I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

You are wise, Sensei.

You, too. Don't be a fucking moron. We agree on a lot, and you're being shortsighted.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

But can you place his recent work in the context of his prior oeuvre?

often, after a smart dinner party, Picasso would have his man servant wheel out Guernica for his guests to admire.......... nah, can't do it anymore.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Whatever. You know it's fascinating. And I enjoy watching institutions upended. I'll admit it. I also found 2008 fascinating. People keep thinking they've conquered risk...

We're seeing policy makers' hubris undone. It's natural volatility screwing the efforts of undeserving Brahmin to control and manage their world.

You don't even grasp the basic angles of the facts you accuse me of getting wrong.

Remember when we talked about empathy? Yeah, still none.

Heck, you can't even figure out who the victims are (hint: the "Brahmin" end up just fine)

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Adder

Remember when we talked about empathy? Yeah, still none.

Heck, you can't even figure out who the victims are (hint: the "Brahmin" end up just fine)

I could say the same for you, and just about everyone here, who shows zero empathy for the desperate Trumpkins who voted this guy into office. They're just racists, bumpkins, rednecks, xenophobes, etc. When I even dare suggest a large percentage of his win accrues from people hoping he can actually bring back jobs, I'm filleted. How dare I offer competition to the narrative it was all racism and xenophobia. How dare I make it complex.

I'm running low on empathy because most of the bad shit that's taking place derives from our policy makers' arrogant attempts to manage a world that is unmanageable. From LBJ through Trump, from our foreign policy to our economic policy, all aims have been to create and maintain a status quo that's simply untenable. Wars on Poverty, Drugs, and Terrorism? Could we be more arrogant and clueless about human nature? Iraq welcoming us as liberators? Greenspan suggesting a housing bubble was a "sound economy"? The ACA being cost neutral? Trickle down Fed policy being sold as something that would lead to business investment rather than speculation and inequality? Propping the housing market for the past eight years?

We've been delaying and pretending everything will be fine "down the road" for a long, long time. Trump is what you get when people lose total faith in a system even the most common of men can see as "pretty much full of shit."

Yes, I feel bad for the victims. But I'm not about to focus on them at the moment. The focus should be on the utopians, obstructionists, and stewards-of-the-status-quo behind the policies that have led us to this point. The GOP deserves much scorn. But so too do the Democrats. Because, let's face it -- they'd have us resemble a European welfare state if they could, which is worse than the dysfunctional state we are right now.

The hubris of "wise men" focused us on unrealistic expectations - a notion we could give everyone an excellent standard of living. That we could approach utopia via bureaucratic intervention... that govt was a force for positive change which could mold society to something these policy people desired. Of course that never works. Of course it cracks up... the inevitable road to hell always being paved with good intentions. And now we're at a global inflection point, where something new is taking shape. Looks bleak right now, but good often comes out of things that initially look very bad. And let's face it... Even if she'd been elected, the crack-up was inevitable. The system was broken. It was not delivering in a sustainable manner. And punting and pretending is not credible policy.

As a hedge funder I know once commented, astutely, "a nation of a handful of uber-wealthy people and professionals, with an economy of nothing but lower end service workers below, ain't going to last." We all know that. And we ignore it. In response to this, Adder will write about how the economy is doing great based on broad metrics which do not address the savaging of the laboring classes. Wash, rinse, repeat... the argument is always the same. Obviously, something is deeply, fundamentally wrong in the economy. We just elected Donald Trump, an absolute lunatic, as our President. I know, Adder... I know what you're going to say before you say it: That was the fault of deluded voters who just don't understand how good the economy is for them, and the opportunities they'd have if we could just retain them all. My reply to that? Stop bogarting the joint. It's obviously quite strong, and you've had quite enough.

Anyone wishing to exclusively blame obstructionists is willfully ignorant. What was obstructed was untenable. It only seemed possible based on the projections and predictions of "experts" who've been wrong more than half of the time for the last 50 years. Pretending eventually ends. Somebody calls bullshit. Sadly, the voters who called it this cycle just voted for a different kind of bullshit.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Could we be more arrogant and clueless about human nature?

So we are cool with this as it is human nature?

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

Agreed.

TM

That you're clueless? Yes: https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...otten-millions

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Maher, spot-on: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vid...apologies.html

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Why screaming "fascist" and "racist" is playing straight into Bannon's hand: http://www.thelondoneconomic.com/tle...ork-now/02/02/

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Icky Thump

So we are cool with this as it is human nature?

I listened to 8 years of hysterical whining about Bush from the left that did nothing productive. I listened to 8 more years of hysterical whining about Obama from the right that did nothing productive.

And now, here we go again.

ETA: I'm not suggesting people should stifle their complaints. Just that they should be more useful in their criticism, and less arrogant and self-righteous.

When Bush was in office, the election was "stolen." So he was illegitimate. When Obama was in office, the Right's critics argued against him as though he had no right to inhabit the office -- that his was a somehow another illegitimate Presidency because his goals were not in keeping with their "traditionalist" views. Now, the Left is once again using the illegitimate card. "Trump lost the popular vote!" (Nevermind, under that logic, NY, FL, TX, and CA would be the entire country for voting purposes... but hey, who cares about the rubes in flyover land being disenfranchised? They don't count, right?) "The [insert Russians, racists, or 'alt-right,' or all three, here] are the causes of his election on which we must always and primarily focus!"

The Left lost. If it wishes to thwart Trump with obstructionism, go for it. The GOP deserves such treatment. If the Dems wish to blow the GOP out in the 2018 mid-terms bu mobilizing voters, go for it. These are worthwhile strategies against Trumpism.

What is not a worthwhile strategy, and what is on display day-in, day-out, both here, in the media, and in every the Facebook feed of everyone talking politics, is self-righteous indignation. From the left or the right, you are not entitled to be indignant that a majority of the voters in certain states rejected your politics. Your views are not the exclusively correct ones. You do not get to assert that you are aggrieved because you are on the side of good and people who disagree with you on the side of evil. You do not get to paint your opponents on the Left as socialists, or secret Islamists. You do not get to paint your opponents on the Right as largely or even significantly racists and xenophobes.

You can do these things, of course... It's a free country. But understand. This haughty moralizing - this know-it-all-ness, and this ludicrous indignation? This is exactly the kind of stuff that loses elections.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Why screaming "fascist" and "racist" is playing straight into Bannon's hand: http://www.thelondoneconomic.com/tle...ork-now/02/02/

Not really. Simply Soviet style negotiations. If anyone here has done any like, legal work, you'd basically run into it every single day.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I listened to 8 years of hysterical whining about Bush from the left that did nothing productive. I listened to 8 more years of hysterical whining about Obama from the right that did nothing productive.

And now, here we go again.

ETA: I'm not suggesting people should stifle their complaints. Just that they should be more useful in their criticism, and less arrogant and self-righteous.

When Bush was in office, the election was "stolen." So he was illegitimate. When Obama was in office, the Right's critics argued against him as though he had no right to inhabit the office -- that his was a somehow another illegitimate Presidency because his goals were not in keeping with their "traditionalist" views. Now, the Left is once again using the illegitimate card. "Trump lost the popular vote!" (Nevermind, under that logic, NY, FL, TX, and CA would be the entire country for voting purposes... but hey, who cares about the rubes in flyover land being disenfranchised? They don't count, right?) "The [insert Russians, racists, or 'alt-right,' or all three, here] are the causes of his election on which we must always and primarily focus!"

The Left lost. If it wishes to thwart Trump with obstructionism, go for it. The GOP deserves such treatment. If the Dems wish to blow the GOP out in the 2018 mid-terms bu mobilizing voters, go for it. These are worthwhile strategies against Trumpism.

What is not a worthwhile strategy, and what is on display day-in, day-out, both here, in the media, and in every the Facebook feed of everyone talking politics, is self-righteous indignation. From the left or the right, you are not entitled to be indignant that a majority of the voters in certain states rejected your politics. Your views are not the exclusively correct ones. You do not get to assert that you are aggrieved because you are on the side of good and people who disagree with you on the side of evil. You do not get to paint your opponents on the Left as socialists, or secret Islamists. You do not get to paint your opponents on the Right as largely or even significantly racists and xenophobes.

You can do these things, of course... It's a free country. But understand. This haughty moralizing - this know-it-all-ness, and this ludicrous indignation? This is exactly the kind of stuff that loses elections.

What a wimp. Stand up and take responsibility. You fucked up. Bask in the Goldman Showers.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

You're smarter than this.

It was a joke about a prior post of his. Settle down.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

What a wimp. Stand up and take responsibility. You fucked up. Bask in the Goldman Showers.

How did I fuck up? First, I didn't vote for anyone who won. Second, nothing's happened yet. The guy's been in office for two weeks, markets are up, lending's easier (which is my biggest concern), and he's advocated projects right in my wheelhouse. He's a buffoon, but personally, I can't muster any sane case for regret.

But I am disgusted about Sessions. And the immigration thing is just appallingly stupid. I'm also expecting he'll roll back prison/justice reform, which sucks.

It's a mixed bag right now. And it's very early. And I've nothing for which to stand up and accept responsibility.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

How did I fuck up? First, I didn't vote for anyone who won. Second, nothing's happened yet. The guy's been in office for two weeks, markets are up, lending's easier (which is my biggest concern), and he's advocated projects right in my wheelhouse. He's a buffoon, but personally, I can't muster any sane case for regret.

But I am disgusted about Sessions. And the immigration thing is just appallingly stupid. I'm also expecting he'll roll back prison/justice reform, which sucks.

It's a mixed bag right now. And it's very early. And I've nothing for which to stand up and accept responsibility.

Just an observation, with which you can do as you wish. It generally sounds like you are more invested in seeing a mixed bag than in caring about anything in particular, which leads you to, e.g., say that you are disgusted with Sessions without ever sounding particularly disgusted by Sessions, or to concern troll repeatedly. It seems just a little odd to the rest of us that you can't muster any sane case for regret. (Whoops! I guess Sessions isn't that disgusting after all.)

If that's the impression you want to leave, good job! If this is not how you mean to sound, perhaps you are doing it wrong.