Vox Populi – 4-17-2015

It’s another edition of Vox Populi tonight! Join in our live chat at 7:00pm PDT for another lively and entertaining chat with your fellow Planeteers on the week’s events and so much more! Hope to see you then!

adlib 18 hours ago

Hey there! You guys were early, sorry I missed you!

adlib 13 hours ago

Hey glenn! Doing well, and you?

adlib 13 hours ago

Cool! Sounds like she’s done her research!

adlib 13 hours ago

That’s a smart shopper!

adlib 13 hours ago

Hey Harleigh!

adlib 13 hours ago

Harleigh – I had Schwinns as well and a 3 speed was boss. But when they came out with 10 speeds, it was bitchin’!

adlib 13 hours ago

Harleigh – I call “feeling old and stupid” by its shorter nickname, “McCained”.

adlib 13 hours ago

glenn – How old is she?

adlib 13 hours ago

That girl is going places, glenn!

adlib 13 hours ago

Remember the banana seat bikes that sometimes had no brakes?

adlib 13 hours ago

Harleigh – Oh yeah, calculators were the iPhones for the previous generation, miracles of technology!

adlib 13 hours ago

Hey Sue!

adlib 13 hours ago

Great to see you at Vox, Sue!

adlib 13 hours ago

And you came!

adlib 13 hours ago

I think PPO stepped away.

adlib 13 hours ago

So are we all ready for President Marco “Gulp” Rubio?

adlib 13 hours ago

glenn – Yep, had to pull out the antenna too!

adlib 13 hours ago

I was excited when we got our first touchtone phones. Call me “Gramps”.

adlib 13 hours ago

glenn – Teddy Bore just wants us to imagine everything, then we’ll just imagine him getting thrashed by a Dem if he gets the nom.

adlib 13 hours ago

Sue, yes but I still have my beeper you can reach me on.

adlib 13 hours ago

Anyone remember typewriters?

adlib 13 hours ago

IBM Selectrics? And the exciting new technology of an erase key?

adlib 13 hours ago

I store my punch cards with my floppy disks.

adlib 13 hours ago

Sue – Dot matrix printers?

adlib 13 hours ago

glenn –

adlib 13 hours ago

Sue – WordPerfect.

adlib 13 hours ago

glenn – Any slip ups saying “hard drives”?

adlib 13 hours ago

Sue – Hard to imagine that WordPerfect was the main word processor and Word was an upstart.

adlib 13 hours ago

I’ve found payphones here and there but they are more disgusting than imagineable…imagine who would be using them nowadays, who doesn’t have a cell phone.

adlib 13 hours ago

Hey Sabreen!

adlib 13 hours ago

I remember my first PC with that monster 20MB hard drive.

adlib 13 hours ago

Hey Murph!

adlib 13 hours ago

“Unready For Hillary!!!”

adlib 13 hours ago

Sabreen, explaining just vinyls? I’ve had to explain cassette tapes and VHS tapes.

adlib 13 hours ago

Let alone 8 track tapes! I never understood those in the first place!

adlib 13 hours ago

I was so excited when I got my first 386!

adlib 13 hours ago

Let the kids figure out that reference!

adlib 13 hours ago

glenn – And what a Commodore 64 was.

adlib 13 hours ago

Sabreen – If you had shown them a 45 of a disco song, it might of been even more hilarious! Although, my daughter does know Village People songs like YMCA. That’s kinda weird.

adlib 13 hours ago

glenn – Harleigh’s been listing the processor model numbers of PCs. The 386 was I believe the 3rd generation of processors.

adlib 13 hours ago

Hey, how about life before VCRs/DVRs/VOD? If you missed a show, too bad, you had to wait for summer reruns to see it. And there were only 3 networks. Remember two dial tvs, one for VHF and one for UHF?

adlib 13 hours ago

And remote controls for tvs when they came out, the way they clicked? That was such an exciting luxury, we were thrilled when we had a tv with a remote.

adlib 13 hours ago

Sue – For my parents, I was the remote control before we got an actual one.

adlib 12 hours ago

Sabreen – Is Clear TV an over the airwaves tv?

adlib 12 hours ago

PPO – Yes, we had channels 2,4,5,7,9,11,13,28(pbs). 8 channels to choose from, who could want more?

adlib 12 hours ago

glenn – The thing I liked least about being a remote control was that when I didn’t change the channel, they’d stick new batteries in me.

adlib 12 hours ago

Yes! Victoria Station! We used to eat there from time to time but it was kinda upscale, being in a train and all.

adlib 12 hours ago

PPO – Yep, all of those stations were around in LA for some time. Seemed like plenty to choose from back then but why is it that today I can flip around tons of stations and still not find anything I really want to watch?

adlib 12 hours ago

Harleigh – Those were unpleasant days, HP back then. Now when you go over there, the comments are no longer much of a draw to read, as Facebookized as they are.

adlib 12 hours ago

That’s interesting to hear about HP, Murph. If they had only asked, we could have told them that though.

adlib 12 hours ago

BTW, we still had A&W stands out here somewhere a few years ago, don’t know if they’re still around.

adlib 12 hours ago

Murph – The quality of people who would go back to a site that slammed the door on them for profits would propagate an awful and low quality atmosphere there. They could re-open their own comments again but it will be so low grade, nothing like it was.

adlib 12 hours ago

Sue – Yes, it used to be a big deal that Howard Johnson’s was a racist outfit that refused service to African Americans.

adlib 12 hours ago

Thanks PPO!

adlib 12 hours ago

Harleigh – I go there as part of my work here and the comments section has devolved to a very simple pattern. A couple reasonable comments or one liners then a troll comment that sucks everyone in like rubes. Rinse and repeat.

adlib 12 hours ago

Murph – Yep, we discussed this and it sure seemed obvious that being Facebook-only, it would degrade into an intellectual swamp. Now that it has…they’re surprised?

adlib 12 hours ago

PPO – It just seems to be common sense. The bloggers are the ones who gave HP its success and character. Arianna and the execs have egos too big to have accepted that, they needed to believe that it was all due to their brilliance and seeing the bloggers there reminded them of what BS that was. So, I think there was a natural psychological urge to diminish the value of bloggers and of course, once they did, the tabloid quality of the site got crappier.

adlib 12 hours ago

Sabreen – You’re not the only one, it’s very easy for people to forget that DC is in the South. After all, it was our capitol when the North fought the South in the Civil War so it’s not odd that many equate DC with the North.

adlib 12 hours ago

Sabreen – I do go to HP because I think it’s important as an Admin here to stay up to date with that and other sites but I too will never link to an article there. Nor The Hill or Politico because they and others are so tainted, the reason I provide links is to provide more legit and authoritative backup.

adlib 12 hours ago

Harleigh – Arianna is floating away so far from reality in her New Age bubble, she’s barely in touch with herself. What a deluded human being she has become.

adlib 12 hours ago

Sabreen – I too am done with HP as a legit and trustworthy operation, I just like to know what HP, Fox and other leeches out there are up to.

adlib 12 hours ago

Onto news issues, what do you think will happen with Congress’ attempt to kill the Iran deal and support the TPP?

adlib 12 hours ago

And what about the israel-drone-Dems like Chuck Schumer who are happily trying to thwart Obama’s striking a peaceful disarmament deal with Iran? Should we put an electoral target on them and try and defeat them in primaries?

adlib 12 hours ago

Sue – They are trying to kill the deal, all those opposed want us to go to war in Iran from what I can tell. Really? Americans are ready for another unending war in the ME with no hope for victory? And push Iran to make nukes even faster to stop us from attacking them?

adlib 12 hours ago

glenn – Yes, I too visit all three sites.

adlib 12 hours ago

I still have yet to see a convincing Pro-TPP argument that shows the good outweighing the bad.

adlib 12 hours ago

For what it’s worth, here’s Elizabeth Warren’s article on the TPP, a quote from it first: “The United States is in the final stages of negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive free-trade agreement with Mexico, Canada, Japan, Singapore and seven other countries. Who will benefit from the TPP? American workers? Consumers? Small businesses? Taxpayers? Or the biggest multinational corporations in the world? One strong hint is buried in the fine print of the closely guarded draft. The provision, an increasingly common feature of trade agreements, is called “Investor-State Dispute Settlement,” or ISDS. The name may sound mild, but don’t be fooled. Agreeing to ISDS in this enormous new treaty would tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations. Worse, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty. ISDS would allow foreign companies to challenge U.S. laws — and potentially to pick up huge payouts from taxpayers — without ever stepping foot in a U.S. court.”

adlib 12 hours ago

Murph – Warren says categorically that ISDS is included in the TPP as it stands today. If that’s the case, this is dangerous. If it is not then she deservedly should lose credibility.

adlib 12 hours ago

Sabreen – We did debate this and I respect your, CL’s and Spandan’s positions on this. For me, the issue is that the argument for not opposing the TPP is based on an old proposal. Warren says the ISDS is in this new proposal. If it is, we need to oppose it. If it’s not and she is crying wolf, she will lose her standing to many including me. I am withholding full judgement until the actual draft is made public but my hunch is that the ISDS is in the TPP.

adlib 12 hours ago

Night Sue, great to have you here tonight!

adlib 12 hours ago

Sabreen – One of the reasons I take Warren’s position to heart is that I’m not aware of an incident where she claimed something that wasn’t the case. I think Spandan is earnest in his views and I think Warren is as well but Warren has access to more actual information on the TPP and I can’t imagine why she would throw away her credibility on something like this that she knew could blow up in her face. I am more predisposed to believe her then to believe that the TPP, unlike every other global trade deal in modern history, will be good for American workers.

adlib 12 hours ago

Sabreen, I know that Spandan does not have access to highly confidential documents like the TPP but a US Senator can. This is not S 1900 so basing everything on that is I think a mistake. As you say yourself, we don’t know what all is in this so how could an old bill be used to argue what is or isn’t in it? As I mentioned last time, it’s not a litmus test, one can support Pres. Obama yet still oppose his positions on particular policies.

adlib 11 hours ago

Same here, glenn! Great chat tonight, have a great weekend riding bikes with your granddaughter!

adlib 11 hours ago

Harleigh – My guess…and it is a total guess that could be proven absolutely wrong, is that Obama is trying to make a deal that will solve some urgent trade issues and willing to make certain trade offs that he thinks makes the deal worth it. Warren seems to be drawing a line in the sand that says, no matter how beneficial other aspects are, they’re not worth agreeing to the ISDS.

adlib 11 hours ago

Sabreen, I strongly disagree with your making this (or any position on an issue) a litmus test for supporting Obama.

adlib 11 hours ago

Does everyone here agree with every single important position Obama takes?

adlib 11 hours ago

Sabreen – Just because some oppose Obama’s position on this, doesn’t mean they’re exhibiting kneejerk reactions, don’t think Obama is honest or any of such attributes. I do agree with you that we just don’t know a lot about it now but I don’t think Warren would lie about having seen what she has of it. So I do believe that when it becomes public, it’s likely that provision will be in it. If it’s not and it’s good for American workers as a whole, I will support it and I will be critical of Warren.

adlib 11 hours ago

Harleigh – I have a variety of issues with Obama, on surveillance of Americans, on the treatment of whistleblowers, on the wider use of secrecy to keep the public from learning about many areas that it used to be able to. But in general, I support his positions on most policies.

adlib 11 hours ago

I think glenn asked earlier if the ISPS is in the TPP, if it could be removed along the way. The problem with Congress agreeing to Fast Track is that they are only allowed an up or down vote so if that is in it, it can’t be removed by Congress.

adlib 11 hours ago

Whoops, I meant ISDS!

adlib 11 hours ago

It is interesting though that Repubs are happy to give Obama independence to negotiate a deal having to do with global corps making more money but not on stopping Iran from having nukes that could destabilize the ME and the world.

adlib 11 hours ago

Seeya Murph!

adlib 11 hours ago

Night Harleigh!

adlib 11 hours ago

Sabreen – Ultimately, you are absolutely right that full judgement needs to wait until we see what exactly is in the TPP.

adlib 11 hours ago

Night Sabreen!

adlib 11 hours ago

Night all! Thanks for another rousing Vox Populi!

adlib 11 hours ago