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[wierd]

I'm guessing "Zuckerberg-ization" refers to censorship, like what the GOP was grilling him on during his testimony.

So, how is that different from their chilling effects mantra as concerns Dept of Homeland Security, and its policy of getting neighbors to rat on each other, or the playbook from the McCarthy era that they have been making plays out of lately?

Oh, RIIIGHT--- it's only wrong when its NOT THEM doing it!  Gotcha!  How silly of me.

[smjjames]

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/11/trump-declare-emergency-ending-the-shutdown-1098628

It appears that some of Trumps staffers and allies are saying that Trump should hunker down and continue the shutdown just to screw the Democrats, which is just nuts on so many levels. I wonder when the economy will start taking a dive because of this, I read that the shutdown is costing the economy roughly a billion a week.

Those credit rating guys are also threatening a credit downgrade, but I don’t know how much of it is genuine instability and various economic factors vs saying ‘Stop acting like children!, dammit!!’

In any case, if they go for the long haul, we’ll get to see how truly damaging the shutdown is over the long haul, and possibly when the torches and pitchforks get metaphorically brought out and brandished.

[Frumple]

Some kind of sick bastard cut down joshua trees in Joshua Tree national park. I ask, why?

Hey, I remember that. Apparently people were doing it so they could more easily go joy riding around in 4 wheelers or somethin' like that. Not even doing it for firewood or something ostensibly functional, they're cutting shit down just to get it out of their way so they can go fuck up the metaphorical lawn with tire tracks.

I'm not saying I hope they end up dropping a tree on one of the fuckers, but... maybe a little.

[wierd]

Some kind of sick bastard cut down joshua trees in Joshua Tree national park. I ask, why?

Hey, I remember that. Apparently people were doing it so they could more easily go joy riding around in 4 wheelers or somethin' like that. Not even doing it for firewood or something ostensibly functional, they're cutting shit down just to get it out of their way so they can go fuck up the metaphorical lawn with tire tracks.

I'm not saying I hope they end up dropping a tree on one of the fuckers, but... maybe a little.

If I had a nickle for every time I chased some ATV driving douche canoe off the neighbor's wheat field...

Somehow, the concept of "Dude, they JUST sewed that field, DONT DRIVE THAT SHIT ON IT." would not sink in for them and they thought *I* was being the asshole.

Let's see, your planned day trip cost you what-- 20$ in gas, MAYBE?  And how much does it cost the farmer?

Well-- Let's see, you are terrace hopping in your little bastard-wagon, on a freshly sewn field.. The farmer will have to either lose a significant portion of his crop (several thousand dollars damages financially) or he will have to re-plow, re-terrace, and then re-sew the field (which will put him behind on the growing season significantly, and endanger the whole damn crop) which will set him back at least 200-300$ just on the diesel fuel to to that much tillage.

Yeah.  Not seeing how I was the dick there.


People are just fucking stupid.

[JoshuaFH]

Some kind of sick bastard cut down joshua trees in Joshua Tree national park. I ask, why?

Hey, I remember that. Apparently people were doing it so they could more easily go joy riding around in 4 wheelers or somethin' like that. Not even doing it for firewood or something ostensibly functional, they're cutting shit down just to get it out of their way so they can go fuck up the metaphorical lawn with tire tracks.

I'm not saying I hope they end up dropping a tree on one of the fuckers, but... maybe a little.

If I had a nickle for every time I chased some ATV driving douche canoe off the neighbor's wheat field...

Somehow, the concept of "Dude, they JUST sewed that field, DONT DRIVE THAT SHIT ON IT." would not sink in for them and they thought *I* was being the asshole.

Let's see, your planned day trip cost you what-- 20$ in gas, MAYBE?  And how much does it cost the farmer?

Well-- Let's see, you are terrace hopping in your little bastard-wagon, on a freshly sewn field.. The farmer will have to either lose a significant portion of his crop (several thousand dollars damages financially) or he will have to re-plow, re-terrace, and then re-sew the field (which will put him behind on the growing season significantly, and endanger the whole damn crop) which will set him back at least 200-300$ just on the diesel fuel to to that much tillage.

Yeah.  Not seeing how I was the dick there.


People are just fucking stupid.

In highschool, my history teacher showed me footage of himself in his rowdy drunken college days, of him joy riding with his buddies through a fully grown corn field; just plowing through thousands of cornstalks in car.

[wierd]

Nothing new.

People are just dumb, and when they are drunk, they are literally incapable of rational thought or conceptions of consequences outside of an immediate gratification context.

The part that always makes me wonder, is why people always go for crop fields.  Do they think "Oh, Yeah-- that's somebody's livelihood-- YEAH, LETS BURN THAT FUCKING SHIT UP! That farmer DESERVES financial ruin to satisfy my pleasure seeking!" or what? 

(However, ATV terrace hopping on freshly sewn soil is MORE destructive to the crop.  Many crops are very sensitive to how deeply, and how far spaced the seeds are sewn.  Deciding to be a fucking idiot on a bastard-wagon for an hour will fuck up the field REAL bad, such that whole sections of the thing will have germination failure.  Big fucking bald patches on the field, because some dipshit thought it was "fun".)

[sluissa]

https://www.vox.com/2019/1/10/18171912/tucker-carlson-fox-news-populism-conservatism-trump-gop

When Fox and Vox agree on something, it's either a horrible idea, or absolutely necessary.

[WealthyRadish]

Modern American conservatives criticizing capitalism has literally never occurred to me as a possibility, but apparently we're already here. I suppose fascists had similar criticisms, so it isn't inconceivable (I don't say this to liken the views summarized in that article to fascism, only to say that it reminded me that right-wing thought isn't totally incompatible with anti-capitalist feeling under exceptional circumstances, even if only with a nationalistic or "family values" bent).

[McTraveller]

I'm not arguing that global warming isn't a crisis worthy of overwhelming governmental resource allocation.

Allowing anything to be classified as "worthy of overwhelming governmental resource allocation" sounds like extremely dangerous precedent to me.

[sluissa]

I'm not arguing that global warming isn't a crisis worthy of overwhelming governmental resource allocation.

Allowing anything to be classified as "worthy of overwhelming governmental resource allocation" sounds like extremely dangerous precedent to me.

Winning a world war, and getting to the moon were definitely extremely dangerous precedent.

Throwing money and resources at something isn't always the most efficient way to attain something, but it certainly seems to work when you've got a defined goal in mind. The problem is when the goal isn't set, or is only defined by the haziest terms. "Drugs, Terror, Un-American Activities."

Not arguing it should be our go-to solution for everything, but there are times when it fits the problem. Climate Change might be one of those times. Unfortunately it's going to require global support, not just a single country's efforts.

[McTraveller]

I think it was in the terminology - "overwhelming government resource allocation."  It has the connotation of "you don't have any choice, we're doing this."

With your examples of WWII and the Apollo project, the government convinced people they were worthwhile projects - they didn't force them.  Or at least the "force" was peer pressure, rather than legislative (with the glaring exception of the draft; I'll give you that one).

The current approach to climate change vacillates between disregard and coercion, which is subtly different from attractive arguments.  Instead of telling people "it's worthwhile to consider the choices you can make now to help minimize the impact of climate change", we hear "change this now or else!"  It's a difference in tone.

Also, many people think the approach to dealing with climate change is misguided in being focused almost entirely on CO2 and on "stopping" climate change, when a balanced approach of dealing with emissions of all types and spending efforts to deal with the inevitable climate effects regardless of cause is a more wise choice.

[Trekkin]

I think it was in the terminology - "overwhelming government resource allocation."  It has the connotation of "you don't have any choice, we're doing this."

My apologies for my lack of clarity, then. I had meant it to connote "we place such a priority on this that we are willing to fund it to a level that would ordinarily be too wasteful." It's less about coercion and more about exceptional acceptance of diminishing returns and their concomitant opportunity costs; the only thing it's overwhelming is our normal fiscal calculus.

[Hanslanda]

I've been reminded today by an argument I just had.

I'm an atheist, therefore I'm a second class citizen. I'm accepted as long as I keep quiet about it. As much as I'd prefer to be correct for once, American history does not support the idea that we were founded on religious tolerance.

Nope. That was an idea three guys had 243 years ago that everyone else humored them on.

[Tack]

Hi guys, i’m just popping in hoping that someone can ELI5 for me: How has Trump shut down the government?
Specifically not why or anything, but if Congress is majority democrat, how are they able to do a government shutdown? What’s the mechanism which would normally happen? Does America have a senate? I know nothing sorry.

[Enemy post]

Hi guys, i’m just popping in hoping that someone can ELI5 for me: How has Trump shut down the government?
Specifically not why or anything, but if Congress is majority democrat, how are they able to do a government shutdown? What’s the mechanism which would normally happen? Does America have a senate? I know nothing sorry.

Congress isn't majority Democrat, it has two houses. There's the House of Representatives, which the Democrats just took control of, and the Senate. The Republicans currently have the Senate. To pass a funding bill, both houses must vote to approve a bill and then send it to the President for signing or a veto. Trump refuses to sign anything that doesn't include 5.7 billion dollars for his wall, and the Democrats refuse to give it to him*. In theory, Congress can overrule a veto with a 2/3's majority, but the Republican congressmen refuse to do so since whichever ones killed the wall would be despised by their Trump-supporting base.

*I know you didn't ask why, but I felt it wouldn't be honest to say how it was happening with no context.