US Politics Mega-thread - Page 8380

On August 13 2017 01:09 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:

Nothing to discuss?

Not even getting into the race issue, this is the largest rally of white supremacist in 30 years, for Virginia. This is on a campus with 17-23 year old students standing against them. This was a precursor to today's planned rally, where 2k-6k racist members could show up today. To protest the removal of a statue. The police haven't moved and inch. The mayor hasn't said a word.

But you're right. Moving on. Let's get back to google dude.

On August 12 2017 03:12 Falling wrote:

So I absolutely would argue that standard of living is higher, likely higher than it has ever been in history.
As for absolute percentage of capital, right now. I highly suspect it has gone down since then. But the argument isn't really what is happening currently (well maybe Hicks would disagree- I have no idea, but as far as I can tell, things have been centralizing for awhile). The argument is in the middle of the 21st Century- at the time when these major thinkers were hammering out their new philosophical ideas- at that point capital accumulation was decentralizing and not centralizing, so more millionaires and so on. I think this is likely true, though I'm open to a counter claim. So then at the time of writing, you had capitalism raising the standard of living for all and more and more millionaires.

At the same time (and this is me elaborating) you saw significant collapses in Marxist regimes- Gulag Archipelago was published in the 70's, for instance (I just read volume 1, fascinating read) which I think was a real bomb shell that shattered the image of success that the Soviets had kept up through their propaganda. And various other Marxist countries were also starting to look more like hell-holes than paradises. At the very least, it seems like this would be a good period to jump ship if one hadn't already.

But it is an argument based on a particular time and not the present.

As for despair when looking at the top... the more I read and hear of lives even from fifty years, the more I am content. My life is sooo much more comfortable, even though I am still renting and can't yet afford a 20% downpayment, and wages of stagnated. My life is still good, way better than any of my ancestors. And the 1%, they can have their billions; I don't want their jobs, their work hours, or their lives. (But I am for a progressive tax code, as long as the top bracket stays south of the 50% mark- so basically the Canadian tax code.)

On August 13 2017 01:44 LegalLord wrote:
What's most surprising is that someone could look at the job Hillary did as SoS and say, "I'd like four more years of that." Trump aside.

On August 13 2017 02:07 farvacola wrote:
We're getting to the point where it becomes impossible not to start having "why do you and a bunch of wannabe nazis like the same thing?"-type conservations with folks who stick to supporting Trump. That or I'm stuck in an endless cycle of American History X breakfast scene repeats.....

On August 13 2017 01:09 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:

Nothing to discuss?

Not even getting into the race issue, this is the largest rally of white supremacist in 30 years, for Virginia. This is on a campus with 17-23 year old students standing against them. This was a precursor to today's planned rally, where 2k-6k racist members could show up today. To protest the removal of a statue. The police haven't moved and inch. The mayor hasn't said a word.

But you're right. Moving on. Let's get back to google dude.

“This isn’t how he should have to grow up,” she said.

Cliff Erickson leaned against a fence and took in the scene. He said he thinks removing the statue amounts to erasing history and said the “counterprotesters are crazier than the alt-right.”

“Both sides are hoping for a confrontation,” he said.

In the guide, Anglin kicks off by outlining on a number of occasions “priority number one” for Nazis: “We have to be sexy.”

“We have to be hip and we have to be sexy,” he writes. “This means we have to look good, we have to look dangerous, we have to have humor, we have to look powerful and we have to look like we are in control.”

Anglin then advocates for something he refers to as “Chad Nationalism,” which will apparently “make girls want to be our groupies” and “make us look like bad boys and heroes.”

On August 13 2017 02:21 LegalLord wrote:

I mean if you want to say she'd be better, she probably would be. That much is fair. But let's not take the extra step of "she's so qualified, she would do great." Because it's simply not true. Trump was right in his debates: Hillary has many years of experience, but it's experience in failure and badness.

Thinking Trump is an unqualified buffoon does not instantly make his opponent good.

Specific context for which I made that statement:


Trump being bad doesn't mean that Hillary could handle the job well at all.

On August 13 2017 02:28 Danglars wrote:

And Americans saw her experience and record and enough voted otherwise or stayed home. Some people are so attached to her as we chat today that they won't accept the results of the election. He won unfairly because Russia was pulling for him, don't you see, Hillary is the true victor...

Walt Disney Co paid $177 million, in addition to insurance recoveries, to settle the closely watched "pink slime" defamation case against its ABC network by Beef Products Inc., a quarterly financial report shows.

(Reuters) - Walt Disney Co paid $177 million, in addition to insurance recoveries, to settle the closely watched "pink slime" defamation case against its ABC network by Beef Products Inc., a quarterly financial report shows.

Privately-held BPI sued American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in 2012 for $5.7 billion, saying it and reporter Jim Avila had defamed the company by using the "pink slime" tag, and making errors and omissions in a series of reports that year.

Disney and BPI, which calls the product "lean finely textured beef," came to an undisclosed settlement in June, 3-1/2 weeks after a trial began in South Dakota, where BPI is based.

Disney reported the settlement of the litigation in a footnote to its financial report, saying it was seeking additional insurance proceeds to recover its cash payment.

The financial tables show a charge of $177 million described as being "in connection with settlement of litigation." The figure is not directly linked to the "pink slime" case, but the BPI litigation is the only one Disney specifies in the report.

Reuters could not immediately reach Disney and an attorney for BPI for comment.

In a statement in June, ABC said it stood by its reporting. After the case was settled, Avila said the company was not retracting his stories or apologizing, and his 2012 "pink slime" reports remained on the ABC News website.

On August 13 2017 02:28 Danglars wrote:

And Americans saw her experience and record and enough voted otherwise or stayed home. Some people are so attached to her as we chat today that they won't accept the results of the election. He won unfairly because Russia was pulling for him, don't you see, Hillary is the true victor...

On August 13 2017 02:31 zlefin wrote:

we all know voting sadly has little to do with experience, record, qualifications, or fitness. and stop strawmanning; people accept she lost the election, they complain because she should not have in a good system, which sadly we do not have.

On August 13 2017 02:50 LegalLord wrote:
Oh yeah, that whole pink slime matter. I remember briefly looking into it then deciding that I didn't really care enough about processed beef to do anything about it.

On August 13 2017 02:51 Slaughter wrote:


Yea they saw her and voted for her enough to beat her opposition by millions.

On August 13 2017 02:52 Danglars wrote:

I know her record was a major player in why Americans distrusted her to do a good job. I even know that wasn't a very rational reason to prefer an outsider instead (say, in the opposing party's primaries), only a very good and actually stated reason not to vote for her.

And I wasn't exactly expecting everyone to spill the beans to the real reason the Russia stuff was September/November 2016 until today. It's just I was expecting people to be a little more MoveOn-ish with political opposition, combined with thinking a smaller population of #Resist being a little less transparent with their motivations. Compare with the expectation that actual racists won't stand up and say they're racists and tell you why.