EPTUS Politics Mega-thread - Page 91
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Read the rules in the OP before posting, please. In order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a re-read to refresh your memory! The vast majority of you are contributing in a healthy way, keep it up! NOTE: When providing a source, explain why you feel it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion if it's not obvious. Also take note that unsubstantiated tweets/posts meant only to rekindle old arguments can result in a mod action. | ||
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BluePanther
United States2776 Posts
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Randomaccount#77123
United States5003 Posts
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
Too simplistic C- On January 27 2013 03:01 BluePanther wrote: Well, I don't think they are as easily distinguishable as you make it sound. The reason they say this is because they have to appeal to individuals who have political attention spans that LAST 30 seconds. They are simply tailoring their arguments to the population they are trying to convince. "the medium is the message" and television broke democracy | ||
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Randomaccount#77123
United States5003 Posts
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Sermokala
United States14211 Posts
On January 28 2013 03:51 BluePanther wrote: If you expect people to play a game without cheating, you need to have clear, defined, simple, fair rules. It's really that simple. If anyone thinks elections in america have ever been clean or fair they've never paid any attention to us history in anyway. By hook or crook thats what they said back in the day. With the fate and faith of the country hanging in the balance you're not gona just leave it up to the people to decide who wins are you? | ||
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
 )I'll give you a B+ for your success in "working toward the Chairman" | ||
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Randomaccount#77123
United States5003 Posts
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sam!zdat
United States5559 Posts
On January 28 2013 07:26 Barrin wrote: Woot! but what's "working toward the Chairman"? In the Cultural Revolution, there was an idea among the high-ranking officials of the CCP of "working towards the Chairman." That is, Mao would never say what he wanted, but people would try to figure it out and do what they thought was his intention. Of course, this means that Mao was never responsible for anything anybody could do (a sort of perverted kind of wuwei, I suppose), and he could easily denounce them when they ceased to serve his purposes and use the confusion to play them against one another. This worked out exactly as well as you might imagine. edit: all of this makes my joke sound way more sinister than it was supposed to be lol | ||
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oneofthem
Cayman Islands24199 Posts
On January 28 2013 06:49 Sermokala wrote: If anyone thinks elections in america have ever been clean or fair they've never paid any attention to us history in anyway. By hook or crook thats what they said back in the day. With the fate and faith of the country hanging in the balance you're not gona just leave it up to the people to decide who wins are you? well, sure, but the government's footprint has also become larger, at least domestically, so politicians messing up politics gets to be a bigger concern for the average person. | ||
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Randomaccount#77123
United States5003 Posts
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{CC}StealthBlue
United States41117 Posts
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aksfjh
United States4853 Posts
On January 29 2013 04:48 {CC}StealthBlue wrote: Just watching John McCain speak one can tell he hates this plan but is only going along in hopes of securing some type of non Palin legacy. Got a summary on the proposal? Also, iirc, McCain has always been rather moderate on immigration reform. | ||
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farvacola
United States18869 Posts
On January 29 2013 05:16 aksfjh wrote: Got a summary on the proposal? Also, iirc, McCain has always been rather moderate on immigration reform. Yes, as far as this liberal Democrat is concerned, McCain's immigration policy (and his now toothless campaign finance efforts) is his only saving grace. Though at this point it does seem like a rather desperate attempt at appearing moderate after the conservative shitfest that was the Benghazi affair. | ||
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{CC}StealthBlue
United States41117 Posts
Major questions remain as negotiations continue to fill out a fuller bill. There are still limited details as to how easily undocumented immigrants would be able to eventually apply for a green card and then citizenship. Experts warn the existing legal immigration system’s quotas and backlogs would make it impossible to naturalize the undocumented population. Menendez told TPM afterwards that issues like whether to expand the number of green cards available to help move the process along would be left to future negotiations. Little information is available on the bill’s border security provisions, which in addition to improved technology and more stringent procedures, would include a commission of border state officials to oversee the process. That group appears to be non-binding and advisory in the bipartisan framework, but House Republicans could potentially seek to expand its powers. | ||
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paralleluniverse
4065 Posts
Wow, the US economy contracts by 0.1%, the first contraction since the end of the recession. I definitely wasn't expecting this, and apparently no one surveyed was expecting a contraction either. It seems that the contraction was mainly driven by a 6.6% drop in government outlays (which contains a 22.2% drop in defense spending), reducing GDP by 1.3%. Other signs such as consumer spending and construction are positive. Contractionary fiscal policy is contractionary and government cuts reduce growth.. who knew? Remember, just a few weeks ago, the UK economy also contracted, putting it on the verge of a triple-dip recession, because of... government austerity. Things aren't looking too flash in the current quarter either since the fiscal cliff deal let tax cuts expire, although economists aren't expecting another quarter of negative growth. | ||
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Rassy
Netherlands2308 Posts
Most important figure (consumer spending) is up,government spending might be down only temporarly. The negative growth figure also gives the fed room to possibly cut rates even further, think a decission about this is made tonight? Am still fairly positive that the usa recovery will continue. | ||
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JonnyBNoHo
United States6277 Posts
On January 30 2013 23:39 paralleluniverse wrote: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-30/economy-in-u-s-unexpectedly-shrinks-as-defense-spending-plunges.html Wow, the US economy contracts by 0.1%, the first contraction since the end of the recession. I definitely wasn't expecting this, and apparently no one surveyed was expecting a contraction either. It seems that the contraction was mainly driven by a 6.6% drop in government outlays (which contains a 22.2% drop in defense spending), reducing GDP by 1.3%. Other signs such as consumer spending and construction are positive. Contractionary fiscal policy is contractionary and government cuts reduce growth.. who knew? Remember, just a few weeks ago, the UK economy also contracted, putting it on the verge of a triple-dip recession, because of... government austerity. Things aren't looking too flash in the current quarter either since the fiscal cliff deal let tax cuts expire, although economists aren't expecting another quarter of negative growth. Part of the flux in government spending was due to a ramp up in spending in Q3 (+3.9%) - looks like the payback on that hit in Q4 (-6.6%). Also this is only counting government consumption and investment - transfer payments aren't counted here. I don't think there was any real austerity in 2012. Austerity is only just beginning in 2013 and it has already been reduced. There was also a similar timing issue with inventories. Inventories built up in Q3 and rand down in Q4 helping (along with the government spending flux) make Q3 exceptionally robust and Q4 exceptionally weak. In other words you really can't extrapolate and draw conclusions off of just the Q4 number. | ||
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aksfjh
United States4853 Posts
On January 31 2013 00:30 JonnyBNoHo wrote: Part of the flux in government spending was due to a ramp up in spending in Q3 (+3.9%) - looks like the payback on that hit in Q4 (-6.6%). Also this is only counting government consumption and investment - transfer payments aren't counted here. I don't think there was any real austerity in 2012. Austerity is only just beginning in 2013 and it has already been reduced. There was also a similar timing issue with inventories. Inventories built up in Q3 and rand down in Q4 helping (along with the government spending flux) make Q3 exceptionally robust and Q4 exceptionally weak. In other words you really can't extrapolate and draw conclusions off of just the Q4 number. State level austerity has been going on since 2009. | ||
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TheFrankOne
United States667 Posts
On January 31 2013 00:07 Rassy wrote: Yes the growh figure is slightly disapointing but dont think the recovery is over yet. Most important figure (consumer spending) is up,government spending might be down only temporarly. The negative growth figure also gives the fed room to possibly cut rates even further, think a decission about this is made tonight? Am still fairly positive that the usa recovery will continue. It's hard to cut rates when they are already at the zero lower bound. | ||
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JonnyBNoHo
United States6277 Posts
On January 31 2013 00:33 aksfjh wrote: State level austerity has been going on since 2009. A bit. Overall, government spending is up and revenues are down. | ||
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