Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
- Thread starter GasBandit
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If you do happen to get shot by an Arkansas football fan, chances are your ER visit won't be covered. The latest amendments to the GOP replacement of the ACA pretty much eliminates health insurance altogether. Almost everything is exempt from coverage, like ER visits, hospitalization, doctor visits, prescription drugs, mental health, etc., etc.
In that interview Franken asks a lot of irrelevant questions such as his opinion on congressional Republican's political moves and his opinion on matters he hasn't ruled on, which he can't answer so that he avoids appearing prejudiced in the event he has to rule on a case about them later. Even when talking about a previous case Gorsuch ruled on, an actual relevant line of questioning, he pretty much just makes an appeal to emotion saying that he shouldn't have dissented about what the law means because it would be bad and tries to out-lawyer an actual expert in the law.
Now, that's not to say I hold it against Franken, this is pretty much what confirmation hearings seem to be now a days, congresspeople of the same political party ask softball questions and opposition party members try to get them to say anything to hold against them.
Why wouldn't you hold it against him? If people are doing the bad things, even if it's expected, it's still bad things. Maybe not as bad as doing something innovative and bad, but if the norm is bad, the person is still bad for conforming to it.
I know it's hard to feel angry about it though. Most of our expectations are so low of politicians that we kind of get exhausted about being outraged, or even just angry, but that exhaustion is different than saying "not to say I hold it against" them. You still should hold it against them, but I understand not being able to get very worked up about it, and I would even encourage not getting too worked up too often. Exhausts you for when the truly horrific happens.
I mean specifically against him. The whole hearings just political theater, either the Democrats will filibuster, in which case it'll hold until they give up or the Republicans initiate the nuclear option, or he'll be confirmed. So it's not a personal failing of his, but a flaw in the system.
I agree it's theatre, but conforming to it is also bad IMO, and thus I hold it against members of both parties for softballs on one side, and idiotic questions on the other. They are perpetuating the bad system they are a part of, and thus I blame them all for it. You apparently disagree.
That's what I was trying to get at. My point was merely that I'm not isolating blame to Senator Franken when it's all sucks.
Ah, thanks for the clarification. I was taking your original comments more like that you didn't blame any of them, not your clarification that you blame them all the same.
Necronic
Staff member
So here's a fun new development. Mexico is in serious talks with Brazil and Argentina to enter a free trade agreement on Corn, which is one of our largest agricultural exports. This is a direct result of Trumps NAFTA dickwaving.
https://qz.com/942713/mexico-is-mee...s-and-calling-donald-trumps-anti-nafta-bluff/
This is the stuff that really concerns me. And not just the nature of the proposal, but my growing belief that our current administration is far too incompetent to either see these kinds of things coming, and worse still, them not doing anything about it. This could have very large ramifications on our economy.
Now I'm not saying Trump should "bend the knee" as it were, but his constant stream of lies and hyperbole won't actually change reality in situations like this. We do actually have a vibrant export economy in many areas and he is potentially threatening that.
https://qz.com/942713/mexico-is-mee...s-and-calling-donald-trumps-anti-nafta-bluff/
This is the stuff that really concerns me. And not just the nature of the proposal, but my growing belief that our current administration is far too incompetent to either see these kinds of things coming, and worse still, them not doing anything about it. This could have very large ramifications on our economy.
Now I'm not saying Trump should "bend the knee" as it were, but his constant stream of lies and hyperbole won't actually change reality in situations like this. We do actually have a vibrant export economy in many areas and he is potentially threatening that.
What is bad, his protectionism hurts the people that voted for him the most, the farmers and miners.
Necronic
Staff member
And those farmers are tied into the larger American economy and are a very important part of our countries strength. We absolutely need to maintain our agricultural sector. Not just for the money it brings in, it is also a critical strategic resource on the military scale.
And at the end of the day there are a lot of good folks out there that don't deserve to have their faces eaten off, even if they did release said panther.
And at the end of the day there are a lot of good folks out there that don't deserve to have their faces eaten off, even if they did release said panther.
Look, sometimes kids need to learn ire if hot by getting burned...[DOUBLEPOST=1490734003,1490733944][/DOUBLEPOST]
Man surprised about getting his face eaten off by leopards after voting for the "Leopards eating your face party"!
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Well of course the Man is surprised. The Leopards kept their campaign promise!
GasBandit
Staff member
I'm noticing in the news lately there's a lot more effort to call attention to the fact that google isn't google any more... there's a lot of "Google parent company Alphabet Inc" this that and the other.
Am I alone here in thinking that "Alphabet Inc." sounds a whole lot more dystopian/corporate/Conglomo-overlordish than Google?
The mask slipping more each day, yeah?
Am I alone here in thinking that "Alphabet Inc." sounds a whole lot more dystopian/corporate/Conglomo-overlordish than Google?
The mask slipping more each day, yeah?
Those kids have been standing in the middle of the flames since the fucking 1950s! Not only has nothing changed, it's actually gotten far worse. At this point the only thing that will fix southern WV is military intervention, because no one has both the courage and the resources to extract the state from the yoke of the extraction industries. Charleston will only be changed by force.
Necronic
Staff member
To be honest I don't hate on farmers like I do some of the other places out there like WV. Farmers provide a valuable service that isn't going away. We may not always need coal, but we will always eat. Farmers also have one of the longest histories of surviving technological disruption of any industry out there, the rest of us could learn a thing or two from them.
Clearly they haven't been burnt enough yet... WE NEED TO ADD MORE FUEL![DOUBLEPOST=1490776440,1490776230][/DOUBLEPOST]
It's the "Inc."... no self respecting evil corporation is just 1 word... they need to differentiate themselves from all the other run-of-the-mill evil overlords by something, after all.
Dave
Staff member
All that screaming "FUCK OBAMA!" the last 8 years turned one of the bluest states into the reddest. And with that comes a tax plan that completely gouges everyone that isn't a mine, drilling company, or chemical plant owner.
Trickle down? FUCK YOU. We've been waiting for that trickle since the 1950s. IT STILL HASN'T FUCKING HAPPENED. And yet, they sell that shit with every election cycle and legislative term. And true to the form of the stupidest state in the Union, we keep buying it.
If I had the means to just up and leave, I'd be packed up before I could hit send on this post. If I had Warren Buffet level means to drag the state out of this mess by the ear? Fuck that noise. I'm still outta here.
Trickle down? FUCK YOU. We've been waiting for that trickle since the 1950s. IT STILL HASN'T FUCKING HAPPENED. And yet, they sell that shit with every election cycle and legislative term. And true to the form of the stupidest state in the Union, we keep buying it.
If I had the means to just up and leave, I'd be packed up before I could hit send on this post. If I had Warren Buffet level means to drag the state out of this mess by the ear? Fuck that noise. I'm still outta here.
GasBandit
Staff member
Lexcorp... DataDyne... SinTek, GenTek, Versalife, Hyperion, Vault-Tec (does a hyphen mean it is two words?), Abstergo, Ultor...
I dunno if it's about the number, I mean "OCP" (Omni Consumer Products) sounds rather bland.
"Alphabet Inc." has that right twinge of "something named that can't be bad!" that makes it all the more insidious. Like how a blinkered, unthinking, uncompromising political movement will call itself "Mothers Against Drunk Driving" because who would oppose mothers? Like how you know that when something is called the "People's glorious revolutionary etc" it's really a dictatorial shitshow. "Alphabet" makes it sound like it makes big plastic educational toys for preschoolers, not a vast, ever-darkening multinational megacorp with informational tendrils stabbed into every single aspect of the life of every last person in the first world.
Notice how most of those are two words forced together... probably against their will too.
GasBandit
Staff member
Well, there's a mental image...
GasBandit
Staff member
Now that's fuckin' delicious.
GasBandit
Staff member
Why am I posting this in the political thread? Because ordinarily I wouldn't bother posting it in any thread, except I genuinely laughed out loud when the producers asked the participants "what do you fear most?" and one of the young women answered "Progressive taxes."
Very interesting review of the impact of recent court decisions on the evolving interpretation of discrimination law:
https://www.popehat.com/2017/04/05/...entation-discrimination-violates-federal-law/
While the article revolves around the discrimination issue, that's merely the talking point - the article is really discussing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_interpretation and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_activism .
https://www.popehat.com/2017/04/05/...entation-discrimination-violates-federal-law/
While the article revolves around the discrimination issue, that's merely the talking point - the article is really discussing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_interpretation and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_activism .
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Now we are one step closer to a shooting war with Russia.