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softlynow

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by softlynow

  1. Odd interpretation of what I said. They have no money because their wages are undercut. If you choose the free trade route (as I would), you aren’t fixing that part of it. So you’d need to fix the other end, which starts with tax policy that rewards companies that build middle class purchasing power and punishes (at least a bit) those who automate and outsource. We have made the worst choice. Arguably worse even than autarky. Even a true laissez faire economy would be better at this point (though it would inevitably evolve back where we are).
  2. National socialism.
  3. We should be disincentivizing work that pays less than $600 a week right now anyway. Restaurants, water parks, concert halls, arenas, bars, all non-essential office buildings, etc. should be closed right now. And it’s not that big a disincentive anyway. A couple of my staff could see it that way, but don’t. Of course, unlike a lot of small businesses we provide health insurance. It’s been obvious for over a decade that we couldn’t create significant inflation if we tried ... because we’ve tried. That’s because all economic gains continue to go to the wealthy and higher earners, and foreign slave labor keeps shit we buy cheap. Have to change one of those factors before this ship gets righted. Well, that and a vaccine for SARS-Dotus-2.
  4. I get this sentiment, but these hearings are pointless. The best thing you can do is not score an own goal. No law or policy change is coming. Make a solid point or two, but nothing that comes close to giving them a soundbite for a campaign ad. When your opponent is making an ass of himself, the best thing you can do is keep him talking.
  5. Does this mean that President Hatch is not coming?
  6. Are we sure we want bad things to happen to this guy? If the fine folks in the Texas 1st congressional get a fresh crack at choosing a rep, there's a near 100% chance that they choose someone just as insane, maybe more so, and a very high chance that someone would be a more effective agent of insanity. I get that he's an embarrassment to the state, but we have an embarrassment of those particular riches.
  7. Only after finding structural faults which knock the fair market value down by 99%. He's made enough from the Treasury.
  8. I thought you only tried to hit players on the other team.
  9. How does the funding reduction vote, which has no chance at becoming law, tied around the necks of members running every two years in purple or light blue districts help to actually achieve any progressive goal. I take no issue with your overall point, but this doesn’t really support it. The next time Trump isn’t on the ballot you can bet Lincoln Project types will attack vulnerable reps for being “reckless with American lives,” “hating the troops,” and so on, and it would work.
  10. . . . or anytime at all, really.
  11. Probably not. But almost nothing talked about on this thread will happen. This thread, the news coverage of Dotus, Twitter, etc. are boring at this point. It’s all monotonous and repetitive. The memes are ok, but getting pretty stale. There are political junkies on here, so I ask a simple question that maybe one of them know. How are either of your responses helpful? I get it. This is the fuck you website, so I should’ve expected it. Well fuck you back.
  12. I know very well how things are. But I've lived through caring for family members who showed cognitive decline in their last years. This is quite possibly picking up momentum to the point the 25th would be inarguably necessary. Spare me the hyperbolics about Moscow Mitch. Yes, I know he's an evil, incomparably corrupt and spineless POS. But if, for example, Trump's laughably tiny vocabulary is reduced, as it was for my grandmother, to a single word or none at all, he's got no choice.
  13. What's the drop dead date for the GOP to replace him as the nominee? It seems like the unravelling of what little mind he had to begin with is accelerating. A functional GOP would've booted him long ago, but even the shell that remains should be working on it right now.
  14. Makes sense. History is littered with people killing in the name of a deity. Some of that is because of wealth and power, sure, but zeolatry abounds as well. And let's face it, at a base primal level, it can be satisfying to fantasize about righteously killing the wicked. Fantasies about enforcing the right not have troops live with you are pretty meh by comparison.
  15. If Trump wins, or stays via extralegal means, yep. I have one, but I think I'll need a couple more.
  16. The bolded would make sense if the estate tax ever was 100%, or was being proposed at 100%. The average rate paid by estates hit by the tax is around 15-20% even when the marginal rate was 40%. It shouldn't be a major part of tax reform, in any event. It doesn't raise the kinds of funds needed, nor is it a major way to keep inequality in check. First, the corporate tax needs to return to the point it raises as much or close as the individual income tax. Second, the capital gains tax needs to be treated the same as ordinary income. Third, marginal rates need to go down to zero at the poverty line (with the refundable EITC only applying to half the FICA collected up to the poverty line, leave some "skin in the game"), up a bit above the poverty line, and a new higher rate needs to be introduced at double the top current rate (say 46% on $1,036,802+ single, and on $1,244,102 married filing jointly). Finally I would raise standard deduction 5-10% over its current level, and jettison every other deduction except those dealing with catastrophes.
  17. He's in a tight spot only because we all know he has no integrity and will not play by the rules himself laid out in 2016. Anyway, the court's institutional integrity, and maybe the political alignment for the next couple decades may ride on whether RBG can make it to January 20 (assuming a Biden victory, for arguments sake only). If she dies, and the Court ends up quickly taking an abortion case and overturning Roe/Casey, things should get interesting. First, there will be a real push to increase the size of the Court, and the politics of the Court will only get more divisive. Second, a not insignificant number of reliable Republican votes will shift on that issue alone. I say all this to wonder whether McConnell would balk because winning on this issue, like immigration, isn't really in the GOPs interest. Campaigning on abortion, passing half measures on abortion, sure that works great. But making it a rallying cry for women in purple states?
  18. Not sure if serious. You're asking why people would be disingenuous in a political campaign? Really? The wealthy taking this stance are looking to help elect the person likely to make them wealthier. Scare tactics are used without reserve by most if not all in politics. Here, they could be scaring the stupid into voting against their economic interest, because, well, they do that often. They also could be scaring other wealthy people, maybe those who don't give to candidates at all or often, to open up their pocketbooks for Republican candidates.
  19. And it'll be poorer children doing the bulk of the initial dying, and probably all of the dying. We should have been having the reopening schools discussion in March, with rotations and "quaranteaming" and other ideas heavily considered. Telelearning isn't optimal, but a mix of in-person instruction with at-home parent chaperone video conferencing could very well have allowed us to muddle through to the other side. As it is now, poors will die and get left behind.
  20. Fourth Turnings have resulted from tremendous (the best, you wouldn't believe the) stupidity before, why should this one be any different?
  21. So, Dershowitz.
  22. On a long enough timeline, nothing is solved, because nothing matters.
  23. Nah. But thanks for the hot take.
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