Ink up your Veto Pens this is the POLITICS thread.

by **drsmooth** » Tue Nov 18, 2014 23:06:48

oh yeah and he also made sure that Americans' sacred privacy would continue to be invaded by secret government spies and the phone companies. Why does he hate our freedoms?

by **Werthless** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 00:09:24

drsmooth wrote:Your misreading of the issue resembles Werthless's....

Hmmm, no one can understand your posts. Isn't the first time, and won't be the last time.

by **pacino** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 08:49:14

1/3 of all terrorist attacks around the globe happened in Iraq. That's breaking a country, for the posters previously with their jaws on the floor when I stated we messed the country up by going in. 2/3 of all attacks occurred in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

80% of militant groups ceased activity due to negotiations, 7% due to military action, according to the Insititute for Economics and Peace.

by **TomatoPie** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 09:02:07

Werthless wrote:
drsmooth wrote:Your misreading of the issue resembles Werthless's....

Hmmm, no one can understand your posts. Isn't the first time, and won't be the last time.

Doc can be cryptic, but his arguments flow more from logic (albeit, his own damp basement variety of logic) rather than emotion and class envy which drives most of the redistributionist sentiment.

I understand 66.6% of his posts (see what I did there) and enjoy his sense of humor. But, as he is the bizarro TP, I can see how that irritates people. I suspect he also irritates folks IRL, whereas I save my worst behavior for message boards.

by **pacino** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 09:19:17

Top Cuomo donors backed GOP senate

The Democratic governor's top 25 donors gave his campaign committee $5.13 million between Dec. 1, 2010, and Oct. 24, 2014.

The same group of people and organizations contributed just $444,604 to Senate Democrats or independent expenditure committees that supported Democrats in this year's election cycle. At the same time, they spent $2.7 million, over six times as much, helping the campaigns of Senate Republicans.

by **pacino** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 09:25:13

Erdogan's new home is a bit large:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's vast new presidential palace is estimated to cost Turkey over £375m ($600m), the country's finance minister, Mehmet Simsek, said on Tuesday.
The 1,000-room palace is over 30 times larger than the White House and considered to be bigger than France's Palace of Versailles, reported AFP News.

The President has also added another hefty acquisition to his list, including an airbus A330-200 presidential jet, estimated at £116m ($185m), said Simsek.
The grandiose nature of Erdogan's lifestyle is attracting criticism by opposition leaders who are claiming the leader is moving towards an authoritarian rule.
A number of critics have also drawn analogies comparing the presidential palace to the People's Palace built by Romania's communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

he's also rewriting the history of American 'discovery', claiming Muslims discovered it before Columbus. Only problem is it isn't true. There's literally NO evidence, written or physical, that it occurred. He could've, however, stated that since the actual original discoverers of the Americas were from Central Asia that they were likely Turkish.

He's also accussing his political rivals of wiretapping him for reasons unknown. This guy is scum. The rural and religious majority are degrading the political atmosphere of Turkey, and it's sad.

by **Bucky** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 09:29:19

that puny thing couldn't even be Ryan Howard's gatehouse

by **dajafi** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 11:16:46

pacino wrote:Top Cuomo donors backed GOP senate
The Democratic governor's top 25 donors gave his campaign committee $5.13 million between Dec. 1, 2010, and Oct. 24, 2014.

The same group of people and organizations contributed just $444,604 to Senate Democrats or independent expenditure committees that supported Democrats in this year's election cycle. At the same time, they spent $2.7 million, over six times as much, helping the campaigns of Senate Republicans.

In terms of political character, he's basically a Catholic, more obviously miserable Joe Lieberman, with the narrative complication of having a dad who was a genuine liberal hero.

by **Werthless** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 12:56:02

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/19/politics/ ... ?iid=HP_LN

Pretty ballsy to be taking donations to pay for back-taxes on your for-profit business. Does anyone know what his for-profit business does?

by **pacino** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 13:05:11

honestly didnt know he had one. It sucks how a guy who has the potential to do so much good is so scummy. it takes away from his message. here's hoping this gets him off the airwaves. he's the only guy that makes chris matthews look good on the air.

by **dajafi** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 13:26:12

Werthless wrote:http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/19/politics/al-sharpton-finance/index.html?iid=HP_LN

Pretty ballsy to be taking donations to pay for back-taxes on your for-profit business. Does anyone know what his for-profit business does?

Well, one slight mistake in that article. Rachel Noerdlinger--the former Sharpton aide who is chief of staff/"image consultant" to the mayor's wife (or, as she styles herself, FLONYC… professionally, by the way, she's a poet), makes $170k in that role, got a waiver to live outside the city limits (a no-no for those on the payroll) because of her high school linebacker son's alleged physical infirmities requiring that he attend school in NJ, and dates a convicted killer who regularly goes on social media to call cops "pigs," a fact she didn't originally share in the required city disclosure process--went on unpaid leave this week. The reason was that said son was arrested for trespassing in a heavy drug area Friday night. A few years ago, this obviously awesome mom was stopped by cops with boyfriend and son, then age 15, in an SUV reeking of weed.

De Blasio and his wife have attacked the press every time they've gone after Noerdlinger. And to be fair, I suspect she is probably a pretty talented person. But as a former city employee, I think they've been fucking idiots about this--doing nothing but demotivating every administrator/policy person who couldn't get away with even a tiny part of what this lady got away with.

The stylistic similarities between de Blasio and Giuliani (who also employed and endlessly defended some shitty human beings and lousy public servants, and was the all-time champion alternator between bullying and self-pity) is an ongoing amusement to me.

by **drsmooth** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 14:11:03

Werthless wrote:
drsmooth wrote:Your misreading of the issue resembles Werthless's....

Hmmm, no one can understand your posts. Isn't the first time, and won't be the last time.

In Johnson's day, patriotism was the last refuge of a scoundrel. On message boards, it's "no one can understand you"

by **Werthless** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 14:19:37

by **td11** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 14:29:43

ronald reagan had dementia

by **drsmooth** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 14:31:44

TomatoPie wrote:
Doc can be cryptic, but his arguments flow more from logic (albeit, his own damp basement variety of logic) rather than emotion and class envy which drives most of the redistributionist sentiment.

One of the difficulties we have in conversing on this topic is the implicit notion too many hold - held even by those not reflexively agitated by any suggestion that all is NOT for the best in this best of all possible worlds - that all matters concerning ownership are settled; that a different order of things would involve "redistributing" wealth whose current allocation is "the natural order of things", or some such nonsense.

Nothing could be further from the truth of course, but when you make that kind of easy, lazy assumption, you indict your own imagination. And that's pitiable, in my view.

by **drsmooth** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 14:39:43

td11 wrote:ronald reagan had dementia

I hear tell people with dementia frequently can't understand you. Not you specifically, but - well, you know what I mean. Unless you have dementia.

by **TomatoPie** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 14:54:51

drsmooth wrote:
TomatoPie wrote:
Doc can be cryptic, but his arguments flow more from logic (albeit, his own damp basement variety of logic) rather than emotion and class envy which drives most of the redistributionist sentiment.

One of the difficulties we have in conversing on this topic is the implicit notion too many hold - held even by those not reflexively agitated by any suggestion that all is NOT for the best in this best of all possible worlds - that all matters concerning ownership are settled; that a different order of things would involve "redistributing" wealth whose current allocation is "the natural order of things", or some such nonsense.

Nothing could be further from the truth of course, but when you make that kind of easy, lazy assumption, you indict your own imagination. And that's pitiable, in my view.

Don't cry for me, Tipitina.

I have a basic belief that a society grounded in rule of law and well-protected ownership rights is a society that will yield the best prospects for success. Success for all - not just those born into wealth. There are few restrictions on ownership; while that allows some to acculumate wealth that offends the have-nots and those who need to feel good by condemning the prosperous, it also leaves the door open to everyone. Yeah, the door is easier to reach and move if you are born into it, but most of us have parents or grandparents who were poor immigrants - or slaves. And when you look at how groups prosper or fail to, those who shun the handouts prosper faster and more fully. Those who wait for wealth to be redistributed can continue to scrap over crumbs instead of grabbing some real pie.

We all can be grabbing pie, without Uncle Sam's help.

Now go grab a pie.

by **pacino** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 15:21:43

td11 wrote:ronald reagan had dementia

he said there you go again because that was much more effective than actually combating the points that were being thrown at him. it hit well with audiences who didnt give a shit about nuance.

phil hartman's Reagan was the greatest thing ever

by **TenuredVulture** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 15:43:54

I think we should have a confiscatory tax on estates. Exempt the first few million, take pretty much all of the rest. I think we should however more or less eliminate corporate taxes. Tax capital gains, income, dividends, pretty much the same, maybe with a small preference for income, but no deductions.

by **Monkeyboy** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 17:06:28

Werthless wrote:
Monkeyboy wrote:Weird that you say something about someone else not understanding that dividing the pie differently doesn't change the size of the pie, but then you say that a few people having huge amounts of wealth doesn't hurt anyone else. A few people having wealth doesn't enlarge the pie so that others can take more. It just means those other people have less, and many of them are hurt by that fact.

I hate how bill gates is taking money from poor people.

Of course, that doesn't dispute what I said at all.

http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/t ... gyJdq9lk_x

Over 60% of Americans give to charity in some way, the vast majority of them are middle class or poor.

According to this Atlantic article, the top 20% earners in the US give 1.3% of their income and those in the bottom 20% give 3.2%. There will always be people at the bottom of the income scale. The only thing we all need to figure out is how do we want those people to live. What do we want their lives to be like?

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... ve/309254/

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