US Politics: What's a couple hundred billion between friends?

[LongRider]

Awesome sauce.

 

[Zorral]

51 minutes ago, Paladin of Ice said:

Yeah, the old Republican 3 step plan.

Step 1: Swear that you will never cut *insert beloved public program like Social Security or Medicare here*... unless it becomes necessary in the name of fiscal responsibility, that is. (Government does spend too much money, after all.)  Accuse your democratic  opponent of being a ridiculous mudslinger and trying to exploit fears when they say you would do otherwise.

Step 2: As soon as you get elected, work to cut the government revenue stream, either up front through tax cuts or on the back end through things like refusing to adequately staff collection and enforcement agencies like the IRS or the SEC, or ginning up and playing up scandals about them in order to reduce their ability to function.

Step 3: Oh my gosh, there's a deficit between what the government takes in as revenue and has to pay out! Nobody could have possibly predicted this would happen or that it would impair the government's ability to pay bills! (Because it's not like 2 seconds worth of thought could tell you that if somebody got a pay cut at their job, they'd be less able to pay their bills if they didn't make up that lost pay somewhere else.) Well, there's only one thing to do now; cut spending! (Definitely not try to increase revenue, the way someone who got a pay cut might look for a second job or a better paying one.) Man, *insert beloved public program like Social Security or Medicare here* sure does cost a fair bit to run, maybe we ought to look at cutting that... purely in the name of fiscal responsibility, of course, not because we want to take money and healthcare from our beloved parents and grandparents.

Rinse and repeat as needed until Ayn Rand paradise/nightmarish Dickensian hell hole has been achieved.

They / their representatives / talking heads have stated it several times in the last weeks that indeed, the next thing we must do to save the country is get rid of Social Security and Medicare.  I heard one just yesterday interviewed by Brian Leher on 10 AM 0 noon WNYC - NPR show.  Along with how New York etc. must suffer because other states have been supporting them all these years.  (Stupid BL never mentioned that every study ever conducted shows that NY gives out in taxes etc., far more than it ever gets back.)  The guy couldn't even hold back the smirk in his voice.

And when are people going to get through their skulls that the Dems are not getting back any clout, and even if they did, it would be over a smoking ruin of what once was a great nation and economy.  Somehow everybody refuses to factor in Climate Crash into everything as well -- except, of course, the insurance companies.

It's over. folks, it's over.  No matter how many men in politics and media lose their jobs women are not going to be running the world, sexual abuse and harassment in the work place (if there are work places) will not end, and the destroyers have won it all.  O yah, they are also making sure contraception goes away too.  Nothing to eat or drink but women are going to be forced to keep churning out babies so guys have something to abuse, whether the guys have power or don't have power, every guy can have power over some woman.

 

[DMC]

9 minutes ago, Zorral said:

It's over. folks, it's over.

 

[denstorebog]

Well, this doesn't seem sinister at all.

 

[Mexal]

More in the Senate bill. To be clear, when she says school teachers won't be able to deduct cost of school supplies, she means the House bill. The Senate bill keeps that in. That being said, they just raised the amount of depreciation costs rich people can deduct from their luxury cars by quite a bit. 

FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS!

 

[OldGimletEye]

23 hours ago, Zorral said:

It's over. folks, it's over. 

Perhaps. But, I dislike the idea of losing to conservative clowns. So I think it's still worth fighting. Its kind of like when Gimli says, "Certainty of death, small chance of success- what are we waiting for?"

[Sivin]

7 minutes ago, OldGimletEye said:

Perhaps. But, I dislike the idea of losing to conservative clowns. So I think it's still worth fighting. Its kind of like when Gimli says, "Certainty of death, small chance of success- what are we waiting for?"

Not to be a raincloud, but while I agree in sentiment it's more like "Certainty of defeat, go out in a blaze of glory." 

Think about it people, our political Alamo is led by Joe Biden, Al Franken, and Nancy fucking Pelosi. I hope the aliens remember, at least. When they discover the ruins of a failed sentient species. 

[OldGimletEye]

23 hours ago, WinterFox said:

Not to be a raincloud, but while I agree in sentiment it's more like "Certainty of defeat, go out in a blaze of glory." 

That is still miles better than getting rolled over like a dead fish.

[IamMe90]

1 minute ago, OldGimletEye said:

That is still miles better than getting rolled over like a dead fish.

It's the right thing to do, but I'm not sure I'd agree that it's "miles better." the is fish is dead all the same, whether by rolling or blaze of glory. 

[Toth]

11 minutes ago, WinterFox said:

Not to be a raincloud, but while I agree in sentiment it's more like "Certainty of defeat, go out in a blaze of glory." 

Think about it people, our political Alamo is led by Joe Biden, Al Franken, and Nancy fucking Pelosi. I hope the aliens remember, at least. When they discover the ruins of a failed sentient species. 

Then thank physics that the only traces of civilization these aliens will find is good ol' pyramids and modern plastic waste. With all servers containing Trump's twitter history having eroded away, they probably won't get to know just how stupid we were in our self-destruction.

[OldGimletEye]

23 hours ago, IamMe90 said:

It's the right thing to do, but I'm not sure I'd agree that it's "miles better." the is fish is dead all the same, whether by rolling or blaze of glory. 

Choice one is simply submit. Choice two is at least to fight. Given whats at stake I consider choice two to be miles better. Maybe we lose in the end, but there is at least a chance we can put a hurtin' on the clowns that have done this stuff. That makes it worth it.

[Sivin]

9 minutes ago, OldGimletEye said:

That is still miles better than getting rolled over like a dead fish.

Agreed

You know that thing this morning was a joke, right?

7 minutes ago, IamMe90 said:

It's the right thing to do, but I'm not sure I'd agree that it's "miles better." the is fish is dead all the same, whether by rolling or blaze of glory. 

Of course it's better. Pride is what gets people to fight, and sometimes it's worth fighting for. 

2 minutes ago, Toth said:

Then thank physics that the only traces of civilization these aliens will find is good ol' pyramids and modern plastic waste. With all servers containing Trump's twitter history having eroded away, they probably won't get to know just how stupid we were in our self-destruction.

Nah, we have books. And I'm sure that as long as things don't go the nuclear way someone will be bothered to create a durable machine that can effectively communicate our history. 

A lot of buildings will remain, the Coliseum and Hagia Sophia are each over 1500 years old and you can walk around in the latter right now if you live in Turkey. I'll take your word that our electronics won't survive, but there will be more than just the waste. Although, that will be abundant. I bet you that if aliens find the remains of humanity in like 400 years their first assumption will be that we died of plague because of the tiny plastic particles that infested the earth and gave us cancer or something. 

[denstorebog]

24 minutes ago, WinterFox said:

Not to be a raincloud, but while I agree in sentiment it's more like "Certainty of defeat, go out in a blaze of glory." 

Think about it people, our political Alamo is led by Joe Biden, Al Franken, and Nancy fucking Pelosi. I hope the aliens remember, at least. When they discover the ruins of a failed sentient species. 

I would follow Joe Biden into Mordor any time, so you're not really getting me down on that one. Plus, I'd like to think that the next Great War will be fought alongside Harris, Gilibrand and Kennedy III and quite a few others I have high hopes for.

[OldGimletEye]

23 hours ago, WinterFox said:

You know that thing this morning was a joke, right?

Not sayin’ I’m the sharpest tool in the crayon box, or is it the brightest in crayon in the shed? Can't remember. But, anyway, I think I might have missed something here.

[Sivin]

9 minutes ago, denstorebog said:

I would follow Joe Biden into Mordor any time, so you're not really getting me down on that one. Plus, I'd like to think that the next Great War will be fought alongside Harris, Gilibrand and Kennedy III and quite a few others I have high hopes for.

That's fair. Biden's pretty great. Besides Harris i don't know nothin' about the other two and that's the problem.

4 minutes ago, OldGimletEye said:

Not sayin’ I’m the sharpest tool in the crayon box, or is it the brightest in crayon in the shed? Can't remember. But, anyway, I think I might have missed something here.

The below, I wrote it at you yesterday. (my bad on the morning thing) 

On 12/1/2017 at 3:27 PM, WinterFox said:

Keynes thought that the Anglo-Franco-German-Austrian-Serbian-Russian conflict would end in short order when the financial liquidity of the Great Powers evaporated months into any potential outbreak of hostilities. 

Therefore everything he has ever said or done or thought before or after is invalid and the tax cuts will save AMERICA! 

#Republican

 

[OldGimletEye]

23 hours ago, WinterFox said:

That's fair. Biden's pretty great. Besides Harris i don't know nothin' about the other two and that's the problem.

The below, I wrote it at you yesterday. (my bad on the morning thing) 

 

Oh yeah, I knew. I chuckled when I read it.

[Toth]

9 minutes ago, WinterFox said:

Nah, we have books. And I'm sure that as long as things don't go the nuclear way someone will be bothered to create a durable machine that can effectively communicate our history. 

A lot of buildings will remain, the Coliseum and Hagia Sophia are each over 1500 years old and you can walk around in the latter right now if you live in Turkey. I'll take your word that our electronics won't survive, but there will be more than just the waste. Although, that will be abundant. I bet you that if aliens find the remains of humanity in like 400 years their first assumption will be that we died of plague because of the tiny plastic particles that infested the earth and gave us cancer or something. 

Can't argue about the colosseum, stone buildings will prevail. Though the Hagia Sophia only stands because it is kept in service and even this only barely. They have severe trouble with it breaking apart and Istanbul being in an earthquake-prone area doesn't make it likely that it wouldn't just collapse a few decades after maintenance ceases.

Yeah, maybe you are right, somebody might get the idea to create a time capsule, maybe even by launching a satellite into space...

... and why do I suddenly have to think of how the Star Trek TNG episode in which Picard got the memories of some dude living through the last years of his dying planet implanted by such a time capsule beacon would look like with our earth. Picard would wake up, thinking "My god, how could they have been this stupid to vote for cartoon villains out of spite?!?"

But I guess that's how WW3 happened in ST-canon...

[Toth]

One thing is clear, if we survive this and if there are still history books and history lessons in the far future, students reading about this time will wonder how the fuck it could come to this.

[denstorebog]

7 minutes ago, Toth said:

One thing is clear, if we survive this and if there are still history books and history lessons in the far future, students reading about this time will wonder how the fuck it could come to this.

Not necessarily, since there's a 50/50 chance that those students will be living in underground caves and worshiping a buried nuclear warhead named "Trump".

[OldGimletEye]

On 12/2/2017 at 4:00 PM, denstorebog said:

Well, this doesn't seem sinister at all.

So, if I'm reading this correctly, is Putin and Trump becoming "libertarians" favorite dictators?

Meanwhile, Pinochet cries his eyes out, and says,"Hey guys don't forget about me!"