen TV and all the junk food they care to eat. If you really want to scare the average american, talk to him about shouldering responsibility for himself. The metaphorical sociopath at the top couldn't stay there without the indolence of those who make up the pile he is standing on.
Colorado kindergartners have the lowest vaccine rates for measles, mumps and rubella in the country, according to federal data.
AKA: More reasons to avoid other people's kids.
AKA: More reasons to avoid other people's kids.
Is it wrong I agree with both of you?
We're both right. Whatever systemic issues we have (and we have them), it's ultimately the public's responsibility to hold leaders accountable and try to change the system to one that works, violently if need be. But in an age where it's never been cheaper and easier to bread and circus your population into submission, it's hard to get people motivated enough to do ANYTHING politically... but this is just as much the system's fault for making it difficult to survive without it as it is for us to accept it.
TIL WV doesn't allow exemptions for vaccinations. "We don't care what you believe. Vaccinate your fucking kids or they don't get in any of our schools. Period."
They're gonna need 'em, because the same folks who passed landmark storage tank safety after our water was poisoned last year have turned right around and gutted most of the legislation. At the behest of the storage tank owners who threw gobs of money at them.
They're gonna need 'em, because the same folks who passed landmark storage tank safety after our water was poisoned last year have turned right around and gutted most of the legislation. At the behest of the storage tank owners who threw gobs of money at them.
GasBandit
Staff member
http://www.gallup.com/opinion/chairman/181469/big-lie-unemployment.aspx
Just a reminder that the "unemployment rate" is a big ol' bald faced lie.
We're still 10 million jobs in the red, and the national labor participation rate is the lowest it's been since the Carter administration.
What recovery?
Just a reminder that the "unemployment rate" is a big ol' bald faced lie.
We're still 10 million jobs in the red, and the national labor participation rate is the lowest it's been since the Carter administration.
What recovery?
GasBandit
Staff member
In response to online criticism of its government and government figures, China is cracking down on internet anonymity - Chinese citizens must use their real names in all forms of online communication. The law isn't new, but until now, has apparently not been strictly enforced.
GasBandit
Staff member
"Women in the west might not care that they are raped on the roadside by soldiers if they break down, but here we consider that to be a problem, so that's why women are not allowed to drive."
"What about the chauffeurs? Aren't we afraid of THEM raping the women?"
"Well, there is a solution to that, but the clergy doesn't want to hear it - we import foreign female chauffeurs to drive around our women."
(Female interviewer collapses into fits of laughter)
"What about the chauffeurs? Aren't we afraid of THEM raping the women?"
"Well, there is a solution to that, but the clergy doesn't want to hear it - we import foreign female chauffeurs to drive around our women."
(Female interviewer collapses into fits of laughter)
GasBandit
Staff member
Things are going to shit so hard in Yemen that the marines who assisted in closing down the embassy there just left their weapons and vehicles so they could take a commercial flight out.
http://www.breakingnews.com/item/2015/02/11/department-of-defense-says-us-marines-assisting-cl/[DOUBLEPOST=1423675686,1423675425][/DOUBLEPOST]And the vehicles ended up getting seized by Yemeni rebels.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/11/officials-us-closing-embassy-in-yemen-due-to-unrest/
http://www.breakingnews.com/item/2015/02/11/department-of-defense-says-us-marines-assisting-cl/[DOUBLEPOST=1423675686,1423675425][/DOUBLEPOST]And the vehicles ended up getting seized by Yemeni rebels.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/11/officials-us-closing-embassy-in-yemen-due-to-unrest/
GasBandit
Staff member
The local talk radio station (who is a competitor of my employer) airs the "Joe Pags" show during my drive home. I'd never heard of this guy until recently. He himself is your standard right wing "Gays are bad and soldiers are good" radio political blowhard rabblerouser, but what really drives me up the wall is he's got himself a stepford smiler female cohost. I've noticed there's a few radio shows (our own morning show has been guilty of this a number of times) that lean hard on this crutch - they have a blustery, over-the-top male host and stick a young female in the studio with him to "Yeah!" and "Wow!" and "Really!" after every single sentence he utters. Sometimes she'll switch over to playing the eyerolling-but-smiling mother/wife figure to his "zany antics" but mostly she's there to be an audience proxy to make him sound like he's actually interesting. Drives me up the wall. Say what you will about Limbaugh or Hannity (or Colmes for that matter, who that radio station also hilariously plays around midnight or so), at least they don't need another voice on hand constantly stroking their ego in real time and reassuring them after every sentence that they're interesting.
GasBandit
Staff member
85% of American soldiers who commit suicide have not seen combat, and most were never even deployed at all.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/why-soldiers-keep-losing-to-suicide/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/why-soldiers-keep-losing-to-suicide/
I would have thought this was a given, considering the sheer size of the support network required to arm and maintain the fighting strength of our armed forces. I was always under the impression that it was simply higher in those who've seen combat by percentage of population than by sheer numbers.
You've given me an idea for some future research. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/quilted-science/201006/copying-others-when-choosing-mate
GasBandit
Staff member
That study confirms my existing presuppositions. Before I was in a long term relationship with Pauline, it was rare I'd get the time of day from a woman. Once I was obviously taken (and by a pretty redhead at that), all of a sudden I'm desirable.
There was even a gal who tried to sabotage our relationship so she could supposedly swoop in to console me. It didn't work.
It will be interesting (and probably miserable) to see the pattern hold up if and when I'm done being a sadsack and start looking for female companionship again, and note that there are once again no takers.
Just find a friend to fake it! Your own "co-host", if you will, to laugh at your jokes and agree with you all the time.
GasBandit
Staff member
Hah, taken right out of the Machiavellian's Guide to Womanizing. Have a buddy call you and pretend to be a woman you're lying to about working late.
... you know, I bet there'd be a market in providing a "make you look taken" sort of escort service. You know?
Uh oh. *quickly veers into PUA territory*
Nope. Nope nope nope.
Nope. Nope nope nope.
Do you still have her number?
GasBandit
Staff member
No, this was years and years and years ago. And I heard she got married less than a year after she tried that stunt with us. So I guess she found someone else to game.
Besides, like we're saying... she probably wouldn't be interested anymore anyway, now that I'm not taken.
Necronic
Staff member
This right here is what's wrong with the US Military industrial complex:
This flat out made me angry reading this. And not just at the military, they're playing the game they got sat down to by congressmen and businesses. The whole system. I'm just furious with the whole system. Because the warthog experience has shown us that a great success is actually a failure. Or is it the other way. Maybe both. Their goals are misaligned.
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/at-what-point-does-the-usafs-war-against-the-a-10-becom-1685239179
This flat out made me angry reading this. And not just at the military, they're playing the game they got sat down to by congressmen and businesses. The whole system. I'm just furious with the whole system. Because the warthog experience has shown us that a great success is actually a failure. Or is it the other way. Maybe both. Their goals are misaligned.
GasBandit
Staff member
Sounds to me like some USAF brass need to "decide" to retire. Retiring the A-10 would be insane.
At least without something as good or better in it's role anyway, which shouldn't be hard at all to make with modern technology. Hell, they could just rip out the electronics package and modernize it, sort of like the Super Hornet, and it'd be even better.
Without meaning any potential hurt, there's a huge difference between "single, not taken", "divorced", and "widowed". If you actually want to play that card, it's almost as good as a puppy and a baby on the arm. Widowers are inexplicably attractive. Well, somewhat explicably - the whole "have found love of life, lost her through bad fortunes, emotionally distressed" thing just screams "ready to settle down, emotionally mature, capable of a long-term relationship, needs comforting/consoling/being taken care of", which is what women over 30 are apparently drawn to.
GasBandit
Staff member
Well, I guess I shouldn't be worried. I've been informed that it's now easier than ever to catch a gal -