Displaying 91 To 120 Of 2,270 Comments KT, this was perfect. Personally the only stupid people I have a problem with are the ones that are deliberately so. » Posted By funksands On November 14, 2014 @ 8:53 am Moncia, I love this video! So true on so many levels. You are spot on with your ladder analogy! I’ve always viewed trolls as people that can only engage the lizard parts of their brains: Stimulus = response = stimulus = response. Anything outside of that pattern is simply beyond them. » Posted By funksands On November 13, 2014 @ 9:56 am Kes, this was a great article and as Ad mentioned, should be a required primer for anyone looking to engage in conversation on the internet. The anonymity and distance of the internet is certainly a double-edged sword. It allows everyone a chance express their inner selves in a manner that they may not be comfortable with face to face. Unfortunately, too many people (of all stripes and persuasions) have issues…many many issues… As my old pappy once told me: “Son, half of the people in the world are assholes. But that’s not the problem. The problem is that only half of that half are easy to identify. The rest you’ll have to find out the hard way” Thanks internet for giving us a much easier way to identify them! 🙂 » Posted By funksands On November 13, 2014 @ 9:52 am I think I’ve found the song for my funeral… 😯 » Posted By funksands On November 13, 2014 @ 9:46 am An Open Letter to President Obama: Let Republicans Play with Their Own Boehner “Many of us Canadians are confused by the U.S. midterm elections. Consider, right now in America, corporate profits are at record highs, the country’s adding 200,000 jobs per month, unemployment is below 6%, U.S. gross national product growth is the best of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The dollar is at its strongest levels in years, the stock market is near record highs, gasoline prices are falling, there’s no inflation, interest rates are the lowest in 30 years, U.S. oil imports are declining, U.S. oil production is rapidly increasing, the deficit is rapidly declining, and the wealthy are still making astonishing amounts of money. America is leading the world once again and respected internationally — in sharp contrast to the Bush years. Obama brought soldiers home from Iraq and killed Osama bin Laden. So, Americans vote for the party that got you into the mess that Obama just dug you out of? This defies reason. When you are done with Obama, could you send him our way?” Richard Brunt Victoria, British Columbia » Posted By funksands On November 10, 2014 @ 8:41 am JOIN THE LIVE CHAT TONIGHT! Election Night 2014!!! CD, much of what you say makes sense. Democratic turnout the last 4 midterms has been about the same. It’s the conservative turnout that has fluctuated. If you are going to engage those that don’t participate in our democracy you need to find a new plan. I guess not being the party of torture, false wars, melting down the world economy isn’t enough anymore. » Posted By funksands On November 5, 2014 @ 8:20 am Why The GOP Will Have A “Good” Night Tomorrow Kes, I find it interesting that a flotilla of left-leaning policy passed in state initiatives last night, while Democratic candidates got beat. Maybe it’s time they embraced some positive populism rather than being afraid of looking extreme. I think candidates that embraced that this year did pretty darn well. » Posted By funksands On November 5, 2014 @ 8:24 am American Democracy and Learning Lessons the Hard Way “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.” Winston Churchill » Posted By funksands On November 3, 2014 @ 8:23 pm RSG, this is one meaty post! Two thoughts: 1) The angriest electorate wins. Conservatives everywhere have shown an eager willingness to vote agains their economic self-interest in order to vote for the candidate that mouths the secret passwords In 2006 it was just too much. Conservatives were discouraged and confused, and liberals and moderates were pissed. In 2008 everyone was freaked out about the end of the world, conservatives were confused and rattled, and liberals and moderates were pissed. 2016 you would think would bring another wave Democratic election, but for 1 secret weapon. Obama will be in office and a Clinton will be running for President. That will bring furious insanity from the right never seen before in the history of the world since the 1930’s. That is when we’ll find out whether the fever breaks before everything else breaks. Right now I am betting the under. » Posted By funksands On November 3, 2014 @ 8:22 pm A GOP Majority in the Senate: A GOP Nightmare In the Making Leafs, you aren’t wrong. While Republicans control 59 of 98 partisan state chambers right now, they could end up with several more by the end of tomorrow night. On a positive, it looks as if Democrats may pick up a net +2 governorships by the end of the election. Dems are likely going to have to wait until 2020 to right this very serious problem. » Posted By funksands On November 3, 2014 @ 8:12 pm Murph, great article. I can’t find any holes in your logic. I think Republicans like everyone else are waiting to see what the margin of victory is to determine their strategy. They’ve been perfectly happy with utter paralysis for 4 years. It hasn’t been a bad strategy as there have been no electoral consequence on a federal level as a result. IF they end up with what I think is the most likely scenario of 51 Senate seats and 1 Independent to caucus with them, they may have to be satisfied with going through the motions for 2 more years. This may be their best bet going into 2016. “See? We’ve tried to fulfill the American People’s wishes and the President/Democratic Senate won’t cooperate.” I think they’re satisfied with control of Congress. They’d like to have the Presidency, but I don’t think it matters to them as much. They want the positions that really matter: Attorney Generals, Judges, Governors, State Legislatures, Congress. These are the offices that carry nearly all of the domestic political power. If they muddy the water and stall long enough to keep the electorate from becoming furious, that may be their best bet to retain the raft of Senate seats up for grabs in 2016. IF they take all of the close races, then I think it likely they’ll be able to peel off 3-4 moderate or conservative Dem Senator votes on certain vetoes. I think Obama will be under more pressure to compromise as well. This is dangerous though, because then they’ll actually have to govern, actually put together legislation with a snowball’s chance to pass. That is not what their base sent them to Washington to do. That also will attract anger and energy from formerly cynical and disaffected liberals and moderates going into a Presidential election year. Either way, it gives the .00005% another 2 years to loot the commons, which is what every Republican was hired to do by their employers. » Posted By funksands On November 3, 2014 @ 8:01 pm I’m Throwing Away My Vote Next Tuesday Monica, thanks. Your middle paragraph crystalized what I was trying to say perfectly! » Posted By funksands On November 3, 2014 @ 8:28 am SLM, thanks for posting this, I completely understand your position and arguments. Your vote is your vote. You may cast it as you wish, that is one of the very few things that we have control over in our democratic oligarchy. A few thoughts: 1) IMO, the higher up the food chain you go, the more you have to practice “comparative” politics. Here’s what I mean by that: If I lived in Louisiana for example I would be faced with turd sandwich choice for US Senate. Mary Landrieu by no means resembles anything that I think a Democrat should. I would find it difficult to vote for her if there was a better third option. But I would vote for her, because comparatively she is the better option than her opponent. I consider Obama a moderate. I felt that comparatively he was more liberal than HRC, so that’s why I voted for him in the primary. That type of pragmatism on a federal level is unfortunately necessary in most cases. Keeping rabid right-wing nut jobs out of the Senate, the House, the Presidency and the Supreme Court will involve voting for some Democratic candidates that are flawed. 2) The further down the food chain you go, the less necessity there is for “comparative” politics. The more local the race, the more “objective” I think voters can be. In the last few elections I have voted straight ticket Democratic on a national level and Democratic, Green, Independent and Socialist on a local and state level. The smaller the race, the more comfortable I felt voting this way. 3) The amount of luck, labor, money, organization and sheer numbers it is going to take to get a significant chunk of our federally-elected positions into the hands of Progressives is staggering. Focusing our attention on national and even state-wide races to change the complexion of our nation is going to be too difficult. Top-down won’t work. Instead, we need to recommit our time, energy, and attention to local races. Start finding, training, influencing the national leaders of tomorrow in school board races, mayorships, county commissioner positions. In 20 years we’ll have a roster of progressive candidates that will be taking over national and state positions. It’s hard to be that patient, but the wing-nuts did it exactly this way in the 70’s and now they control the national narrative. Would I be happy to vote for Martha Coakley? No. Would I do it in order to keep some semblance of rationality in the governor’s mansion? Probably, but I certainly don’t fault you for voting your mind. But don’t apologize for asking people to vote for national democratic candidates even if they aren’t progressive. It’s that type of comparative voting that will keep the GOPKlan out of complete power while our bench comes up through the system. » Posted By funksands On October 30, 2014 @ 10:22 am Conservatives Take Voter Deception To (not so) New Levels Murph, the “We all know” strategy is a very common and effective lead-in typically used by conservatives to accomplish a few things: 1) Reassure other already like-minded individuals The most powerful long-term benefit of this style of discourse is that its sticky. It’s easy to process, consume and regurgitate, so even if it doesn’t immediately gain traction, it eventually is latched onto and consumed and spread by its hosts. Other examples might include: “It’s common knowledge that…” Of course your friend understands that his party of preference also does this. He doesn’t have to admit it though. Rationalizing away contrary information in order to maintain the communal reinforcement is more important than obtaining new contrary information that would put your place in that community in jeopardy. That said, in a general election I think the Republican will tend to be more successful peeling away moderates and liberals with little more than a patina of moderate and liberal-ness. Democrats tend to have great difficulty peeling off conservatives to their cause and tend to disaffect liberals and moderates when they obviously pander. » Posted By funksands On October 21, 2014 @ 4:15 pm CNN, MSNBC and Fox News to Sue Ebola For Underperformance As of this writing, more people have been married to Kim Kardashian than have died from Ebola in the United States. Great piece Ad, I really enjoyed it! » Posted By funksands On October 21, 2014 @ 7:05 am Should Voting in the U.S. Be Mandatory? Ad, I think there should be mandatory voting. Every citizen should be required to at least lift a finger to fulfill their unspoken duty as a citizen. One thing I learned today that was interesting: The highest % voter turnout in a midterm election since 1948?: 1966 with 49%. 2010’s turnout was the highest midterm turnout since 1982 (43%) This is a chronic problem that’s persisted during our nation’s modern history. » Posted By funksands On October 15, 2014 @ 12:43 pm ISIS vs Syria, Iraq, and Other Islamic Countries Nirek, that’s kind of the point I’m trying to make. ISIS is the Sunnis taking things into their own hands, with the tacit blessing of Sunni governments. That we now strategize with how to stop ISIS, which they either tacitly or actively support. Thats how messed up this is. » Posted By funksands On October 15, 2014 @ 9:47 am http://www.thetower.org/article/the-map-that-ruined-the-middle-east/ » Posted By funksands On October 13, 2014 @ 5:22 pm Nirek, good question. I don’t think that ISIS can move too far beyond the areas they are attacking now for a few reasons. 1) They are a Sunni group. They are fighting in Syria where Sunnis are the majority religion, but politically have no power. In a destroyed country, a group like this can get a toehold and wield tremendous authority. 2) In Iraq they are fighting a government where the Sunnis are the minority, but have little political power beyond local offices. This too is taking place in destabilized and destroyed country where an organized, armed group like ISIS has tremendous authority. They won’t invade Saudi Arabia, because that is where most of their money is coming from, and rabid Sunnis are already in charge of the country Kuwait – same Jordan – not rabid sunnis, but same story. Sunnis have all the political power. With 2 million Syrian and 1 millions Iraqi refugees living in the country, they could be destabilized though. Yemen – Sunnis in charge Turkey – Sunnis in charge Egypt – Sunnis in charge Lebanon is really the only serious worry. As it is about a quarter Sunni, a quarter Shiite, 40% Christian and is big melting pot of a bunch of different religions. They are also swamped by Syrian refugees and could be an attractive target for ISIS. If ISIS attacked there, then Isreal would have to get involved and things would get really really messy very quickly. Much of the political turmoil in the Middle East is a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. They are the bitterest of enemies. Iraq was a buffer state between the two for a long time. Iran supports and supplies Assad, the Saudis support and supply Isis in Syria We had a big meeting with a whole bunch of Middle Eastern countries to discuss what to do about ISIS, some of these countries are actively supporting them. We didn’t even invite Iran, who is the biggest enemy of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. There are many political things we should be doing to solve this problem. We aren’t doing any of them. Until we do, not 1 bullet. Not 1 bomb, not 1 boot. Pumping more weapons into an already completely destabilized situation is madness and will not help 1 bit. » Posted By funksands On October 13, 2014 @ 5:16 pm Nirek, I’m in agreement with all of your comments. I can’t think of 1 reason to put boots on the ground in Syria, nor very many reasons for airstrikes. This is an old old old political problem that we are trying to solve militarily. There are several things to we could do prior to unleashing hell on earth or more young Americans to trudge into the desert. I have mixed feelings on the draft. On one hand I think it might policy-makers a hell of a lot less casual about deploying troops into a war zone. I think it would certainly keep the American people’s attention on what are political leaders are doing with our military. On the other, you have seen first-hand the effectiveness of a drafted army in the field. Is it as effective as it could be? Unlikely. Does that make it more likely people die? Probably. There has to be another tool that would work as well, but I can’t think of one. » Posted By funksands On October 7, 2014 @ 2:59 pm Great News on the Economy! (Made You Look!) Mister, thanks for the links, I will check them out. To clarify, I’m not saying the unemployment numbers aren’t flawed or useful/useless. I just mean that if the unemployment number has been figured the same way for 50-60 years then it isn’t “cooked” in my opinion. Doesn’t mean that its helpful or representative of anything important, just that its consistent. Now, if methodology behind the number routinely changes, then I would have a healthier dose of skepticism of the intent of the number itself. » Posted By funksands On October 13, 2014 @ 4:56 pm Nice of the Brookings Institution to back me up on my assertions today 🙂 [img]http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/54356bf5eab8ea002206f08f-1200-706/chart-1045.jpg[/img] http://www.businessinsider.com/brookings-fiscal-impact-on-the-economy-2014-10 » Posted By funksands On October 8, 2014 @ 10:02 am Ad, I really appreciate the compliment and the detailed reply! The stimulus was an interesting cat and the political story behind it is really fascinating. Lets just say that things could of been a hell of lot different for our country if Susan Collins and Arlen Specter hadt gotten their nose out of joint and played hardball. I love the line about slavery being the most “productive” labor force there is. I’m going to have to file that one away. 🙂 It’s amazing to me too how adaptable Americans are. It’s a strength, but it obviously has a down-side as well. I wonder if we’re too busy to stop and look around and realize we’re being robbed? We’ve exhibiting a lot of very strange behavior over the last 10 years, and I’m not sure if we are capable of the level of introspection needed to “wake up” and get out of this self-destructive rut we’re in. I think you’ve found your next article. “America on the couch: “Doc I don’t know what’s wrong with me… » Posted By funksands On October 7, 2014 @ 6:52 pm EX, if for one really hope you are right. At the very least, you certainly have the appropriate attitude! » Posted By funksands On October 7, 2014 @ 3:03 pm Thanks SLM! I’m really glad you enjoyed it! » Posted By funksands On October 7, 2014 @ 3:00 pm And thank you! 🙂 » Posted By funksands On October 7, 2014 @ 12:36 pm Mister, you’ve hit on a couple of key points in the unemployment number 1) Boomers are retiring and dropping out of the job market in bigger and bigger numbers. In 10 years or so, the pig will really be moving through the python and we’ll have even more stark participation numbers. Boomers for the most part put off retiring in 2008-2011 because of their wrecked retirement accounts, but with those recoveries they comprise (IMO) the majority of net job-force dropouts in 2012-2014. 2) That said, the participation rate for 25-54 year olds has also not recovered from the pre-recession amounts. That one is little harder to explain. I don’t thing the unemployment numbers are cooked, I just don’t think how its measured is especially useful. The BLS measures the shit out of everything. They have far more useful statistics that simply don’t get any press. I consider the unemployment number to be like the Dow Jones number. Everybody looks at it, but its essentially meaningless for purposes of examining what the stock market is actually doing. The Dow only measures the average price of 30 stocks. That’s it. What does that really tell us about how the other 5K publicly traded companies are doing? Labor and employment is simply a matter of political will. There is plenty for people to do, and plenty money to pay them. There simply is no political will to do so. Which is awful. » Posted By funksands On October 7, 2014 @ 12:36 pm Kes, you and I are seeing the same thing I’m afraid. And they have good reason to feel this way! That said, curling into a frowny fetal position over it is unacceptable. The GOP wants people to feel this way. They figured out early on in the Obama administration that there if are only minor electoral consequences for their sabotage, there’s no reason to stop. Cynicism is their greatest ally. We break it There has to be a solution other than everything breaking so bad that the American people can no longer sit by. I just don’t know what it is. I have a feeling that solution is going to have to come from the bottom-up over the next 20-30 years as well. » Posted By funksands On October 7, 2014 @ 9:01 am Nirek, I totally understand where you are coming from, however I would encourage you to “start local” like the article recommends. As awful and destructive as the Bush administration was, they certainly were not to blame for all of the economic problems that President Obama inherited. The seeds for this were sown during the Reagan administration and came into full flower in the Clinton administration. The Bush administration simply aided and abetted the situation until it blew up in everyone’s face. The credit I give is backhanded credit. Enabling the rape and pillage of our country to suck out hydrocarbons is a terrible, awful, no-good idea. But it has been good (short-term) for the economy. You can’t dispute it. The fact that the bank bailout was even necessary was partially their fault, but the fact they were able to get any kind of bailout through a dubious Democratically-controlled Congress and hostile GOP minority was really important. Assign blame where it is due, assign credit where it is due. We have to be very clear-eyed about the past if we are to work on the solutions for the future. Democratic and Republican administrations come and go, the economy and America remain. » Posted By funksands On October 7, 2014 @ 8:56 am Kes, thanks! I’m really glad you enjoyed it. Want something interesting to ponder? Midterms will give Americans a chance to decide whether they are simply resigned to the status quo until the next census. My fear is that people that should care more about the economy won’t. Or even worse, those that have the most to lose are too cynical, lazy, disenfranchised to participate in any meaningful way. We could be looking at 6 MORE YEARS of government shutdowns, poison pill legislation and filibusters. Ugh. » Posted By funksands On October 6, 2014 @ 7:03 pmComments Posted By funksands
2) As long as the GOP keeps their voters angry, all they need to do is mouth the words and they will be elected.
2) Herd and corral the vulnerable and ignorant toward a specific point of view
3) Convince some that everyone already thinks this way, why aren’t you? This is very useful for people susceptible to needing to “belong”.
“Everybody understands that…”
Iran supports and supplies the Iraqi government, the Saudis support and supply ISIS and other insurgency groups in Iraq.
You are mad it doesn’t work
You elect us because you are mad at it not working
We break it more
Your are mad it doesn’t work
You stay home
You elect us because you are mad at it not working
We break it more
Even more of you stay home
You elect us…
etc etc etc
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