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Captainant

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Captainant

  1. 1 minute ago, Incredulity said:

    What the fuck are you talking about?  You constantly piss down your leg about disinformation then come here with flat out lies.  Fuck off

    https://itep.org/federal-tax-cuts-in-the-bush-obama-and-trump-years/

    Sorry I didn't include a link to back my claim of what happened in the past is what happened in the past. Taxes have been consistently cut while spending fueled by debt has grown over the same period (because taxes were cut). 

    But if you'd care to give me a more cogent disagreement than quoting 7 words out of a post and saying "NYUH UH!!" that'd be neat

    • Hook 'Em 1
  2. Just now, Dbeasy said:

    I really don’t understand why there is so much arguing in this thread. The deficits being run right now are considered a serious issue by just about every credible economist and fiscal policy maker out there. 

    Both parties share the blame for this, some politicians more than others,and the only way to get this situation out of the extreme red zone is a combination of more taxation revenue carefully applied, more controlled spending, and using moderately higher inflation over the next 15 years to bleed away some of the debt as a percentage of gdp. That is the only solution. Period. 

    The faster the parties come to terms with it and try to start solving it, the faster the danger can be reduced. Otherwise the climb to catastrophe continues. Maybe we do all end up on Bitcoin. 

    My problem is that inflation is fundamentally too much money in the market - usually from debt based spending, and taxation is a direct way to remove money from the economy. That balance has been completely out of whack since the 2000s with the nonstop tax cuts and spending increases. No shit money is getting devalued! 

    The problem is that it's a pretty exclusive position in America that "taxation is theft" and other such platitudes about how the gubmint is taking muh munee. The parties will have a hell of a time making those ends meet, because the hatred of taxation has now sublimated into dogma and id. And there's still a fuckin boatload of federal subsidy pouring out more and more money. 

    There's gotta be a sink, or a negative input to a system. Otherwise it will invariably oscillate and escalate out of control

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  3. 4 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

    Letting pro-Palestine protesters do their thing in public is the best way to make the argument for the other side.

    Unfortunately, Abbott and his sockpuppet Hartzell disagree with your assessment and have deemed riot cops to be the best response for about 50 people on the six pack, rather than let people hear out their ideas and decide for themselves. Because frankly yeah they're probably going to overstep and lose public support for their protest, but that's a moot point when they're being victimized

  4. 35 minutes ago, lucious leftfoot said:

    It’s a CNN poll. 
     

    Is the “right wing media sphere” of Fox News so pervasive that it sways 70% people’s minds against the self-evident truth?

     

    Who you going to believe? Me, or your lying eyes?

    This is essentially economic gaslighting.

    What do you mean you’re having a hard time, baby? Look at these official GDP and inflation figures. You’re doing great. 

    I mean if you want smoke blown up your ass about the economy, that's more 52-80's beat than brisket or Jimmy. The """economy""" writ large is doing good if you're a stock monkey  because NGU, but if you're a wage earner you're at the tail end of a 4 decade long run of fucking workers over. 

    The fucking workers over is tough to pin 100% on Biden unless you've got an agenda to push. But then again when haven't you had an agenda, GRU?

  5. Just now, BabaYaga said:

    Just leave them alone?  Ignore them?  Shit, if you want to get creative build "protective barriers" around them, see how it takes one to break ranks and have to take a growler.  

    Nope, they bring in riot geared cops holding batons because they cannot tolerate speech that they disagree with. 

    This is what early stage fascism looks like

  6. 5 minutes ago, UnivTex34 said:

    I am Assistant Chief Shane Streepy and I represent the University of Texas at Austin Police Department. Your conduct is in violation of Penal Code Sections 42.01 Disorderly Conduct, 42.02 Riot, 42.03 Obstructing a Highway or other passageway, 30.05 Criminal Trespass. I command you in the name of the University of Texas Police Department to disperse, and if you do not, you shall be arrested for Violation of Penal code Section 42.01 Disorderly Conduct, 42.02 Riot, 42.03 Obstructing a Highway or other passageway, 30.05 Criminal Trespass

    I'm not sure how they're rioting or obstructing a highway or passageway, but the pigs are always gonna throw the kitchen sink just to try and bully people out of exercising their rights

    • Fuck You 1
  7. 50 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

    It's one wrinkle to the story about whoring going down that I find interesting.  They're saying in person spending is down because younger generations aren't into sex as much as the boomers but online porn is a huge business.  So, is it just laziness and/or fear of dealing with a woman in person?

    I don't think it's ONLY laziness - I think it's lack of free or leisure time to pursue a relationship. Once you're out of college and on your own, there's a load of expectations put on employees by their bosses - being available for schedule changes at the drop of a hat, or being put oncall constantly, or being put on a contract basis such that you're only earning when you're getting jobs so you're doing 105% every job.

    My point is, today's society in general gives people less time for themselves than ever. Relationships take a ton of time and effort, casual sex less so but still time and effort, and cranking it to some porn to scratch that itch has way fewer strings attached that may make you choose between getting paid and getting off.

     

    edit: there's definitely some laziness at play, but it's reductive to the point of missing the forest for the trees to say it's primarily laziness.

  8. 4 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

    But I do have to just, as someone who is fortunate enough to work some really bright students at our school, have to wonder.  WTF with the divestiture protests on campus aimed at the Tower?  You do not deserve arrest, assault, or even suspension.  But you're supposed to be critical thinkers as Longhorns.  Not saying your position is wrong, but stop for 5 minutes and understand neither the Tower, or Hartzell, or the Board of Regents, of even Abbott sets the portfolio allocation/investment mandates for your school.  Its policy done by the Legislature and then carried out by UTIMCO.  I appreciate your passion, misguided though it may be, but yelling at other students and administrators about defense contractor holdings is futile, bordering on stupid.  You really want change in where PUF money goes, you take it to the Capitol and the UTIMCO HQ.  Not saying it'll be any more effective and you're just as likely to encounter DPS harassment.  But humanitarian concerns, valid though they may be, in the short-term are one thing.  But you want to effectuate long-term change, you go where the money is.  The big Pink Building south of campus and the $70BN endowment south of that.  Yelling at the other kids with posters across the sidewalk is all well and good and I'm for it being protected.  But you want to have a seat at the adult table, put your big boy pants on, and follow the money.  

    So you're saying that instead of publicly protesting and bringing a ton of media attention and discussion to the issue, they should instead seek a bunch of closed door meetings where they will politely be told "no" over and over?

    You really think a bunch of regents and board members that are fabulously wealthy people give a single flying fuck about what any of the students think? I'd bet a dollar that they're also holding positions along with the PUF that they can't unwind from, so there won't be any changes to the investment strategy. They can't say that out loud, so they instead resort to a civility argument that is dishonestly arguing and moving the conversation AWAY from following the money. 

     

    I think forcing the conversation in the open is a much more effective strategy for actually affecting change long-term. Otherwise you're just working within the status quo framework that is already co-opted by culture war politics that is sending jackboots onto campus. 

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  9. 5 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

    Remember when APD came up the Drag to break up the Fortune 500 protests? That was a big deal quickly forgotten.

    That's comparing apples and oranges if APD came to an off campus location to handle a protest, versus the university president preemptively calling in riot cops to silence and arrest peacefully protesting students and members of the public in a State designated """free speech area"""

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  10. Dude you have such a weird tendency of cognitive dissonance 

    37 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

    Not excusing or endorsing anybody on the faculty here, but a major rationale for no confidence/confidence on the part of Hartzell from McCombs faculty isn't just political.

    You first claim that the McCombs people aren't being political

    37 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

    It's that he raised so much money for them as their REFIC head, then Dean, and now President.  New facilities, dozens of endowed chairs, and hundreds of scholarships.  Not saying that's good, bad, or indifferent.  It's just their financial reality

    And then say that they wouldn't want to stand to their principles because of all the nice stuff they got and might be scared to lose. 

     

    That's fuckin politics, dude. The laundering of it through """it's just financial reality""" is how you end up justifying every horrible social enshittification policy like destroying public schools and crumbling infrastructure. 

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  11. 14 minutes ago, pacman said:

    "Hotly contested" - Biden smoked Trump by 74 electoral votes. Hundreds of losing and tossed out court cases don't make anything hotly contested. It just shows a very poor loser.

    "Bitter" - why would the winning candidate be bitter?

    Screenshot_20240429_081358_X.jpg

    It's projection, because he would feel vindictive in that position. 

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  12. 5 hours ago, Rimbo said:
      Hide contents

    ACKshually, the plan was for Jessica's daughter to be the mother of the Kwisatz Haderach, a boy who would be the first man with Mother Superior's ability to see all the past AND the future.

     

    Mother Superior jumped the gun

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