Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: 1 ... 23 24 [25] 26 27 ... 1342

Author Topic: Murrican Politics Megathread 2016: There Will Be Hell Toupée  (Read 1571930 times)

Frumple

  • Bay Watcher
  • The Prettiest Kyuuki
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #360 on: February 07, 2015, 01:51:14 am »

... waaaait a tick. Homeland Security funding is being held hostage? Isn't... isn't this a situation where we start hoping they shoot the metaphorical human shield?

Also that is just the weirdest goddamn thing for the GOP of all things to hold hostage. I mean, I know both sides are kinda' crazy when it comes to that, but isn't HS kinda' the GOP's baby? And they're threatening to drown it if we don't shoot throw out brown people?
Logged
Ask not!
What your country can hump for you.
Ask!
What you can hump for your country.

RedKing

  • Bay Watcher
  • hoo hoo motherfucker
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #361 on: February 07, 2015, 01:57:31 am »

... waaaait a tick. Homeland Security funding is being held hostage? Isn't... isn't this a situation where we start hoping they shoot the metaphorical human shield?

Also that is just the weirdest goddamn thing for the GOP of all things to hold hostage. I mean, I know both sides are kinda' crazy when it comes to that, but isn't HS kinda' the GOP's baby? And they're threatening to drown it if we don't shoot throw out brown people?
Oh hells no. Now *Defense* (i.e. War), that's what the GOP gets a hard-on for.

DHS is all those overbearing, intrusive, ineffectual government agencies that they don't like, such as TSA, Customs and Border Protection, etc.

And it's not the first time they've done it. See, the political calculus is that they can then say "See?! The Democrats would rather see Homeland Security run out of money than to let us kick illegals out of the country!" It's a win-win. They can paint the Dems as wanting everyone to be less safe AND wanting illegal immigrants to have amnesty. Because, y'know....they're evil like that. And there are sooooo many people in their political base who will eat that shit up with a spoon and come back for seconds.
Logged

Remember, knowledge is power. The power to make other people feel stupid.
Quote from: Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.

Reelya

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #362 on: February 07, 2015, 01:57:45 am »

I don't understand why Bush's debt is due to policy, but Obama's is due to the weather.  Obama continued more than a few of Bush's policy decisions, especially WRT tax cuts and crony bailouts. Bush's policies are largely Obama's policies.  I'm not going to play team games with anybody here.  Our economy wasn't healthy before this winter and it's a non sequitur to blame our economic woes on the weather.

When local governments propose withholding, it is regional/national news.  Sin taxes capitalize on dismissive attitudes toward socially unacceptable behavior.  Smokers are treated as pariahs in some places.  Taxes and rules targeted against them receive broad support, because smoking is so stigmatized.

Well, there's the fact that under Obama federal spending actually fell, after you adjust for inflation. Whereas Bush oversaw the bigger spending increase in US history.

Bush's debt is through rampant increases in spending, whereas Obama's debt is through the collapse of tax revenues. One is proactive and deliberate policy, whereas the other is something that can't be directly controlled, and there is no specific Obama policy you can point up which increased debt.

Bush had things like the American Dream Downpayment Assistance Act, which effectively put loan defaulters at the head of the queue to get mortgage assistance and poured half a trillion dollars through Fannie Mae to incentivise otherwise too-risky loans to poor people and those with credit defaults. Fannie Mae's executives actually protested the policies and Bush threatened to tear up their charter if they didn't implement his sub-prime incentives, which meant people who had reneged on loans could get a house without ANY downpayment. Then, when it backfired, they threw Fannie Mae under the bus, and blame Democrats, even though it was ALL because of Bush Whitehouse deliberate policies.

So, in other words, much of Bush's federal debt was spent to prop up housing prices during the bubble, with the justification of getting poor people to own their own homes. This caused both the deficit blow-out AND inflated the size of the crash, thus is responsible for the crash in tax revenues which is currently causing a deficit.

... waaaait a tick. Homeland Security funding is being held hostage? Isn't... isn't this a situation where we start hoping they shoot the metaphorical human shield?

Also that is just the weirdest goddamn thing for the GOP of all things to hold hostage. I mean, I know both sides are kinda' crazy when it comes to that, but isn't HS kinda' the GOP's baby? And they're threatening to drown it if we don't shoot throw out brown people?
Oh hells no. Now *Defense* (i.e. War), that's what the GOP gets a hard-on for.

DHS is all those overbearing, intrusive, ineffectual government agencies that they don't like, such as TSA, Customs and Border Protection, etc.

And it's not the first time they've done it. See, the political calculus is that they can then say "See?! The Democrats would rather see Homeland Security run out of money than to let us kick illegals out of the country!" It's a win-win. They can paint the Dems as wanting everyone to be less safe AND wanting illegal immigrants to have amnesty. Because, y'know....they're evil like that. And there are sooooo many people in their political base who will eat that shit up with a spoon and come back for seconds.

How do they reconcile being anti-border protection with the "keep the mexicans out" thing? Is it like they're all for "law and order" as long as the heavy hand of the law affects someone else? So complete freedom for white people and a overt "anti-brown person patrol" would suit them better I guess?
« Last Edit: February 07, 2015, 02:18:52 am by Reelya »
Logged

mainiac

  • Bay Watcher
  • Na vazeal kwah-kai
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #363 on: February 07, 2015, 02:57:57 am »

What about virtue taxes? Just throwing a random useless thought out there, since we're talking about vices, what about the virtues.

Tax subsidies/tax expenditures?  We already have hundreds of billions of them.  A lot of them are a waste of good money.
Logged
Ancient Babylonian god of RAEG
--------------
[CAN_INTERNET]
[PREFSTRING:google]
"Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget and I will tell you what you value"
« Last Edit: February 10, 1988, 03:27:23 pm by UR MOM »
mainiac is always a little sarcastic, at least.

Wolfhunter107

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #364 on: February 07, 2015, 01:32:10 pm »

Measles outbreak chapter three: Melanie's Marvelous Measles. Yes, it's a thing. Antivaccer children's books. http://www.amazon.com/Melanies-Marvelous-Measles-Stephanie-Messenger/dp/1466938897/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8
Also, straight from the comments section,
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Logged
Just ask yourself: What would a mobster do?
So we butcher them and build a 4chan tallow soap tower as a monument to our greatness?

RedKing

  • Bay Watcher
  • hoo hoo motherfucker
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #365 on: February 07, 2015, 01:42:55 pm »

How do they reconcile being anti-border protection with the "keep the mexicans out" thing? Is it like they're all for "law and order" as long as the heavy hand of the law affects someone else? So complete freedom for white people and a overt "anti-brown person patrol" would suit them better I guess?
It's more that they see CBP as a big Federal agency that costs billions and doesn't produce results. Many would prefer to replace it with a wall/fence, ignoring the fact that a 4000-mile wall is going to need an entire Federal agency devoted to its upkeep and not really produce any results either.

Or they'd like to see the CBP's rules of engagement changed to "kill anything that moves". Until they actually do, of course, then they're the first on the firing line to excoriate the agents involved and use it as an example of why we need to replace CBP with a wall.
Logged

Remember, knowledge is power. The power to make other people feel stupid.
Quote from: Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.

SalmonGod

  • Bay Watcher
  • Nyarrr
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #366 on: February 07, 2015, 01:49:25 pm »

How do they reconcile being anti-border protection with the "keep the mexicans out" thing? Is it like they're all for "law and order" as long as the heavy hand of the law affects someone else? So complete freedom for white people and a overt "anti-brown person patrol" would suit them better I guess?

Could have something to do with that being the smallest part of what Customs does.  Their main focus is collecting taxes on international trade (anti-Free Market blasphemy!).  Border protection is a small hobby on the side by comparison.
Logged
In the land of twilight, under the moon
We dance for the idiots
As the end will come so soon
In the land of twilight

Maybe people should love for the sake of loving, and not with all of these optimization conditions.

Bauglir

  • Bay Watcher
  • Let us make Good
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #367 on: February 07, 2015, 07:04:41 pm »

This is rather tangential wholly unrelated to anything going on in-thread, but has anybody considered suing the NSA for copyright infringement?

I know it wouldn't work, but I'm really interested in the legal reasoning as to why.
Logged
In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6.
“What are you doing?”, asked Minsky. “I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe” Sussman replied. “Why is the net wired randomly?”, asked Minsky. “I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play”, Sussman said.
Minsky then shut his eyes. “Why do you close your eyes?”, Sussman asked his teacher.
“So that the room will be empty.”
At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.

Jervill

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #368 on: February 07, 2015, 10:55:34 pm »

This is simply a PTW at the moment.

However, I may put together a Republicans-in-Obama-voting house districts in the near future, plus this post gives me an incentive to go ahead and do it shortly.  (I did the vice-versa quite a bit ago in the old districts.)

Also, tangentially related, is that if Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) retires in 2016, that would be an excellent pick up opportunity if the Iowa Dems don't choose a complete fucking moron (see: Bruce Braley) this time around.  Plus, Ron Kind, the representative from Wisconsin's largely rural 3rd congressional district could run for WI-Sen and win (Ron Johnson is way too far to the right of the state) if he runs a competent campaign.
Logged

smjjames

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #369 on: February 07, 2015, 11:26:11 pm »

This is rather tangential wholly unrelated to anything going on in-thread, but has anybody considered suing the NSA for copyright infringement?

I know it wouldn't work, but I'm really interested in the legal reasoning as to why.

Copyright infringement of what, the TSA?
Logged

Reelya

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #370 on: February 07, 2015, 11:27:56 pm »

This is rather tangential wholly unrelated to anything going on in-thread, but has anybody considered suing the NSA for copyright infringement?

I know it wouldn't work, but I'm really interested in the legal reasoning as to why.

Copyright infringement of what, the TSA?

Bauglier was talking about how the NSA invariably will snoop on copyrighted material as part of their data collecting activities, so technically they're illegally downloading peoples materials for private use.

The general excuse would be "but they're law enforcement so the laws don't apply to them". Which you have to admit is sort of paradoxical.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2015, 11:30:56 pm by Reelya »
Logged

smjjames

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #371 on: February 07, 2015, 11:33:26 pm »

How do they reconcile being anti-border protection with the "keep the mexicans out" thing? Is it like they're all for "law and order" as long as the heavy hand of the law affects someone else? So complete freedom for white people and a overt "anti-brown person patrol" would suit them better I guess?
It's more that they see CBP as a big Federal agency that costs billions and doesn't produce results. Many would prefer to replace it with a wall/fence, ignoring the fact that a 4000-mile wall is going to need an entire Federal agency devoted to its upkeep and not really produce any results either.

Or they'd like to see the CBP's rules of engagement changed to "kill anything that moves". Until they actually do, of course, then they're the first on the firing line to excoriate the agents involved and use it as an example of why we need to replace CBP with a wall.

Not to mention completely disrupting land animal migration routes and screwing with the ecosystems when animals can't move north or south even though they're technically far enough from civilization to not actually be a problem otherwise.

Plus people are creative, they'll just dig under the wall, use ladders, etc.

Measles outbreak chapter three: Melanie's Marvelous Measles. Yes, it's a thing. Antivaccer children's books. http://www.amazon.com/Melanies-Marvelous-Measles-Stephanie-Messenger/dp/1466938897/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8
Also, straight from the comments section,
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The author is Australian though (yes I know it's not an America only phenomenon), and the back of the book exerpt thing claims that diseases like measles are benign, even beneficial to the body. How do you call a disease that kills, beneign? :P
« Last Edit: February 07, 2015, 11:37:18 pm by smjjames »
Logged

Reelya

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #372 on: February 07, 2015, 11:37:09 pm »

Well we can base the fence 300 feet underground, and make that part out of 10 foot thick steel. And on top of the fence we have automatic gun emplacements every few hundred feet, with motion sensors. Those will deal with climbers.

Quote
The author is Australian though (yes I know it's not an America only phenomenon), and the back of the book exerpt thing claims that diseases like measles are benign, even beneficial to the body. How do you call a disease that kills, beneign? :P

As anyone who has had measles will tell you - they didn't die.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2015, 11:45:22 pm by Reelya »
Logged

smjjames

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #373 on: February 07, 2015, 11:39:29 pm »

People will dig deeper then! Though you would start needing some serious mining equipment 300 feet belowground. Or they could do it manually with picks.

Edit: Automatic gun emplacements? lol, inb4 they motion sense every animal moving around and shoot at them.

Edit: Meant feet, not meters.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2015, 11:41:22 pm by smjjames »
Logged

Reelya

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Bay12 2016 Election Megathread- It Is Terrifying
« Reply #374 on: February 07, 2015, 11:46:45 pm »

That's fine, they were Mexican animals anyway. Can't have them interbreeding with the good honest American animals.
Pages: 1 ... 23 24 [25] 26 27 ... 1342