U.S. Politics 2016: "You Suck!!!" "No, you Suck!!!"

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

37 minutes ago, Squab said:

You needn't care for my garden variety for it to be different to your own. Once you settle down, please take the time to look at things from another perspective and re-read the writing above that list you so despise.

I never said I despised the list, I said it was crap.  I don't despise crap. It performs a necessary function in human biology.

 

/I went back and reread your forward. So I guess I'm just whittling your list for you? The Honor Killing incidents don't belong on it.

[all swedes are racist]

so, what do we have to say about Craig Hicks, Dylann Roof, Kyle Aaron Huff, Scott Roeder, Frazier Glenn Miller, Robert Dear, Holly Ann Grigsby & Joey Pederson, Jerad & Amanda Miller, Wade Michael Page...? 
 

[felice]

1 hour ago, Squab said:

I would think if you were honestly interested in a part of the community and their representation (be it over or under) in ideologically related attacks, one should look at things on a per capita basis and take into account those that the authorities were able to prevent. And it all depends on how you define "terrorist attack" but here is a list to whittle down. First number is killed. Second is injured.

There were more than fifteen thousand homicides in the US in 2015 alone. Statistically, you'd expect about 150 of them to have been perpetrated by Muslims. If your list is remotely comprehensive, then Muslims are far less of a threat than the average American.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

2 minutes ago, R'hllor's nasty lobster said:

so, what do we have to say about Craig Hicks, Dylann Roof, Kyle Aaron Huff, Scott Roeder, Frazier Glenn Miller, Robert Dear, Holly Ann Grigsby & Joey Pederson, Jerad & Amanda Miller, Wade Michael Page...? 
 

First rule, any 3 named person is a serial killer  lone gunman, or assassin, not a terrorist. It is known. See Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wayne Gacy, James Earl Ray, John Wilkes Booth, Mark David Chapman, Gary Leon Ridgeway, etc etc. 

[all swedes are racist]

Just now, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

First rule, any 3 named person is a serial killer  lone gunman, or assassin, not a terrorist. It is known. See Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wayne Gacy, James Earl Ray, John Wilkes Booth, Mark David Chapman, Gary Leon Ridgeway, etc etc. 

unless, y'know... they ain't white sounding names

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

 Just came across this Doug Stanhope clip from his new special and I thought it fit nicely into tonight's discussion...

 

 

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

 

Welcome to the Overlook, Danny.

[Castel]

3 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

David Brooks and the Intellectual Collapse of the Center

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/david-brooks-and-the-intellectual-collapse-of-the-center.html

There was also this old article on Brooks. We talk about the failure out-of-touch ivory tower libs but has anyone else been shown to be as meaningless as Brooks-style conservatives to what happened?

 

Also, following the links on your article gives a summary of "BipartisanThink" that is spot-on, at the time it was over the debt ceiling but it's still here  :

Quote

 

The rest of the column is dedicated to flaying Obama for the GOP’s refusal to compromise. It’s the least-insane of the various iterations of BipartisanThink –you can’t disprove the assertion that some speech, negotiating method, or application of personal charm would persuade Republicans to abandon their most fundamental principles – but it’s still fairly deranged.

In my experience, I have found that advocates of BipartisanThink tend to process challenges to their beliefs as attacks from partisans – which, since they measure the truth of an idea as the degree to which it avoids partisanship, merely reinforces their own sense of correctness. Thus an insanely false belief has managed to sustain itself because it is the only way for the subculture of sensible bipartisan wise men to reconcile otherwise irreconcilable elements of their belief system. The center has created a fever swamp of its own.

 

 

[SpaceChampion]

So Trump wants to return to the gold standard, and abolish the Federal Reserve? Isn't the former sort of impossible without the latter? I mean, maybe I misunderstand but having gold as a standard doesn't that require physical gold kept by a central authority a key part of having a gold standard?

Also, is that going to make the kleptocracy a little too obvious or what?

[Isalie]

Education is free in Sweden, and we get some economical assistance and a favourable loan for 6 years, and yet I've never met anyone who study *all their life* or even more than they have to. 

[OldGimletEye]

9 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

So Trump wants to return to the gold standard, and abolish the Federal Reserve? Isn't the former sort of impossible without the latter? I mean, maybe I misunderstand but having gold as a standard doesn't that require physical gold kept by a central authority a key part of having a gold standard?

Well, no the gold standard doesn't require a Federal Reserve system. The United States operated on a gold standard before the Federal Reserve was founded in 1913.

The Treasury could handle the exchange of dollars for gold or the exchange of gold for dollars at a fixed price.

That said, the conservative obsession with the gold standard is one of the dumbest things they have done.

Though, I guess I'm supposed to be kind and respectful of conservative views here. LOL.

Anyway, the conservative obsession with the gold standard is mind boggling. It's extremely hard to understand.

Part of it I guess is that conservatives just can't get on of the 1970s. For some reason, they seem to think that rampant inflation is just around the corner, even though over the last eight years, the problem hasn't been inflation but too little inflation.

Back in 2010, a bunch of kerservative klowns wrote a letter to Beranke warning him of inflation because of the Fed's monetary policies. They turned out to be very wrong. And they were wrong because the model they were operating in sucked.

But, hey Republicans are the party of business!!!!

Maybe Rush Limbaugh forgot to mention that monetary demand is interest rate sensitive or something. Who knows.

One of those clowns was David Malpass, a Trump advisor. Malpass for some reason is obsessed with the strong dollar, citing that's how Ronnie did it!!! But, me thinks the strong dollar under Reagan had more to do with Reagan's fiscal deficits than anything.

I think also the conservative obsession with the gold standard has something to do with them believing in Robinson Crusoe economies (you know, Crusoe decides how many coconuts he will consume and invest, no money required!!!), rather than the actual monetary economies we live in. A huge part of problems over the last 8 years has been because of monetary problems. But, I think conservatives just see something strange about that. Like expanding the supply of money isn't "real" or something. It's kind of weird.

Also, I think conservatives seem to think that a gold standard will get the government out of the money management business. But, that isn't true. A gold standard system can be fucked up like anything else. The Great Depression for instance was probably caused by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of France hoarding gold, causing deflation.

But, maybe conservatives like deflation, because you know, that's more people to in the unemployment line to preach Ayn Rand to.

[mormont]

6 hours ago, Altherion said:

Well yes, he has had to make it about him -- the Republican party was never fully on his side and he has no political accomplishments worth mentioning. Also, I think you're making an unwarranted assumption about his victory rallies. He's hardly the first president-elect to hold post-election victory rallies; at the very least, FDR did it (he was nearly assassinated at a rally in Miami shortly before his inauguration).

 

12 hours ago, mormont said:

Can we stop pretending that this level of self-aggrandisement is normal?

Apparently not.

I don't believe Trump would ever start a nuclear war - apart from anything else he wouldn't risk damaging Trump Plaza - but if he did, I feel sure Altherion would be keen to remind us, even as the bombs were flying, that Truman used a nuke and this is just politics as usual.

3 hours ago, felice said:

There were more than fifteen thousand homicides in the US in 2015 alone. Statistically, you'd expect about 150 of them to have been perpetrated by Muslims. If your list is remotely comprehensive, then Muslims are far less of a threat than the average American.

Yeah, to make this case that somehow Muslims are a special case, dangerously different from any other immigrant group in US history, you don't just need to produce a list of homicides associated somehow with Muslims - you need a list of homicides associated with every other immigrant group.

The fact is that almost every previous immigrant group has been regarded as exceptionally violent for one reason or another. The facts rarely bear this out.

[The Marquis de Leech]

12 minutes ago, OldGimletEye said:

Also, I think conservatives seem to think that a gold standard will get the government out of the money management business. But, that isn't true. A gold standard system can be fucked up like anything else. The Great Depression for instance was probably caused by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of France hoarding gold, causing deflation.

But, maybe conservatives like deflation, because you know, that's more people to in the unemployment line to preach Ayn Rand to.

I think their rationale is that forced deflation and austerity are the One True Way of dealing with an economic crisis. It's this insane notion they have of governments being like households, and that if something is painful it must be worthwhile.

Part of me actually hopes that Trump does try to bring back the gold standard at this point, if only to destroy the credibility of the goldbugs forever for the next eighty years. 

[OldGimletEye]

Just now, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

I think their rationale is that forced deflation and austerity are the One True Way of dealing with an economic crisis. It's this insane notion they have of governments being like households, and that if something is painful it must be worthwhile.

Yes, they love them some parables about Swabian housewives.

True conservatives reject any idea about fallacies of compositions.

Anyway, on a historical footnote. As you probably know, Lionel Robbins brought one of the original austerity misters and deflationistas, Hayek, to England to argue with Keynes.

Robbins would, however, apparently change his mind later saying:

Quote

“I shall always regard this aspect of my dispute with Keynes as the greatest mistake of my professional career, and the book, The Great Depression, which I subsequently wrote, partly in justification of this attitude, as something which I would willingly see be forgotten.” 

and

Quote

To treat what developed subsequently in the way which I then thought valid was as unsuitable as denying blankets and stimulants to a drunk who has fallen into an icy pond, on the ground that his original trouble was overheating.”

 

[LongRider]

5 hours ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

 

Welcome to the Overlook, Danny.

Oh Mittens, how low you have fallen.   

[Larry of the Lawn]

In 2020 I am running on a platform of bimetallism, mandatory domestic gardening, and marijuana.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

4 hours ago, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

I think their rationale is that forced deflation and austerity are the One True Way of dealing with an economic crisis. It's this insane notion they have of governments being like households, and that if something is painful it must be worthwhile.

Part of me actually hopes that Trump does try to bring back the gold standard at this point, if only to destroy the credibility of the goldbugs forever for the next eighty years. 

Well, the good news is that Trump doesn't seeem capable of any type of austerity.

8 hours ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

First rule, any 3 named person is a serial killer  lone gunman, or assassin, not a terrorist. It is known. See Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wayne Gacy, James Earl Ray, John Wilkes Booth, Mark David Chapman, Gary Leon Ridgeway, etc etc. 

I thought the three names rule was to make it easier for the other John Gacy's and Lee Oswald's of the world.

[The guy from the Vale]

22 minutes ago, White Walker Texas Ranger said:

Well, the good news is that Trump doesn't seeem capable of any type of austerity.

I thought the three names rule was to make it easier for the other John Gacy's and Lee Oswald's of the world.

Yes. The bad news is that Ryan is, though.

[OldGimletEye]

6 hours ago, White Walker Texas Ranger said:

Well, the good news is that Trump doesn't seeem capable of any type of austerity.

 

6 hours ago, theguyfromtheVale said:

Yes. The bad news is that Ryan is, though.

1. Yes, it's nice to see that Trump has seen the light. The wealthy have suffered under austerity for far too long.

2. Why does it seem the Republican Party always believes when to do austerity and when not to do it back asswards?

3. Anyone remember Dick Cheney's comment that "Reagan proved deficits don't matter."

4. When Trump's tax cuts for the extremely wealthy start creating inflation pressures, which would be the time to do austerity, Ryan will insist the problem isn't the Trump tax cuts and that in the name of fiscal responsibility grandma's benefits will have to be cut.

Brace Yourselves.

Conservative Horseshit is coming.

[LongRider]

Who's killing who?

Quote

WASHINGTON — In the 14 years since Al Qaeda carried out attacks on New York and the Pentagon, extremists have regularly executed smaller lethal assaults in the United States, explaining their motives in online manifestoes or social media rants.

But the breakdown of extremist ideologies behind those attacks may come as a surprise. Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists, antigovernment fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims: 48 have been killed by extremists who are not Muslim, including the recent mass killing in Charleston, S.C., compared with 26 by self-proclaimed jihadists, according to a count by New America, a Washington research center.

Remember, white terrorists in the USA are labeled; mentally unstable, loners or 'always was a quiet neighbor' rather than a terrorist or white supremacist.  Kinda distorts the truth a bit when we should be calling them the terrorists they are.