I don't have any issues with your argument - you aren't arguing against my point. I'm not arguing against your point.
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Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
- Thread starter GasBandit
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I don't have any issues with your argument - you aren't arguing against my point. I'm not arguing against your point.
I'm convinced that in ~50 years, when the church inevitably advocates suppressing some other minority groups' rights, people will say "people used to justify homophobia with religion," the same way we bring up how religion was used to justify racism and slavery back in the day.
Necronic
Staff member
And slacking off on Sundays. If God didn't want people to work on Sundays then he wouldn't have given us the free market.[DOUBLEPOST=1456205762,1456205209][/DOUBLEPOST]Funny one from Leviticus I just ran across that I had forgotten about (19:34)
"The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God."
Unless of course they are Muslim or Mexican or Chinese or (insert race/foreigner here).
"The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God."
Unless of course they are Muslim or Mexican or Chinese or (insert race/foreigner here).
That was the Jews, not the Christians.
Christians are forbidden from pitting foreigners against lions.
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday ruled out any hearing for President Barack Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court, insisting that the choice rests with the president's successor.
"Because our decision is based on constitutional principle and born of a necessity to protect the will of the American people . . ."
Unless you voted for the current president, then your will doesn't count.
"Because our decision is based on constitutional principle and born of a necessity to protect the will of the American people . . ."
Unless you voted for the current president, then your will doesn't count.
Meh. Both Bernie and Obama made lots of noise and put lots of effort towards preventing SC nominations during the Bush presidency.
This is all par for the course, public political theatrics for the masses.
The reality is that congress will do what they always do. So chances are good that, like happened with Bush, Obama will pick someone who congress will definitely not vote for, congress will get the negative vote out of their system, then he'll choose someone who is, or seems to be, a little more moderate, and congress will hem and haw before affirming the nomination.
If not, it'll becomes a big hammer the democrats will use to try and shift congress.
This is all par for the course, public political theatrics for the masses.
The reality is that congress will do what they always do. So chances are good that, like happened with Bush, Obama will pick someone who congress will definitely not vote for, congress will get the negative vote out of their system, then he'll choose someone who is, or seems to be, a little more moderate, and congress will hem and haw before affirming the nomination.
If not, it'll becomes a big hammer the democrats will use to try and shift congress.
GasBandit
Staff member
Hillary Clinton's campaign just bought advertising with us. Only on one station though - our Urban/CHR station. This is in keeping with her recent claims on the trail, I guess where pretty much all she has been doing is faking a southern black accent and saying republicans want to bring back Jim Crow. We have yet to have any other national candidates buy time, but I suppose that makes sense... Bernie generally doesn't play this game, and all the republicans have (probably correctly) written off Texas as a lock for Cruz.
GasBandit
Staff member
Well, which is it? Is a president entitled to his nominees, or does the senate get to say no? Can't have your cake and eat it, too.[DOUBLEPOST=1456263886,1456263708][/DOUBLEPOST]"There are some who believe that the president, having won the election, should have complete authority to appoint his nominee…that once you get beyond intellect and personal character, there should be no further question as to whether the judge should be confirmed. I disagree with this view." - Senator Barack Obama, 2006, in support of filibustering the appointment of Alito.
Agreed. Republicans could have their cake and eat it too by not looking like obstructionists and simply not confirming the apointee. I don't see what the big deal here is.
GasBandit
Staff member
Obstructionism is a big hit with the base right now.
Yeah, but the majority find it pathetic and tiresome.
Catering to the base wins you local elections. It loses National ones.
Okay, fair enough.
... which is currently the entire issue with the Republican Party's playbook. Obstructionism does not play well with the moderates who could vote in ether camp... they want a functioning government and the only reason to not hold the hearings is because the Republican Party doesn't trust it's own membership not to jump ship and vote to nominate, which really just means that the Republican Party isn't functioning period.
Grandstanding and pagentry.
It's not good enough to do a thing. They must talk about the thing, sit under a giant picture of the thing while a brass band plays the thing march, and then deliver a fire-and-brimstone speech about the thing on national television. All so John Q. Public will "get" how important the thing is.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that the republican party isn't dysfunctional, but the fact of the matter is they lost the last two presidential elections because they chased the windsocking 20% so hard they alienated the supposedly locked in 40%. Reagan got landslides by not being squeamish about going to the right.
After a weak presidency. Good luck with that this time around with the options being Cruz and Trump.
GasBandit
Staff member
Implying the Obama administration wasn't pretty much Carter's 2nd and 3rd term.
They lost the 2008 election because John McCain had spent his entire career alienating the Republican base by being moderate enough to work with Democrats and then going so far to the right during the election that is was apparent he was doing kabuki for base. It certainly didn't help that he had the very clueless Sarah Palin turning off the middle votes. And yes, the first viable black candidate probably had something to do with it too.
2012 is even easier to explain: Mitt Romney sabotaged his campaign by making it clear to voters that he didn't actually give a fuck about 47% off them. That was an INCREDIBLY damning video and it came right when the Democrats needed it.
This isn't to say that you aren't right that the base staying home has been an ongoing issue for the Republicans, but it's the same as Democrats staying home or just being unable to get to the polls to vote for a variety of reasons. Voter participation has always been an issue and some people just plain don't vote because they (rightly) believe that their vote has no voice in their area.
Damn right it wasn't. Nice try though
GasBandit
Staff member
I'll agree to disagree. It's been some of the most embarrassingly weak foreign policy and the most anemic economic recovery in living memory, but hey, some people got free phones, I guess.Damn right it wasn't. Nice try though
Says the guy who wasn't even born until Reagan's second term. There's a huge difference between stagflation and 25% interest rates and today's record high stock markets.
Uhhhhh you're a little off on his age.
GasBandit
Staff member
I definitely remember watching huge amounts of people chanting "FOUR MORE YEARS" in '84, grampsNot by a statistically significant amount.
[DOUBLEPOST=1456275445,1456275378][/DOUBLEPOST]
Yeah, a little more time, and one small-medium wall-street scare
A hell of a lot more than that.Yeah, a little more time, and one small-medium wall-street scare
Inflation rate, Jan 1, 1980: 13.91%
Today: 1.49%
The Prime reached a high of 20% in April, 1980. Today it's at 3.5%.
I may have been in elementary and middle school, but I was there, youngling.
GasBandit
Staff member
Like I said, just give it a little more time. After all, we've spent the last 8 years basically printing money (only just by adding zeroes to a spreadsheet so there's not even the pesky actually-having-to-print-the-bills problem) to keep wall street propped up, but it's all a house of cards. We haven't addressed any of the real issues.A hell of a lot more than that.
Inflation rate, Jan 1, 1980: 13.91%
Today: 1.49%
The Prime reached a high of 20% in April, 1980. Today it's at 3.5%.
I may have been in elementary and middle school, but I was there, youngling.
In other, unrelated news, it was a flip of the coin whether I put this story here or in the misanthropy thread.
GasBandit
Staff member
Cruz/Rubio and W are *very* different on fiscal matters. Remember, W instituted the biggest medicare entitlement increase since its creation. But what worries me is how hard Cruz is pushing the gaybortion angle. Cruz has a record on fiscal issues that I like - but his social issues platform sounds uncomfortably regressive.
It sounds that way because it is.
Weak foreign policy, eh? Hmm. Groundbreaking treaties with Iran and normalizing relations with Cuba, killing Bin Laden, destroying Daesh's resources so bad that they've lost 40% of their territory in Iraq and 20% in Syria since last May, START treaty, and Hey, remember how "If we don't get involved in Ukraine with troops on the ground, Russia's going to steamroll right over them?" and then we didn't put troops on the ground, and today Russia is barely hanging on to scraps of Ukraine and Georgia? http://liveuamap.com/
Yeah, what a pussy.
Weak foreign policy, eh? Hmm. Groundbreaking treaties with Iran and normalizing relations with Cuba, killing Bin Laden, destroying Daesh's resources so bad that they've lost 40% of their territory in Iraq and 20% in Syria since last May, START treaty, and Hey, remember how "If we don't get involved in Ukraine with troops on the ground, Russia's going to steamroll right over them?" and then we didn't put troops on the ground, and today Russia is barely hanging on to scraps of Ukraine and Georgia? http://liveuamap.com/
Yeah, what a pussy.
GasBandit
Staff member
More like capitulation to Iran and Cuba, and Putin sure loves bombing civilians and US allies to keep Bashir Assad in power. You know, after he had to hand-carry the Obama administration back from its "red line" tough talk. America's enemies have never been so glad to see us so weak and look so foolish.
Isn't this kind of thing exactly the reason libertarianism exists?[emoji14]Because somewhere along the way, Republicans got confused at the difference between social and political conservatism.