Everybody and their mom seems to agree with Gary Johnson's positions on pretty much everything yet I never hear anyone talkin about him. Why is he such an open secret, and why was I led to believe that the race was just between Obama and Romney?
09-10-2012 05:31 PM
#151
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Everybody and their mom seems to agree with Gary Johnson's positions on pretty much everything yet I never hear anyone talkin about him. Why is he such an open secret, and why was I led to believe that the race was just between Obama and Romney? | |
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09-10-2012 05:45 PM
#152
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Because he tries to play for the Republicans and Libertarians. The former doesn't want him because he's not a neocon warmongerer propagandist, the latter doesn't help him because it's not a major party and doesn't have an organized enough base (and never will) |
09-10-2012 08:42 PM
#153
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Thanks for the explainin', Wuf. Many good ideas but even more destructive ones. | |
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09-21-2012 05:42 AM
#154
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Last edited by a500lbgorilla; 09-21-2012 at 05:51 AM. | |
09-23-2012 08:36 PM
#155
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When Romney says Economic Freedom does he mean easier access to hard work (either labor or industry)? | |
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09-23-2012 09:43 PM
#156
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Short story: by being the biggest modern nation. Today, US lags behind many other modern nations in per capita income (a more appropriate measure would be median wealth, which we're even further behind in) due to a whole bunch of stuff. |
10-07-2012 04:29 PM
#157
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The Jon Stewart / Bill O'Reilly debate is now all over YouTube for free: | |
10-07-2012 04:33 PM
#158
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^^Thanks a bunch for that. I had completely forgotten about it. Hope they don't spend too much time talking about the Obama/Romney debate because every single thing the media has said about it has been facepalm wrong |
10-12-2012 12:47 AM
#159
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Why this is the most important election of our lifetime |
Last edited by wufwugy; 10-12-2012 at 12:50 AM. | |
10-12-2012 10:00 AM
#160
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obviously standard Hi, I'm Wufwuggums post, but i'd love to hear your reasoning behind the 2 quoted statements below. | |
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10-12-2012 10:06 AM
#161
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10-12-2012 10:38 AM
#162
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Video is down, and it's not on netflix, hulu, etc because they're trying to sell it to me for $5. How could it possibly be free to see 3 free debates between the actual POTUS and the other main presidential candidate plus a freebie debate between the VPOTUS and the running mate to the other main presidential candidate, yet I have to pay to see a comedian debate a talking head? | |
10-12-2012 06:50 PM
#163
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I tried to keep it short for ya. Now sure if that worked... |
10-12-2012 09:47 PM
#164
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It's important to note that the slowdown in EU and China isn't a problem for the US. If you read any "journalism" anywhere, you'll think that it is, but journos these days don't have an intimate knowledge of how the stuff they report on works and they're really just dittoheads. Regardless, the historical facts are that the US always does well when the rest of the world doesn't. Reasons for this are that US desires cheaper energy and is big and dynamic enough that it can produce and consume all it needs outside of commodities, which are better for US when cheap anyways |
10-13-2012 12:01 AM
#165
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I'm pretty sure I'm jaded since I'm right in the middle of the 'Lost Generation' but there isn't a snowballs chance in hell that obama is getting my vote. I'm currently grinding a gas station job and I hear this from people from all ages and walks of life as well. I live in an area mostly dominated by manufacturing/factory type jobs and we got kicked Right. In. The. Dick. by the recession and people around here are nowhere near seeing this 'recovery' that youre talking about. Asking people out of work or underemployed persons,like myself to 'just stick it out til 2016' is asinine. | |
10-15-2012 05:41 PM
#166
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Ha... you are hoping that a financial aid office will help you, then you say "Fuck Obama." | |
10-15-2012 06:35 PM
#167
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Man reading Wuf talk about economics makes my head hurt, mainly because of a fundamental lack of understanding of concepts like steady states / dynamic equilibrium and so on. | |
Last edited by Penneywize; 10-15-2012 at 06:37 PM. | |
10-15-2012 07:22 PM
#168
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I didn't use that graph for the purpose it seems you think I did. The purpose was showing how much of the unemployment doldrums is due to cutting back public sector employment under Obama in ways that didn't happen under Bush. |
10-16-2012 12:44 AM
#169
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Per capita income - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia | |
Last edited by Penneywize; 10-16-2012 at 12:47 AM. | |
10-16-2012 01:25 AM
#170
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Yep. GDP as a measure of living standards is crummy due to things like this. Another example is if you stop using your dryer to dry your clothes and instead hang them up, that GDP generated from the use of the dryer vanishes into thin air, yet it actually raises living standards |
10-16-2012 03:33 PM
#171
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hmm, obama -210 to win president. it was -500.. might be a good bet? | |
10-16-2012 04:18 PM
#172
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If Obama can score some points in tonight's debate then yes. But then the odds would probably change not long after anyway. Tough call, oddsmakers probably got it right. | |
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10-16-2012 04:52 PM
#173
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Oddsmakers have it way wrong. Barry has been around 90% equity for many months now. The debate didn't change anything whatsoever; the problem is that pollster aggregates and political pundits have no idea what they're doing. They systematically consider awful polling methodology and momentary response enthusiasm to polling as game changers |
10-16-2012 07:27 PM
#174
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Perhaps if a college education didnt cost $5-15k a semester I wouldnt need the handout. I would love to be able to pay it off as I go but theres not a chance anyone can do that without the help of a rich family. | |
10-16-2012 07:35 PM
#175
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I did not intend to paint you as a Romney supporter. I only am trying to illustrate to you that, due to our shitty two party system, by not giving your support to Obama, you are giving it to Romney. And this wouldn't be a problem if you actually thought both of them were equally shitty candidates. However, from the grievances you've cited, Obama is your man, no question. | |
Last edited by boost; 10-16-2012 at 07:42 PM. | |
10-16-2012 07:39 PM
#176
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It's truly a shame how the Giant Douche vs Turd Sandwich trope has caught on because it couldn't be further from the truth, but that's what we get when we live in a culture that requires instant gratification and low information. |
10-16-2012 07:43 PM
#177
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Just explain to me what Obama has done that makes uoubwantbto cast your vote for him. I dont like asking for a handout. I hate the welfare/food stamp system we have. It disgusts me that people have to rely on this garbage amd open the door for people to abuse it. I'm not a fan of big government. I like the fed playing a minimal role and letting the states decide their own policies. | |
10-16-2012 07:49 PM
#178
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And look, like I said when I made the OP, im very new to the politics game. | |
10-16-2012 07:50 PM
#179
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In just four years, Obama and the Dems have changed the financing of education so drastically that we've gone from a society where you can rake up 100k in schooling debt that you can never pay off to getting the same education but for much less and being able to pay it off at a reasonably low rate. |
10-16-2012 08:07 PM
#180
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10-16-2012 08:16 PM
#181
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Well, you mentioned your major gripes, and if you think the guy that will fix those gripes is Romney, not Obama, then.. well.. lol... | |
10-16-2012 08:28 PM
#182
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No mentions of Gary McKinnon in this thread? It's been all over the UK news today - would be interested to hear a US perspective. | |
10-16-2012 08:37 PM
#183
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Not really sure that belongs in this thread, but... assburgers or not, he hacked into classified military servers and messed shit up. The servers belong to a strong ally of the country he lives in. He's being extradited. What's the problem? | |
10-16-2012 09:04 PM
#184
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Two examples would be the strength of the recovery (financial crises ALWAYS have many years of lag) and health care reform that is arguably the most important legislation since Johnson. There are many other issues like the rapidity of gay rights progression, credit card and financial reform, tax reform, manufacturing reform, focus on womens and Hispanic issues, war reform, and energy reform. |
10-16-2012 09:09 PM
#185
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Yes it's very marginal, but we're in at a point where an improvement on the drug war from the feds is simply not overt attacking drugs. Obama's positiveness on drugs is very, very small, but not non-existent. It's with things like merely even residing over an establishment that is able to question the DEA the way they did and have commissioned some important studies. Governments are glacial, it takes a long and arduous process that seems utterly wasteful in order to change anything |
10-16-2012 09:18 PM
#186
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On the welfare issue |
10-16-2012 09:25 PM
#187
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Wuf I really wish you wouldn't follow up intelligent, intuitive and defensible points with absolute bullshit every now and then. I'll make a quick list of things I found objectionable in the last few posts of yours: | |
Last edited by Penneywize; 10-16-2012 at 09:29 PM. | |
10-16-2012 09:34 PM
#188
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By the way, on our earlier discussion about the counting of GDPPC and whether it's a good proxy for quality of life -- I've found some problems with the examples you gave re. healthcare and the rather odd example of using a clothesline instead of a dryer. I can explain if you like. | |
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10-16-2012 09:58 PM
#189
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Not all pollsters are created equally and Scott Rasmussen's record is not what you think. He has been "caught" doctoring numbers a bunch. I say "caught" because it's not possible to catch him because he doesn't release methodology. Particular patterns that he has demonstrated, however, fly in the face of non-juiced stats. Things like the accuracy is only from polls released very close to the election and most of what he releases coincides with a narrative in ways that other pollsters do not. Outside of that, aggregators have shown that Ras leans to the right of actual results and any competent analysis determines that things like tracking polls are simply not accurate due to issues like single day robopolling which only catches people who answer landlines during the day. |
10-16-2012 09:59 PM
#190
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10-16-2012 10:12 PM
#191
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I'd like to respond to this differently. |
10-17-2012 12:48 AM
#192
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lol, wuf. Do you really think that picture means anything at all? It's not obliterating anything man. You could bring up pictures from elsewhere in the world, boy I wonder how many U.S. military bases are within 200 km of the Canadian or Mexican border. Does that mean the U.S. is threatening Canada? Logic fail. Come on man, you're smarter than that. Presence of military bases doesn't really mean much on its own. In all likelihood a good number of those bases predate any foreseen conflict with Iran. | |
Last edited by Penneywize; 10-17-2012 at 12:53 AM. | |
10-17-2012 01:42 AM
#193
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The picture is fine within context. You mean to suggest that a superpower (the only superpower) that spends more than the next 13 countries combined that has invaded and occupied the two geographically closest and strategically important regions to Iran is doing so on the up n up? Not only that but their domestic rhetoric is nothing but lies and hyperbole on the issue and they have a history rife in control of oil. So this speck of a nation relative to the US juggernaut that has never ever actually threatened the US or Israel and doesn't have a delivery system to do so is somehow the aggressor? |
10-17-2012 06:46 PM
#194
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I think the problem is much more simple when choosing between the Rs and Ds. The Rs want to run up debt to strangle the beast. And they'll want to do it in a way that juices the soil to try to grow more businesses. | |
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10-17-2012 07:02 PM
#195
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Ds juice business more than Rs BTW. By a lot, actually. The Bush years weren't that good despite the fact that everybody believes they were; the Clinton years were extremely good despite the fact that few can admit that. |
10-17-2012 07:07 PM
#196
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There's a lot of crossover between Rs and Ds. | |
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10-17-2012 07:16 PM
#197
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There's some for sure, but in what way to you mean? For the most part, they are quite different: Ds balance budgets, Rs unbalance budgets; Ds don't start wars, Rs start wars; Ds reduce tax burdens on the poorer, Rs don't; Ds increase education, Rs don't; all civil rights issues come through Ds... |
10-18-2012 08:49 AM
#198
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Its always nice to see when economists agree but can't find the rhetoric to make it politically palatable. | |
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10-18-2012 09:20 PM
#199
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I don't believe it in the slightest, but still lold |
10-18-2012 09:52 PM
#200
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As far as I can tell, the R's and D's want the same things, but they just can't agree on the language. They are so deadlocked in an us-against-them mentality that they can't see that they are exactly the same. | |
10-18-2012 10:19 PM
#201
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Start listing off policies and you'll see that they share similarities on only a small number of things. |
10-18-2012 10:21 PM
#202
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Also, the idea that the parties aren't much different is an inherent logic fail because if that was true, they would pass laws on those things they agree on rather easily. Ds and Rs are among the most policy-antithetical opposing major political parties in the modern world |
10-19-2012 12:24 AM
#203
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Thank you for posting this. Very good stuff, and I look forward to future articles in the series. | |
10-19-2012 01:13 AM
#204
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10-19-2012 03:46 AM
#205
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10-19-2012 04:26 AM
#206
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I don't follow US politics, but I always assumed one party won't sanction the oppositions policies because they want them to fail in order to ease their own claim to power. What's best for the people has little to do with it. | |
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10-19-2012 04:34 AM
#207
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Taking this further, I believe there is more than one route to most objectives, but by bickering over the route nothing gets done. The very structure of both US and British government ensures that very little is achieved because we constantly get a half of a particular path which doesn't allow the objective to be fulfilled. Imo once a party is elected they should then have the power to follow through with their plans rather than being thwarted at every turn by the opposition. | |
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10-19-2012 06:17 AM
#208
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I strongly disagree with this assessment. Just because polarizing language is used to describe something, that doesn't make the something a polarized issue. | |
10-19-2012 11:40 AM
#209
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10-19-2012 05:22 PM
#210
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10-19-2012 05:46 PM
#211
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The examples you give are not of the polarizing language you suggest, but of uniform language yet with antithetical policies underneath them. You kinda just made my point that the parties are indeed very different. |
10-19-2012 06:34 PM
#212
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A counterpoint to some of what I've said can be found in the fact that both parties do want to lower corporate tax yet it isn't getting done. There are a lot of details as to why it's like this and some of them could be considered fake controversy to a degree, but the divide is still a divide and the Repubs have been obstructing lowering the corporate tax for political gain, thus their effective policy position is not lowering corporate tax |
10-20-2012 11:47 AM
#213
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10-20-2012 02:12 PM
#214
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It used to be political suicide to be labeled a flip flopper, but now the black guy has been so rhetorically delegitimized in the minds of the opposition that they don't care. Lucky for us, the white aristocracy is losing this race war. I guess what bugs me the most is that it's not recognized as the race war it really is regardless of the fact that the entire electoral strategy of the GOP since Obama has been elected has been to get white men to hate the Kenyan Muslim |
10-20-2012 02:26 PM
#215
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10-22-2012 01:13 PM
#216
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Almost thought I'd been pwned, but after some further thought: | |
10-22-2012 04:52 PM
#217
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You're right that that alone doesn't make them antithetical, but when you look at the actual policy positions, they end up being antithetical regardless of rhetoric, some nuances in disagreements, how they got there, etc. |
10-23-2012 12:02 AM
#218
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10-23-2012 12:24 AM
#219
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How DO rocks work? | |
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10-23-2012 05:37 PM
#220
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Do rocks work? | |
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10-23-2012 08:44 PM
#221
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10-24-2012 10:49 AM
#222
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10-24-2012 03:17 PM
#223
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is this accurate? | |
10-24-2012 05:29 PM
#224
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^^ Probably. If you got that from reddit I'm sure somewhere in the comments somebody knows. |
10-24-2012 07:49 PM
#225
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That center column are Nimitiz-class carriers. We've got 10 of those bitches alone. | |
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