U.S. Politics: Oh Donnie Boy, the Feds are calling...

[DMC]

10 minutes ago, Triskele said:

The tragedy for Warren is that if it was all about platforms, having good policies and policies that could actually happen, she would be a very strong candidate and possibly the front runner.

Disagree, her platform is pretty weak, and stereotypically unrealistic.  Just because she was an "academic" (really more of an administrator) doesn't mean she's an expert at all on policy.  Hell, she was a Republican until 1995.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

@Simon Steele

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I love Sanders. I love the progressive socialists he's inspired such as AOC, but I am under no illusion that even if he (or she or anyone) were elected, that they could enact the necessary change to the problems you noted. The system is so entrenched in money, how long would it take for that to change? More than four years. More than eight.

This is why I voted for Hillary over Sanders while freely admitting that I like him a lot more. The current political environment is probably not ready for the changes progressive socialists want to make, and their policy failures could ultimately lead to the doom of their movement. They'll have to go slow and steady rather than attempting to make massive, quick overhauls, and over-promising results that you cannot be achieved is probably a bad way to go about it. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Ha! Rich way to end the year:

Quote

President Trump should contribute his own money to fund his oft-promised border wall, GOP Rep. Walter Jones suggested last week.

The North Carolina Republican’s suggestion came as the government remained partially shuttered, with both sides gridlocked over funding for a barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border. Jones stressed that whatever compromise lawmakers reach in regards to the funding, the national debt should not be added to.

“We can’t afford to keep financing the provision of government services by borrowing more and more money,” Jones said in a statement. “It’s morally irresponsible and it’s got to stop.”

ones said border security is “essential” and funding should be “found internally” if Mexico won’t fork over money to help pay for it – something Trump has often promised would happen.

“As a wealthy man, the president might consider pledging some of his own funds as well,” Jones said.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republican-congressman-calls-on-trump-to-use-own-funds-for-border-wall

How can you pay for the wall when you're lying about your money and none of it is liquid? 

[Martell Spy]

9 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Ha! Rich way to end the year:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republican-congressman-calls-on-trump-to-use-own-funds-for-border-wall

How can you pay for the wall when you're lying about your money and none of it is liquid? 

Well, there is a certain bank that loves to give Trump loans. He is also popular with various autocrats that love to steal from their own people and place it in offshore accounts. I imagine withdrawing from Syria was worth something.

[lokisnow]

51 minutes ago, DMC said:

Well, when you only know one philosopher..

Don't like how large the field is, but thankfully there will be a dozen other options than those two.

I'm incredibly intrigued where you always seem to get these numbers from.  It must be a secret think tank that ends with "ass" the way you pull them out.

Classic logistics substitution curve applied to the senate: a body that changes incredibly slowly. I thought it a reasonable hypothesis, twelve years from now we might have five percent of senators are millennials.

[DMC]

3 minutes ago, lokisnow said:

Classic logistics substitution curve applied to the senate: a body that changes incredibly slowly. I thought it a reasonable hypothesis, twelve years from now we might have five percent of senators are millennials.

It just strikes as wholly arbitrary.  Why five in twelve years?  That's not something where past is prediction.  If anything, incumbents are in more trouble now than in recent history.

[SweetPea]

4 hours ago, Simon Steele said:

I'd say Jordan Peterson is their "philosopher"

No, he isn't. If you think that, you either don't know Jordan Peterson or you don't know the alt-right. Probably both. There is a big rift and a mutual dislike between the two. People in the alt-right see him as a stepping stone at best, but much more often, as a gatekeeper keeping people away from white nationalism. Jordan Peterson is all about individualism, the alt right is about collectivism. It's amazing how many people the fake news media has managed to convince that Jordan Peterson is alt right despite the glaring contradiction.

[DanteGabriel]

50 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

No, he isn't. If you think that, you either don't know Jordan Peterson or you don't know the alt-right. Probably both. There is a big rift and a mutual dislike between the two. People in the alt-right see him as a stepping stone at best, but much more often, as a gatekeeper keeping people away from white nationalism. Jordan Peterson is all about individualism, the alt right is about collectivism. It's amazing how many people the fake news media has managed to convince that Jordan Peterson is alt right despite the glaring contradiction.

I enjoy these lectures on the doctrines of the alt right from the disingenuous liar who once found it convenient to pretend he'd never heard of the Proud Boys.

[DMC]

Well, who would know better?

[Centrist Simon Steele]

1 hour ago, SweetPea said:

No, he isn't. If you think that, you either don't know Jordan Peterson or you don't know the alt-right. Probably both. There is a big rift and a mutual dislike between the two. People in the alt-right see him as a stepping stone at best, but much more often, as a gatekeeper keeping people away from white nationalism. Jordan Peterson is all about individualism, the alt right is about collectivism. It's amazing how many people the fake news media has managed to convince that Jordan Peterson is alt right despite the glaring contradiction.

It's weird how much Peterson supporters hate the fact that when alt-righters see him, they get hearts in their eyes. Tells you something is wrong with his approach. But he's also the philosopher of young lost white men who need a role model in these "difficult times for white men."

[DMC]

24 minutes ago, Triskele said:

What makes you say the bolded?

Education policy, and while everybody's taking Sanders' single-payer pledge, she seems the most mindlessly left on it.  When I observe her (sorry that sounds creepy) I see a woman that's tendency is to go as left as possible in order to garner support, not because she's taken any time to think about it.

[Martell Spy]

2 hours ago, DanteGabriel said:

I enjoy these lectures on the doctrines of the alt right from the disingenuous liar who once found it convenient to pretend he'd never heard of the Proud Boys.

Wait, you are actually saying what we say here is remembered and might be used against us in the future? Holy shit, man.

[Martell Spy]

1 hour ago, Simon Steele said:

It's weird how much Peterson supporters hate the fact that when alt-righters see him, they get hearts in their eyes. Tells you something is wrong with his approach. But he's also the philosopher of young lost white men who need a role model in these "difficult times for white men."

Yeah, I read an article, I think on the Atlantic, claiming that liberals should be afraid of this guy as he is convincing many young people of his point of view. But he is totally not an an alt-righter! He is this totally cool guy that is beyond all politics and has maximum charisma points. But the liberals all hate him be because his his an alpha male and they are all cuck betas! I personally thought I was still fighting the Trump nazis. I guess they have already realized Trump is a huge loser and have moved on.

[Altherion]

6 hours ago, lokisnow said:

In more cheerful news, the attacks on the robot scabs has finally started. _good!_

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/us/waymo-self-driving-cars-arizona-attacks.html

Silly humans, hasn't it occurred to you yet that resistance is futile?

[Darth Richard II]

1 hour ago, Altherion said:

Silly humans, hasn't it occurred to you yet that resistance is futile?

Love is a battlefield!

[A True Kaniggit]

2 hours ago, Altherion said:

Silly humans, hasn't it occurred to you yet that resistance is futile?

Ummm, I've seen the Terminator Documentaries. And in the end us flesh bags kicked your synthetic asses.

[DMC]

22 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Ummm, I've seen the Terminator Documentaries. And in the end us flesh bags kicked your synthetic asses.

I won't stipulate to that until Josh Friedman gets to finish Sarah Connor Chronicles, which is never.  Skynet is omnipresent, and that's not gonna change with John Connor as a stupid kid.

[SweetPea]

6 hours ago, DanteGabriel said:

I enjoy these lectures on the doctrines of the alt right from the disingenuous liar who once found it convenient to pretend he'd never heard of the Proud Boys.

Can you share with me the secret of your mind reading abilities? 

5 hours ago, Simon Steele said:

It's weird how much Peterson supporters hate the fact that when alt-righters see him, they get hearts in their eyes.

You really don't know what you're talking about, or you're just lying. Peterson's worldview is fundamentally diffeerent from that of the alt right. He is preaching individualism, and tries to discourage everyone from collectivist thinking. How in the world do you reconcile that with white nationalism? How do you explain the endless criticism of him coming from the alt right, being called things like cuck or Juden Peterstein, and the open hostility between them, if they just love him so much? Do you have any argument at all to support your assertion?

[lacuna]

NVM, not my place.

[OldGimletEye]

19 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

First the nitpick.

It's Nietzsche, with IE, not Neitzsche with EI. First I assumed it was a casual typo, but since you did it twice, I assume it's really a mistake.

Is the difference between a typo or a mistake an imaginary construct?

Does the fact, I made a mistake or typo because I'm a poor speller who tried to type with one hand, while drinking coffee with the other an imaginary made up event or is it real?

19 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Second I've never been that fond of Nietzsche. However, acknowledging that those are human constructs is one thing, what you do, or at what conclusions you arrive after that, that's an entirely different question. 

And how does one decide what to do with these constructs or make conclusions about them if everything is a social construct, and presumably arbitrary, It would seem here you'd be using one group of arbitrary constructs to do something about another set of arbitrary constructs. I don't get the distinction you are trying to make here.

 

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Since I don't want to derail the thread too much (and I think this is better placed in Scot's Imagination thread),

It probably does belong on that thread. But, not everyone on the left loves the epistemological stance that post modernist take, to include Marxist, Analytical Marxist, and Rawlsian liberals. And this is a point of contention on the left, I think, and relevant to the future of left of center politics.

My basic issue is this: How do I lecture conservatives about something like the consequences of global warming, or anything else for that matter, while taking a post modernist stance. I think the answer is you don't, not with a straight face at least.

19 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

what else are those things if not human constructs? God given truths?

Perhaps only if god were an arbitrary and irrational being. I think this question got dispatched by the ancient Greeks awhile back.