Durckad

Piece of shit violated the NAP. He's fair game for the hunters now.

But then where would Trump conduct his foreign policy?

Headline: Trump takes shit on American flag Republican 1: Well, I don't agree with everything he does but at least he was presidential about it. Republican 2: That flag deserved it! It was probably made in China! Republican 3: That's it! Show them Elites! *promptly shits shelf* MAGA! The current Republican party in a nutbag-shell.

Great! I hope you enjoy them.

I just discovered a band called Mother's Cake from Austria. Kind of a mix of progressive rock, psychedelic, and funk. The very little I've heard of them so far is great and right up my alley; upbeat, energetic, and instrumentally diverse. I would highly recommend giving them a shot if you're a fan of the Mars Volta.

Don't you worry, in Trump's second and third terms, he'll become much more restrained and presidential.

While I definitely prefer Sanders (and Warren and Buttigieg and Castro and Booker) to the almost walking corpse of Biden, I really, really hope that if Biden wins the primary, he wins it big. I'd hate for a close or contested primary to hand the election to Trump because of bad blood between various supporters.

Pfft. Do you think a silly question such as 'Where is the money going to go go to?' would stop the Trump Administration? Anecdotally, I heard a coworker last week saying this exact thing. So yes, the stupid is out there.

Every OTHER Tuesday? Dude, at least aim for the moon before we hand over all power to Dear Leader Zabzie.

@Lollygag Yeah, everytime I try to quote, something goes wrong so, no more of that for me. I can see that but I took the analogy to be more about identifying specific problems and ruling out simpler, targeted solutions first rather than bypassing that altogether and going through the long-term chaos that comes with tearing up the entire house complex US economy. I think the issue here is that the history of US politics suggests that those applying the simpler, targeted solution are often wont to declare victory, pat themselves on the back, and forget about the issue entirely, mostly because even getting that simpler, targeted fix is so fucking difficult to do. After applying multiple, targeted solutions over a period of time, someone does need to chime in and say, "Maybe we should just take a look at the whole plumbing system here?" And again, ultimately, we (ie, the US) just has a fundamental disagreement of whether a simple, targeted solution will result in any meaningful improvement in the lives of the citizenry. Sanders (and Warren to a lesser extent) doesn't think it will and the more moderates voices disagree.  Republicans in power totally agree on there being a big 'ole clog (insert the McConnell smirk here). For the average Republican, they're moving towards populism. If we're talking about trickle-down economics, then no I don't think they do agree that it's a problem at all. Just look at how many Trump supporters trot out the same, nonsensical, neo-conservative arguments in favor of trickle-down economics despite, ostensibly, being populists on the surface. But, yes, they certainly do believe that there are clogs in the system, they're just pointing in different places than Democrats.

UBI might be even more critical if Climate Change gets really bad. Like if millions of US citizens are suddenly displaced and the arable lands start undergoing desertification, feeling like shit because you don't have a job is going to be the least of anyone's concerns and as 'fantastic' as the free market is at weathering massive, systemic shocks, I don't see it providing a useful, dependable solution right away. But yes, you are probably correct, I don't think most in the US will support a UBI until after it's needed. It's the American tradition of ignoring problems until they start affecting suburban, upper-middle-class families. Yes, unemployment is made to be temporary and relatively unattractive as it currently exists. UBI would fill a different role and would require some pretty significant changes to the US (and other countries) economy, along with a cultural change, so it need not necessarily fall prey to the same views that people hold of unemployment. Some sort of job guarantee would likely require even more money to manage than UBI. Like if you are paying someone to do a bullshit job that doesn't need to exist, wouldn't you also need to pay a bunch of people to manage those bullshit jobs and make sure people show up for them and do them even if they're pointless? And for the jobs to have any meaning, they would likely need to pay well above the minimum wage; otherwise, what's the point? Someone does a bullshit job and then has to get a second bullshit (or real) job to be able to afford food and housing? It seems needlessly convoluted to achieve a relatively straightforward goal. I do think there are plenty of non-bullshit jobs that could be on a job guarantee program (infrastructure maintenance/repair, for example). Still, not everyone is going to be able to do that kind of work, whether because of a lack of knowledge/training or because of physical issues. So not a perfect solution. Like all solutions to potential problems, UBI likely will have some underlying issues, both with its implementation and underlying effects. Still, IMO, it's a far more elegant solution than a job guarantee program, and at least it's a real attempt at a solution as opposed to just waiting for the free market to fix it.

Unfortunately, not everyone agrees that the 'clog' is the only issue with the plumbing. Hell, not even everyone (everyone being Republicans) can agree on the existence of the clog itself so I'm not sure such analogies really hold that much weight when discussing the more complex issues with the US economy.

Not to call you out specifically on this, but at this point in 2016, how sure were you that Trump was going to win the Republican nomination? And if he did, how sure were you that he'd win the election? I hate trotting this out, but how many people here were hoping for a Trump win in the Republican primary because he'd be so easy for Hillary to beat?

Warren was in absolute top form tonight. At first, it felt like desperation, but then she gutted Bloomberg. Yeah, Knives Out Warren is best Warren. Too bad she's probably dead in the water right now, but hopefully she takes some of that momentum from Klobuchar and at least goes somewhere with it. Sanders was... fine. He was Sanders. You get what you get here. Honestly, while he hasn't delivered an absolute dud of a debate (that I've seen), he hasn't knocked one out of the park yet. Biden seems to age 5 years for every debate that passes. What happened to the guy that hammered a weaselly Paul Ryan into the ground? Buttigieg is smart, articulate, and charismatic and speaks in vague platitudes. He would be the perfect politician. I want to disagree with the fact that he's probably the Smiler deep down, but I just... can't do it. I've never been impressed with Klobuchar before and I wasn't again tonight. She's absolutely... okay. And Bloomberg... well, contrary to popular opinion, I don't think he was a complete disaster, but why did he think this was a good idea? Did he think he could go on stage and make everyone else look better? He had one or two decent moments, but otherwise, he looked totally unprepared. I mean, that was his best response to the NDA question? THAT?! Seriously, the worst, most pathetic answer ever. He had to have known that the others would be coming at him over that. Also, Bloomie's line about being the only one to run a business on the stage and the resulting silence was golden. Bust seriously, I support Bloomie continuing on just so he can be a decent punching bag for Warren and Sanders. At least, that is putting his money to good use. TLDR, Warren won. Give her the presidential belt of freedom and liberty or whatever the fuck they get for winning these things.

LOOK AT WHAT SOSHULIZM DOES TO YOU. CHECKMATE SOSHULISTS. I agree, I don't see a path for Warren anymore. It really sucks that Warren seemingly flamed out so early while Biden has coasted along on name recognition alone whilst being a terrible candidate. Even worse that he might have some path to relevance with SC (I don't think he does, but then again, I'm not very smart) and Warren has... absolutely nothing at this point.