imaenoon
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About imaenoon
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Once the election's over, the only thing to do is hope that the new president gets it right. I have some hope for Trump, but I'll probably always some problems with him. To be fair, a lot of that is my fault. His accent and word choice are off-putting to me, and that's simply not fair to him. As long as his words correctly convey the thought, it really doesn't matter which one he uses. His accent should be a complete non-issue. Nevertheless, I'll be reading a lot of transcripts rather than watching speeches while he's in office. :shrug: I normally read transcripts anyway. He has some policy approaches I don't like and I don't trust him more than I could throw him. Probably considerably less, but we've gotta give him a chance. This has been a great thread. 50 pages of back and forth with some gems thrown in there every now and then. It's great to see different arguments and find merit in them somewhere. Covered a wide range of subjects in addition to the presidential election. Interesting to see what the next four years will bring. Hope to spar with you guys again sometime.
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So, Housing and Urban Development goes to Carson. Interesting. For his agenda, I think Price was a better fit for HHS, but it might have been a slap in the face to Carson not to get it. He seems to be happy with HUD and I'm hopeful he'll do a good job. Carson is a little weird and he has a strange sort of delivery, but He's got great and complex ideas that he seems to find some difficulty expressing effectively to the population.
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I sure as hell would. That's what I mean, Bruce. There is room to to criticize the president on foreign affairs, and I might disagree with Clinton, but I'd never want to look like I favored a foreign governments over her. Anyhow, she was clearly better equipped for foreign affairs.
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I think Trump's phone conversation with Taiwain (as President *elect* I might add) would not be a particularly big deal if the press had not made more of it than it is. Their breathless coverage of all things Trump amplifies everything the man does. I don't think our relationship would be jeopardized by the phone call any more than any other number of factors that were in play before Trump won the election. In fact, even before he announced his candidacy. The Chinese are building an island in the South China sea in order to proclaim sovereignty (and therefore control) over a whole swath of water. The press is making a huge issue of a phone call? They could have reported on it. Sure, that's the job of the press. They didn't do that. The Democrats came out swinging on the issue and the press used it as an avenue of attack outside of simply reporting. Saying that it bucked the status quo (as if we should want to keep the status quo anyway) is perfectly legit. They're also free to spend air time, ink, and pixels on the phone call as well. However, at some point the extent of the coverage becomes newsworthy itself, and endless commentary, punditry, and editorial angst helps fuel Democrat opportunism that elevates the issue from a complaint lodged by the Chinese to a full blown international affair. Trump might be a tool and some people might rabidly and unreasonably hate the guy, but he's our guy right now, like him or not. If it came down to a choice between piling on Hillary Clinton or siding with her against the Russians, trust me, politics in the United States would have stopped at the waters edge in my house.
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We should recognize the potential impact on both our allies and competitors in the region, but the idea that we should tailor our activities based on fear of any adversary is an insult. I don't hate China, but I damned well don't think America should stand in fear of them, let alone cower. This wink wink nod nod nudge nudge diplomacy crap has been going on for a long time, and I don't think it's gotten us far. We prevailed against the Soviet Empire *after* we named them for what they were. Throughout history, we've only been able to fight effectively against ideas, ideology, and movements that we've been willing to name. I won't say that China is our *enemy.* I don't think they are. ...But they don't act like friends. If they occupy that grey area between ally and adversary, then I would suggest that we owe no them considerably less control over whom we contact than we owe Britain or South Korea, and we would never forgo talking to Taiwan our of fear of British protest. I've expressed my thoughts about Trump several times, but if he refuses to bow before China I'm sure as hell not going to complain about it. One China sounds good and all, but One China that tells us whom we can and cannot contact does not. It's a dance and we end up being the wallflower.
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Texfatass? I think it's time for an epic rap battle. California versuuuuuuusssss Texas! I can't figure out if the hate is an act or for real, but the debate is entertaining. Probably not much to do with the US election, but neither is women serving in combat roles and we're talking about that. :shrug: The way of threads, I suppose. Meanwhile, I don't think Trump's phone conversation with Tsai Ing-wen is worth the loss of breath on the part of the press. However, I think his threat about punitive taxes on US corporations moving around their operations is tough. I haven't read the specifics, and I'm not sure they exist, but if he's going protectionist instead of just cutting taxes on returning businesses, he should simply lower the tax rate, provide a holiday for corporations bringing earnings back into the US, and then simply say there will be a two tier system. One for people who take their operations overseas and one for people who maintain their operations here. Naw, I'd still hate it. Either the rat bastard believes in the market or he doesn't. Just get the Supreme Court right, ya jerk.
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Gun violence was a big part of the discussion last election here. I notice that Finland had a random act of gun violence. Hopefully Elerond and the other Finish folks are okay. Finland has a number of gun owners as I understand it and yet gun violence has been relatively rare there compared to here. I'm not for further restrictions on gun ownership in the United States, although I do think laws that are already passed should be enforced. The weapon the murderer in Finland used was a hunting rilfe, which is scary. The real anti-personnel weapon is the pistol, though. Rifles are deadly, but they serve a practical purpose in society. Pistols don't do anything better than rifles other than kill people at close quarters. That said, I don't advocate banning them. Anyhow, hope all you Finish folk are good and healthy. Meanwhile, Oakland saw a fire that killed off ~30 people, but no matter what we do with firearms, there's no banning fire.
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Hell, with Netflix half the people I know are watching some sort of English series or another. We've also got some Canadian shows that we watch. The wife in particular loves the Murdoch Mysteries. Doc Martin is one of my favorites. British tv can be great! The other 99% of the time it's like watching paint dry, but when it's good it's damned good.
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Okay, that's it! Texas... California... we're locking you two in a room and we're not letting you out until you shake hands and make up!
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http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/03/politics/jill-stein-drops-pennsylvania-recount/index.html So, no recount in Pennsylvania... Stein will get a big crowd when she makes a big announcement in front of Trump Tower on Monday. She's playing this for what it's worth. She has a losing hand and she's trying to get every bit out of her losing hand that she can. Now I'm waiting for folks to say that it's unfair that Pennsylvania didn't want to incur the million if not multi-million dollar cost of a recount in a state that size when 60k+ vote difference over alleged 'hacking' where the person making the allegations admits there is no hard evidence that such happened. Hell, I think Trump should have had Stein be his running mate. They both have solid steel balls. The chutzpah! EDIT: what a difference a 'k' makes.
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The real influence of populism\nationalism in the EU
imaenoon replied to BruceVC's topic in Way Off-Topic
I think the EU should be more responsive to the member nations. The idea of the EU is good, but the execution has stripped member nations of the autonomy that is the definition of 'nation.' The smaller members can be railroaded by the larger members, but the larger members are stuck trying to address weaknesses in individual member banks. The euro is at once hostage to problems in weaker nations and those nations can't use monetary policy in dealing with their own individual problems. I'm not rooting for the EU to fail. I'm not rooting for it to succeed. I'm definitely rooting for Europe, but the EU is a different story. One where Germany basically doesn't bully members and where shady accounting doesn't keep propping up member nations would be great. One where Brussels and its massive bureaucracy dictates the rules at the expense of the sovereignty of the members is not good. -
http://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-s-400-billion-debt-worries-analysts-6812264.php I don't hate California. I also don't hate Jerry Brown. I actually very rarely hate politicians and when I do, I will tell you with utmost sincerity my real ire is reserved for people in my own party who show themselves to be faithless or corrupt. The state is required to balance its budget, but that means floating bonds. When the legislature isn't screwing things up, the voters themselves will simultaneously vote for lower taxes and higher spending. Pet projects incur more debt and education by law get essentially a cut of anything that comes down the pike. Want to fund an infrastructure project? Better secure twice as much so you can pay tribute to education. That spending isn't spent efficiently, so schools still have problems. That said, education isn't as bad in California as people will often claim, but it's in everyone's interest to deride education in California. Conservatives can point to it in order to promote vouchers which is probably one of the weak point for Democrats since minority groups are starting to favor vouchers in significant numbers. Liberals can deride education in order to ask for more funding. Education is another big can of worms, and I don't even want to delve too deeply into it, only to cite it as one example of the weird budgeting process. California isn't alone in these issues, which is really my problem. Western democracies have serious structural problems and eventually the chickens will all come home to roost.
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California isn't going to secede. It would require the rest of the states to let it go. Administratively, there is theoretically a process by which it could be done, but the other states won't let California go and it wouldn't the bed of roses that some Californians envision. As for our 'balanced budget?' bwahahahaha several minutes later hahahaha Whew, that was a good one. California is house poor, built on debt, and an awful lot of what state does, both as a larger entity and by county and various communities, is done by taking on more debt. The state looks good right now in the same way that a failing farmer looks flush right after he's secured another loan from a big bank but still manages to spend more money than his income can support in the long haul. There will be a reckoning in California, and it won't be pretty. Of course, I believe that's true of all western democracies in some way or another.
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Hey guys. New member, long time lurker. I've been playing this game called Sunless Sea. There are so many remarkable story events in the game that I couldn't even find a place to start describing them. The Station III is probably the best (and most depressing), followed closely by the Visage ceremony and the Tireless Mechanic storyline (mostly if you really think about the fate of the Unsettled Sage and *really* look at the avatar for the Fulgent Impeller). You don't have to read the stories. The gameplay is fun enough to ignore the text, but the text itself tends to the brief and it's worth it to read every paragraph, every sentence, every comma. I tried several lifetimes before Maybe's Daughter returned from the Bazaar as Maybe's Rival. I've had to murder the dread imposter called the Urbane Magician about three times as many as I've celebrated with the Satisfied Magician. Never once have I considered doing anything other than avenging my comrade. I've never once turned my eyes away from the Presbyterate Adventuress' last stand against her otherworldly foe. I've always tried to help the snow child, even though one or two of those attempts have been fruitless. It's sad to see it row away, but even sadder to see it melt. Pigmote Isle... I plan my early game based entirely on how I'm going to ensure Pigmote Isle will thrive. I've already told too much about the game, but even with all that there's so much more to experience. This is my 2016 game of the year, without question. I recommend it without hesitation. I've completed it by retiring with wealth and by burying my father's bones. I've died or simply been satisfied to retire without meeting my 'victory condition' even more often. I'm planning on writing my memoires next. At this point, I have exactly 20 hours less on Sunless Sea than New Vegas, and I *might* actually like Sunless Sea more than New Vegas. If that's not high enough praise to recommend the game, it *might* actually be tied with Planescape: Torment. There is no higher praise for a game.
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Great, a den of Bourbonites. <.< Well, more Scotch for me, I guess.
