Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

I will be targeting one particular Republican, the one who represents the place I great up, John Faso, with a vengeance.

I just scanned the comments on his announcement of his support for this godforsaken piece of shit they call a bill, and they are running more than 99% against him.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

First point: Gold star for you.
Second one: Yup.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

My rep, Ted Poe, was on the wavering list and caved. Motherfucker has been battling leukemia all year. I called his office to voice my concern as a constituent, a family member of someone who relies on the exchanges, and as someone who works in the Texas Medical Center.

May Karma be swift.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

I'm in Culberson's district. I don't even check how he votes on things anymore because he's so consistently an asshat. It's awesome to see how he used to get shouted down at town halls at places like West U Elementary. Then he started making his town halls infrequent and at such times and places it would be inconvenient for anyone who isn't a retiree to attend.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

It is true. But if you think about my laddering of issues, you'll notice, I'm carefully suggesting fixes at the top which will also fix a lot of the problems below.

It all comes down to money. Find a way to assuage the economic anxieties and most of the other ills self-correct.

Think about how addressing the priorities I listed fixes others, and fixes those lower on my own ladder.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

For Sebby: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C_EC1bIX...jpg&name=large

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Not be assholes.

Startups constantly give themselves an excuse for being assholes because its "innovative" or "disruptive". But, yeah, the key is, not being assholes. Or at least limiting it a bit.

Time to taste what you most fear/Right Guard will not help you here...
 

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/unit...icipation-rate

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/unit...es/wage-growth

No, the lower participation is not because of retirements: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...orking-past-65

Shall we talk student loans next? Or perhaps how many millennials are living in basements? Or the automation/outsourcing chainsaw working its way through Gen Xers in middle management positions?

It's a good time to have assets. The "recovery" has been a gift to those who who were on top pre-2008 -- a preservation of their position on top.

And it's really funny to hear from you about how Everything's Just Dandy with the economy, but we have dire social issues to consider regarding non-cis bathroom users. The reason you're fixated on the latter and not the former, I suspect, is, like a lot of people in our social strata:

1. You truly do want social change;
2. But you don't want to change the economy, which is delivering for people like you; so,
3. You recoil at criticisms of the economy and support a narrative that insulates it from real, substantial change, but assuage your need to make a positive difference by focusing on social issues at the periphery.

Maybe people like you and me should start checking our "economic privilege." Let's see how many white liberals want to have a conversation about how their best decision in life was selection of their parents. It's quite easy to throw moral opprobrium around regarding somebody's failure to empathize (which is what accusing someone of failing to grasp their privilege is doing). I'd like to see some of the enlightened white folks with those criticisms atone for the privilege that grants them the ability to burn time tsk-tsking others: That daddy and mommy bankrolled our asses.

My white liberal friends who went to my white bread schools don't like that conversation all that much. They're all about solidarity with the little guy, until someone suggests a radical economic change that tanks their portfolios.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

At heart, you're a Marxist?

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

You wouldn't be the first to level that accusation. Thankfully, yours is I believe used accurately. This criticism leads to a lot of confusion when you're hanging with a right winger and an economics geek at the same time. (I have really boring friends these days.)

ETA: Would this mean Freud stole from Marx (inserting sex in the place of money)? Perhaps Freud cited Marx... Fuck it. I'm not delving into Freud.

Re: Time to taste what you most fear/Right Guard will not help you here...
 

You're the one who said U6 was gospel. Apparently only until it stopped being useful.

Also, those are terrible sources for that data (and crap visualizations). The St. Louis Fed offers Fred, which is easy to use and complete.

Yeah, it mostly is. Prime age participation is down a couple points from its historic peak in in late 1990s boom, but is more or less where it was pre-Great Recession.

Sure. There's too much student loan debt out there, especially for millennials who graduated into a sluggish Great Recession economy. It's probably one factor in why this recovery has been marked by slower than historic growth rates, and certainly is a drag on housing markets and household formation. That said, we've been experience steady overall growth and steady job creation, and housing markets seem to be doing quite well, so it's not that big of the drag.

Nonetheless, let's do something about it! What's the libertarian proposal again?

You understand that "it's not nearly as bad as you think" is not the same as "everything is just dandy."

I'd like to see 4-4.5% NGDP growth, and we've been lagging that. But to do better we'd need to invest in research, education, health care and infrastructure. So far we're cutting in three of those areas but maybe we'll get something that (inefficiently) boosts the last one?

I'd also like to see the Fed hold off on raising rates.

We have trans people who face violence and death, of which bathroom laws are only one dimension, but sure, snidely dismiss that.

Dude. I'm the one who said I'd make Bernie emperor if I could. ETA: To clarify, I'd make Bernie emperor if we were picking an emperor. I'd still rather not have an emperor.

And I actively dislike Bernie the man.

A very long time ago, two generations of boards ago, I recall having exactly that argument with the conservatives that used to participate (you??).

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

I find it really hard to believe that in 2017 you still think that's true. Racists are not racists because of economic anxiety. They use economic anxiety to justify their racism to others.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

If it's all about economics, how come people are so worried about European-American's economic anxiety when they have higher income and half the unemployment of African-American's?

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

Well, GGG, I think we know that black people are the real racists, which is only natural given the economic anxieties they face.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

Racists are racists because they're losers. And we measure winning and losing in these United States of Consumption in dollars. Sure, there are some intelligent, successful racists. But that's very much the exception. Show me a guy who hates or blames an "other" and I'll almost every time show you a guy who's a congenital loser.

ETA: I can do this even more simply. Objectively, a person who'd base his assessment of others on skin color, ethnicity, etc. is clearly not very logical. We agree with that, right? Okay, so from this we may conclude he's also not too bright, or probably not well schooled. That's a fair assessment. Most of the people who fit in this bucket tend to be those without resources, because with resources tends to come education, and assortative mating. Intelligent people tend to have if not intelligent, at least decently schooled kids.

We can assume there's a pretty good chance a man who holds anti-scientific and illogical views of race is outside the "winners' circle" of society. There are many exceptions, of course. But generally, holding such views is not compatible with the basket of tools one uses to find success in this modern age.

So given this, racism is strongly correlated with loserdom. It's not direct causation, but that is a damn strong correlation, you'd have to admit. And I'm willing to bet if you give a family of racist losers a pile of money and three generations to breed out the idiocy, you'd find people holding logical, scientific views on race... and most everything else. (As an aisde, I think this is what freaks people out about Bannon. Here's a smart guy not only buying into but aggressively pursuing policies supported by some really poor thinking.)

Not everything comes down to money. Just most of it.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

They aren't. They're racist because they are racist. If you need something beyond that, they are ignorant and sheltered. Give them money and they'll still be racists.

Expose them to the things they fear, and those who aren't completely hardened can probably make progress. It's worked wonders for the LGBT community, but anti-black racism is older and more ingrained.

As usual, you have a silly-narrow definition of racism. Racism is thinking that black people commit more crimes, deserve tougher policing, need to be handled roughly by the cops, make you feel uncomfortable on the street at night, don't belong in my neighborhood, among other things, too. Racism is thinking Islam is a violent religion, all Muslim's support terrorism, moderate Muslims need to condemn terror, we need extreme vetting, we need to keep Muslims out because they're dangerous, among other things. Lot's of non-losers think those things.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

See my ETA above.

If you're in a community where racism is acceptable, you're in loserland. The lack of money has starved the people of such a community of education, and as a result, they cannot think properly.

Yes, sure, in Greenwich, I'm sure there's a coffee klatch somewhere in which rich ladies are right now lamenting those Muslims and their icky behaviors. But in those parts, people debate matters of race and ethnicity, and the progressive views tend to win. The racists causing the problems today - the lowest common denominator of Trump's base - is a creature of rural Kentucky, not Connecticut. His lack of sense is directly tied to a lack of brains directly tied to a lack of money.

I agree with this definition 100%.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

Again, this is not true. You will find racism literally everywhere.

Sure, not everywhere will you find "I sure do hate black people" but you'll definitely find, "I'm just not comfortable with that family that just moved into the neighborhood" or "I'm just going to cross the street to get away from that black man" or, perhaps most importantly, "if that unarmed black man had just complied with everything the officer asked of him, he wouldn't have been shot to death."

The coffee klatch version matters too. And yes, those people voted for Trump too.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

You need to spend more time in large Boston law firms.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

a.k.a. Loser Land. Wake up and smell your loserdom, bro.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

Point taken (though my little shoppe of horrours isn't that big...)

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

I have thought about this all day and have come to understand that you are correct and that your solution-to-all-societal-problems-ladder is not only spot on, but is actually blindingly obvious. The fact that our so-called politicians and other Big Thinkers have not figured this out and fixed everything already is astonishingly baffling.

This song rolls at about the pace that my afternoon is moving along at. Not. Frenetic. "Papa Don't Take No Mess" by the Hardest Working Man In Show Business. The Daily Dose:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkyZEuea-0Y

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

To the contrary, it's highly logical to make assumptions about people based on distinguishing characteristics.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

Actually, no. That's highly intuitive.

(I'm limiting distinguishing characteristics to purely physical attributes. If one is wearing a burqa, Hasidic garb, or Oktoberfest lederhosen and pointed hat, certain logical assumptions may be made.)

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

It's both intuitive and logical to make assumptions, but people go too far. Cf. Gordon Allport, The Nature Of Prejudice (1954).

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Bummer.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

My gut tells me that it is time to lay down some Meters for the Daily Dose. The logic is unassailable. A short little instrumental that once again shows that, when the Meters were really on, every note was intentional and not one was superfluous. "Tippi-Toes":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-7Uh_qVW5k

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

This is the biggest load of horseshit I have ever seen.

TM

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

Now, that's hard to believe. I reckon you've seen some pretty big loads of horseshoe in your day.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

At a minimum, Sebby gonna post that, he has to account for Trading Places, and/or Trump.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

I trust you're treating some of Sebby's long posts as multiple loads.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

I am sorry about telling you to buy all those frozen orange juice futures.

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

I'd be the finest of benevolent dictators.

We will be studying this until the end of time
 

"Besides partisan affiliation, it was cultural anxiety—feeling like a stranger in America, supporting the deportation of immigrants, and hesitating about educational investment—that best predicted support for Trump."

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...utm_source=fbb

TM

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/trum...dZPgw.facebook

TM

Re: We will be studying this until the end of time
 

This is what they're afraid of: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...htmlstory.html

It's going to happen anyways, because:

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

This cat is successful, no doubt. But a serious freak. I can't really use "loser" on him, but "fucking tool" and "undiagnosed malevolent Asperger's case" seem to fit.

But otherwise, yes, touche. There are some very well heeled racists out there. And some, apparently, who deal in logic. (I have to wonder wtf is in the heads of people like this guy.)

Re: What happens to an issue deferred?
 

No, he's a loser. I suspect his soul will rot in hell, and that Dante, were he writing today, would find a place in one of the inner circles for him.