Politics 2017 part 4

[Namutree]

Meh, that's moronism from the opposite end to the 'muslim ban' or a 'muslim registry' and makes me want to give Mr/ Miss Rose an intellectual atomic wedgie. Completely ignoring the massive disparity in deaths due to the two extremist views is at very, very best facile and specious. There are more incidents of beatnik hippies/ rainbow haired SJWs protesting in the streets and being arrested than there are muslim extremist incidents as well, somehow I suspect that would not be regarded as a 'quantitatively, significantly, statistically' large threat to public peace.

 

A muslim registry is a stupid idea, that's a stupid and counter productive counter argument (particularly so since it can be a good counter) because anyone who disagrees has an instant indication of a - genuinely- bad faith argument being made so can dismiss it and any similar arguments out of hand.

All that and you have to take into account how many more pro-lifers there are compared to muslims. When basically half the country are pro-life it's obvious that there is going to be more terrorist attacks from them. Compare the per-capita and it doesn't look so good for muslims anyway. Even worse since starting with 1970 is stupid to begin with. At their per-capita rate if there were as many muslims as pro-lifers in the US it should be around 1050 attacks since 1970. A much more serious problem even if you excluded the difference in damage between the attacks.

 

EDIT: Just to clarify, I also think a muslim registry is a stupid idea.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Namutree

[Guard Dog]

Shifting gears a bit. Words have again failed the intellectual left https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/us/middlebury-college-charles-murray-bell-curve-protest.html?_r=0

 

I am not familiar with Charles Murry or his book The Bell Curve (other than the fact he did not invent the mathematical concept of Gaussian Distribution we think of as the bell curve). The Southern Poverty Law Center says he's racist but by their definition so am I. But this time they (left wing student protesters) did not just shut down a speech, they assaulted the speaker and the left leaning professor who was supposed to debate him. She ended up in the hospital. Not only will dissenting opinions not be tolerated by the left but participation in debate against them will not be tolerated either.

 

Way to go little Brown Shirts.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Guard Dog

[Volourn]

If someone honestly things he statistics and reasoning is wrong  shouldn't you want to debate him? I mean it should be easy to demonstrate how wrong he is right?

[Wrath of Dagon]

 

I would let people buy into Medicare, but Republicans in Congress are dead set against it.

But... but... think of all the lost FREEDOM in the revenue streams of insurance companies and care providers! 

 

(On your latter point, I think the thinking is not to have replacement federal regulations, but instead to allow folks to buy from the state they choose.  Which would trigger a classic "race to the bottom," as one or more "enterprising" states would inevitably strip away all the regulations that insurers hate most to attract them to move their HQ to that state.  Sort of like how every credit card issuer is in either DE or SD.  Costs would likely be lower, but it would also make effective consumer protection regulation very difficult.)

 

I guess that must be what they're thinking. But health insurance is a lot more complicated than credit cards, and a lot of credit is federally regulated now. An insurance regulator in Wisconsin would be completely unable to deal with problems of a customer in Texas, as he's got no jurisdiction here at all. And the insurance company would still have to comply with all the local laws, but there would be no one to make sure that they do. Major insurance companies are already participating in most states, so it wouldn't even make much difference. So yes, it just shows that people who think this is some kind of a holy grail don't know much about how health insurance works at all.

[Raithe]

Because some politicians do seem to go to these sorts of places..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ev4HY6BUbY

[Malcador]

Shifting gears a bit. Words have again failed the intellectual left https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/us/middlebury-college-charles-murray-bell-curve-protest.html?_r=0

 

I am not familiar with Charles Murry or his book The Bell Curve (other than the fact he did not invent the mathematical concept of Gaussian Distribution we think of as the bell curve). The Southern Poverty Law Center says he's racist but by their definition so am I. But this time they (left wing student protesters) did not just shut down a speech, they assaulted the speaker and the left leaning professor who was supposed to debate him. She ended up in the hospital. Not only will dissenting opinions not be tolerated by the left but participation in debate against them will not be tolerated either.

 

Way to go little Brown Shirts.

Nice wide brush there as always. Ah, people are funny.

[Guard Dog]

 

Shifting gears a bit. Words have again failed the intellectual left https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/us/middlebury-college-charles-murray-bell-curve-protest.html?_r=0

 

I am not familiar with Charles Murry or his book The Bell Curve (other than the fact he did not invent the mathematical concept of Gaussian Distribution we think of as the bell curve). The Southern Poverty Law Center says he's racist but by their definition so am I. But this time they (left wing student protesters) did not just shut down a speech, they assaulted the speaker and the left leaning professor who was supposed to debate him. She ended up in the hospital. Not only will dissenting opinions not be tolerated by the left but participation in debate against them will not be tolerated either.

 

Way to go little Brown Shirts.

Nice wide brush there as always. Ah, people are funny.

 

The brush may be wide but the color suits

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

It's a step up from limp wristed liberals I guess.

[Barothmuk]

The brush may be wide but the color suits

Meh, Nazis are still on your side

[Azdeus]

It's a step up from limp wristed liberals I guess.

 

You simply can't win I guess. :/

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

 

It's a step up from limp wristed liberals I guess.

 

 

You simply can't win I guess. :/

It would appear so.

 

 

Portland Anarchists fix the road

 

This makes me laugh more than I should.

[Hurlshort]

Awesome! I actually use a pothole analogy to explain how bureaucracy works to my students. 

[Agiel]

Something actually disconcerting:

 

Trump steps in to keep 30-year-old NSC aide

[Raithe]

[Barothmuk]

I can honestly say I didn't expect Trump to win the election but always thought, in the off chance that he did, that by virtue of the sheer destructiveness of his policies the left would be dragged kicking and screaming leftward and actually begin to organise around issues pertaining to class.

 

And that still may be true however it certainly won't be done with Democrat support. Were they smart they'd have attempted to court the left back to the centre/right with some basic class rhetoric/handouts but instead they seem to be going this route:

 

 

 

 

Basically adhering to what is quite honestly a very disturbing political narrative of supposedly unified "race interests". This will of course only continue to empower the rising racist far-right.

[Bartimaeus]

...and disenfranchise those of us that just don't buy into this garbage.

[Malcador]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/16/trump_s_budget_proposal_guts_just_about_everything_but_defense_and_border.html

 

Pentagon must really need that money

[Gfted1]

On the bright side, 1500 new jobs will need filling.

[Malcador]

Hopefully PBS endures.

[Hurlshort]

I posted this earlier, but it probably bears repeating.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.f5c75f8dfea4

 

My confidence wasn't super high in this administration, but it's pretty much below sea level at this point. Wasteful spending, baseless fearmongering, and bad tweets seem to be the trend for the next 4 years.

Edited March 16, 2017 by Hurlshot

[Wrath of Dagon]

I posted this earlier, but it probably bears repeating.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.f5c75f8dfea4

 

My confidence wasn't super high in this administration, but it's pretty much below sea level at this point. Wasteful spending, baseless fearmongering, and bad tweets seem to be the trend for the next 4 years.

The study came out in 2015 and the article was published before Trump even took office, so why are you blaming him for that? Also the $125 billion is over 5 years, so not quite as much as might seem at first blush. Hopefully Mattis and Trump do act on those recommendations, the procurement process and probably everything else over there is a complete mess. Edited March 16, 2017 by Wrath of Dagon

[Hurlshort]

You really think they will act on it? I am blaming him because he is in a position to act on it, and yet only seems to be throwing more money at the problem instead of actual reform. Those are taxpayer dollars being wasted. You seem mighty quick to assume they will do the right thing.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I can honestly say I didn't expect Trump to win the election but always thought, in the off chance that he did, that by virtue of the sheer destructiveness of his policies the left would be dragged kicking and screaming leftward and actually begin to organise around issues pertaining to class.And that still may be true however it certainly won't be done with Democrat support. Were they smart they'd have attempted to court the left back to the centre/right with some basic class rhetoric/handouts but instead they seem to be going this route:

Basically adhering to what is quite honestly a very disturbing political narrative of supposedly unified "race interests". This will of course only continue to empower the rising racist far-right.

This is good. The Democratic Party would never move beyond milquetoast liberalism and driving off anyone remotely class consiouss in the US still holding on will hopefully make a split happen. The issue is where those people go, a socdem party like the recent Green Party or a more radical organization. At this point I'm willing to bet on the former in the short-term, with a Trump victory in 2020 and maybe an economic downturn that wounds the right.

[Wrath of Dagon]

You really think they will act on it? I am blaming him because he is in a position to act on it, and yet only seems to be throwing more money at the problem instead of actual reform. Those are taxpayer dollars being wasted. You seem mighty quick to assume they will do the right thing.

I'm not assuming, I said "hopefully". Even if they do, it'll take a long time and will run into furious bureaucratic resistance. Meanwhile the military is in a shocking state of readiness. Also the spending increase isn't as much as it seems, as it's only from the very severe budge sequestration level, which hasn't actually been triggered since 2013.

[Hurlshort]

It is hard to take the readiness argument at face value when we are cutting the State department budgets. If we are really worried about going to war with China and Russia, that would seem to be as important as military readiness.