Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
- Thread starter GasBandit
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Something reasonable from Australia? Is this bizarro land?Here's a good idea they had in Australia - if you don't vaccinate your kids, you don't get any welfare or tax credits for them.
That story has been making the rounds.
I'm for it, though I worry that certain special interest groups may try to use it as a foothold to push it further and lobby for other "mandatory" medical procedures prior to receiving aid...procedures such as sterilization. I'm not saying that the chances of something like that happening are very high, I'm just saying that I don't want to hear the voices of the people who think that this new vax thing legitimizes their fight for sterilization.
--Patrick
I'm for it, though I worry that certain special interest groups may try to use it as a foothold to push it further and lobby for other "mandatory" medical procedures prior to receiving aid...procedures such as sterilization. I'm not saying that the chances of something like that happening are very high, I'm just saying that I don't want to hear the voices of the people who think that this new vax thing legitimizes their fight for sterilization.
--Patrick
Ya but then they couldn't complain that the Air Force is screwing them over.
Also this: Maxim 5: Close air support and friendly fire should be easier to tell apart
In all seriousness, I'm sure you have a great point. I don't actually know the answer, but I still wonder how many times infantry and/or ground forces think of this statement.
I had a friend from high school recently unfriendly me because I posted a magic school bus parody making fun on anti Vaxxers from collegehumorHere's a good idea they had in Australia - if you don't vaccinate your kids, you don't get any welfare or tax credits for them.
Hilary Clinton is in the running---please, keep your shock in check.
My favorite quote from my facebook feed, "Sad but true, watch the sexism from the GOP come out against Hilary".
Ah yes, because I remember how valiantly progressive groups on the left for women empowerment were out in force for Sarah Palin when she was in the running.
...
My favorite quote from my facebook feed, "Sad but true, watch the sexism from the GOP come out against Hilary".
Ah yes, because I remember how valiantly progressive groups on the left for women empowerment were out in force for Sarah Palin when she was in the running.
...
It's still up to the conservatives to put some sort of real contender up against her... and so far, all the big dogs have stayed home. They're gonna have to decide real soon if they want to run because every day they aren't campaigning is another day that Hillary is cementing her lead.
Absolutely. I've heard some talking heads on the right say "Hilary running would mean an easy win!" but..uhm, I have my doubts. Who's going to beat her? Rand and his week of disastrous interviews? Rubio? No?
I got nothin' either.
I'd give Romney fighting odds, even after his percentage comment last time that absolutely destroyed him near the election, but he's made it clear he's not running. Jeb Bush is banking entirely on his name and his name doesn't mean shit to people outside the Conservative Core. Scott Walker's anti-union, anti-teacher sentiment will not fly in union backing swing states like Ohio that he needs to win in. Rubio's whole strategy basically boils down to trying to pull latinos away from the Dems but Conservatives already have a good Latino core... and Rand Paul? He ain't his dad.
Chris Christie is probably the only guy who could pull the swing voters and he's staying out of this fight. He's planning for 2020/2024.
Chris Christie is probably the only guy who could pull the swing voters and he's staying out of this fight. He's planning for 2020/2024.
GasBandit
Staff member
Right now, the polling is telling me the GOP frontrunner is Scott Walker. Jeb Bush is almost tied with him, but I think his name recognition won't get him far for long. Sneaking up in third is Ted Cruz. I would SO love to see Ted Cruz get the nomination. I think it'd take me the rest of the election year to stop cackling maniacally.
I'm not sure Paul's "disasterous" interviews really hurt him among party adherents all that much. After all, the reporters he bit were all democrat party operatives. The core vote on the right probably cheered him on.
I'm not sure Paul's "disasterous" interviews really hurt him among party adherents all that much. After all, the reporters he bit were all democrat party operatives. The core vote on the right probably cheered him on.
Of course, the problem with running Scott Walker is that all you need to show swing voters are the MASSIVE PROTESTS that happened because of his actions. People like people who can get things done (which Scott can certainly do) but there is nothing you can do to get rid of the thousands of people caught on camera, calling out for his blood. And like I said before, he will NEVER win with the unions in places like Ohio and they have enormous pull here.
Dude, Christie doesn't even have a base of support in New Jersey at this point, and that's BEFORE the indictments over Bridgegate start coming down.
Which is the exact moment he became palatable to the moderates. It's starting to feel like the Conservative Core doesn't deserve the nice things it gets because it certainly doesn't appreciate what it takes to get them.
GasBandit
Staff member
Attempting to be appealing to the moderates is what has lost the republicans the last couple elections. Americans who self-identify as conservative outnumber those who self-identify as liberal, and great swaths of the base attempted to teach the GOP a "lesson" by staying home in droves on election day rather than hold their nose and vote for McCain or Romney. There's this great myth perpetuated that moderates are discerning, intelligent individuals who wait and review all the facts and options before making up their mind, when the secret truth of the moderates is that a great many of them are political windsocks with mushy convictions, easily swept up in fervor and prone to stampede with herd mentality (and desperate to do whatever salon.com tells them that the intelligent, discerning moderate is supposed to be doing - IE, voting democrat). If the GOP can shore up its base, it can win with a little bit of moderates, but if they push hard to the center, as they have been, they end up attempting to trade away their conservative 40% for a shot at the so called moderate 30%. Compare that with congressional, senate, and gubernatorial elections where they've been making massive inroads by veering hard right.
Meanwhile, Ted Cruz's fundraising is breaking records.
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If Cruz gets the nomination I don't want to live in America anymore. I really don't like that guy.
GasBandit
Staff member
What, you'd like to be let off the Titanic? Bored of polishing doorknobs with the rest of us? America's done, it just doesn't know it yet. Nothing will fix it now other than a big ol' bloody, starving, diseased and splintered reset button. It's just a question as to if we want to languish slow, or dive quickly to the rocks.
This reddit thread got interesting very quickly.
ELI5: What causes revolutions? How bad do things have to get before such a large number of people agree on how bad things are and come together to fix it?
--Patrick
Gas: the problem of the right (in the USA) is that you've got the extreme religious right and the economic/fiscal right. They could probably win by going hard less-government-lower-taxes, but most any right winger has been going for the by-the-grace-of-God-we-are-the-chosen crowd. Which drives away a LOT of non-religious and other-religious people.
I don't see Jeb Bush winning - "a third Bush, even worse than his brother"? Not a single left or moderate vote. Yes, recognition...But he'd get slammed so hard. Well, that might galvanize the right to vote for him in droves, so who knows, but....Ugh. Even worse than a second Clinton.
I don't see Jeb Bush winning - "a third Bush, even worse than his brother"? Not a single left or moderate vote. Yes, recognition...But he'd get slammed so hard. Well, that might galvanize the right to vote for him in droves, so who knows, but....Ugh. Even worse than a second Clinton.
Necronic
Staff member
Man, sometimes you have such a string of well thought out posts (even if I disagree with them) that I forget that this is what you really believe underneath it all.
For what it's worth, I can't say I disagree all that much. Everybody (and I mean EVERYBODY, not just government) is too busy wooing and bending over backwards for businesses/corporations while neglecting their responsibilities to the populace, and that's not healthy. Oh sure, I hope the change will be something a lot more peaceful than the picture of upheaval that @GasBandit paints, but also foresee a sort of legislative "bankruptcy," where someone finally decides "this isn't working" and scraps huge chunks of legislation one way or another. I just really hope that bankruptcy is a Chapter 11 instead of the Chapter 7 version Gas seems to expect.
--Patrick
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GasBandit
Staff member
That's true and I've said it often myself - most often when a republican tries to go right, he usually goes "social conservative" and starts in on abortion and gay marriage, and the flow of history is against them on that and most people realize it (even if a pizza parlor just got a million dollars in donations for refusing to cater gay weddings). A long time ago there was a republican who foresaw this outcome, and its counterproductivity, and his name was Barry Goldwater. He opposed the injection of religion into politics, was a champion for gay rights, and the example he set inspired America's burgeoning libertarian movement.
GasBandit
Staff member
If I wasn't resigned to our fate, I'd be going absolutely screamingly hysterical about how every single president we've had since I came of age has been actively dismantling or demolishing the very foundation of what made our nation rise to prominence - and how the American people couldn't give two shits so long as their favorite TV show is on and their personal pet issue is championed by their own congressman ("Congress sucks! But MY congressman is the only ok one!"). At this point, all we can do is watch the kabuki as we slide into the abyss, and try to clap for the funny parts.
GasBandit
Staff member
There was a period where things had the possibility of getting better, and we pretended to actually care about how much debt we were running up, and how much liberty we were casting aside in the name of security.
GasBandit
Staff member
... Are you trying to kick me out of my own thread?
Necronic
Staff member
When was that exactly?
During the first years or so of the nation when the Alien and Sedition act was used to basically kick out anyone we didn't like?
The following 100 years or so where we enslaved or disenfranchised over half our population?
Then of course there's the late 1800s-1920s or so where we learned that unrestrained corporate power and political corruption will just create another form of slaver?
Ah, but maybe you're talking about the Cold War, where we nearly abandoned free speech in this country.
So....which one of those are you talking about? Or...did I miss a part of our countries history?
GasBandit
Staff member
The alien and sedition acts were gotten rid of in 1801 by the very next president.
Slavery's a red herring.
As for the freedom of speech in the cold war, I can only guess you're talking about McCarthy, which took 5 years from start to (ignominious) finish, with the punishments being overturned and the process being declared unconstitutional and extralegal. We're at about 20-25 years of... this. The illogical insanity of the Patriot Act gets put in by Bush, extended by Obama. Bush is chastised for the largest increase in entitlement spending on record, and in general "spending like a drunken democrat," and is then followed by Obama who triples Bush's deficit as fast as he can. All the while every scandal is stalled and misdirected until a magic amount of time has passed at which it becomes "old news" and therefore no longer pertinent to debate, and the tail wags the dog harder with every passing year.
Things weren't always better, things weren't always worse, but at least even when they were worse, they were salvageable. Now people don't care. They tune it out, drowned in the torrential deluge of empty information and distraction, placated by the bread and circuses of our incredible engines of entertainment, and stripped of their own agency by self-esteem coddling and dehumanizing handouts and entitlements that enslave them and make them depend on the perpetuation of the system for their very lives. Numbers are redefined so that 15% unemployment becomes the new status quo, and when it goes up, that will be the new status quo as well. Neither major party actually wants to fix anything, they just each want to be on top of the heap, no matter what actually comprises said heap. But you can only stack garbage so high before it falls over, and that avalanche comes during our lifetime, mark my words.
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GasBandit
Staff member
Pretty sure what I said was race neutral.
Necronic
Staff member
I'll be honest I skipped a lot of it after the "slavery is a red herring" thing 
. And while I didn't mention the civil rights movement if the late 60s I think it's worth adding to the stuff. Black people have only recently really had a shot at freedom in this country, women too really, and I find it disengeniuous when a straight white man describes the changes in America from his own perspective while clearly missing others.
When you take the broader look to all Americans I think we've actually substantially increased the freedoms of our population, across all races/creeds/sexes.
. And while I didn't mention the civil rights movement if the late 60s I think it's worth adding to the stuff. Black people have only recently really had a shot at freedom in this country, women too really, and I find it disengeniuous when a straight white man describes the changes in America from his own perspective while clearly missing others. When you take the broader look to all Americans I think we've actually substantially increased the freedoms of our population, across all races/creeds/sexes.
GasBandit
Staff member
But that's where all the meat of the post started!I'll be honest I skipped a lot of it after the "slavery is a red herring" thing
That's probably the politest ad hominem that has ever been directed my way.
Let's see how free everybody feels when the $17 trillion (and growing) bill comes due... wait, that's just the national debt, we've got over $120 trillion in unfunded liabilities. And growing.