Doesn’t Matter Who Wins the K Race; We’re All the Same

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

Disappointing. Aside from great and cheap hotels, some decent temples, and some awesome restaurants, there isn't much more. Great Peking duck, though. I think we went to Fei Ya, but I'm not entirely sure that's correct. It was on the second floor of some fancy hotel.

TM

Snake farm was magic- basically because I hate snakes the most and they were handling every horrible kind there is. I was there the year after tourism really kicked in. The temples were beautiful, but the things that made it special (floating markets as an example) were already stupid tourist sites.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

He was a big boy. He made his choices on each occasion.

Blaming Gilli is a cop out.

I feel like you like her, so, at best, you are refusing to listen to what I am saying and, at worst, are intentionally mischaracterizing it.

I am not blaming her. She is welcome to her opinion. She wasn't the only one pushing. I think there was a better way to handle it than to say, "There are multiple accusations of something that falls into the sexual harassment category, off with his head!" Take a fucking breath. Conduct a hearing/investigation, let him defend himself and then make a collective determination on whether he should keep his head.

If you don't think Gillibrand seized on this, at least partially, as a political opportunity for herself, you're not being honest with yourself.

TM

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Most of that debt is held by or guaranteed by the govt. It'd just be another trillion on the 22 trillion pile. If we believe that the national debt doesn't matter much, and there are compelling arguments that's true, why not just let the millenials off the hook and drive all those wasted debt repayments they're making into the broader, productive (non-rentier) economy?

As to the private student loan lenders, caveat emptor. The kind of bottom feeder who seeks to lend to kids because the debt is non-dischargeable is exactly the kind of rentier who should lose everything.

It's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than saddling these kids with so much debt they can never participate meaningfully in the economy (limited consumer spending ability, no chance of buying a home, no chance of affording lids or those kids' educations, etc.).

Anne Helen Petersen at Buzzfeed is one of my favorite longform authors, and she did a piece on student debt a few days ago.

It's not the first, or the last, but it is really compelling and does an awesome job at showing how fucked over we have become in thinking that we live in an every-man-for-himself society rather than moving together to invest in the collective good.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by Adder

Among those likely running for president, Harris, Brown, Warren and Sanders all called for him to resign. Why weren't they "play[ing] it for political gain" and, if they were, why haven't you mentioned it?

Because she was the absolute loudest and most frequent critic and because I remember her doing a round of interviews about it in which she offered the flimsiest of bullshit answers to the questions she wanted to be asked.

If she wanted to be the face of the issue she doesn't get to then turn around and point at everyone else and say, "But they said it too!"

TM

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Adder

Among those likely running for president, Harris, Brown, Warren and Sanders all called for him to resign. Why weren't they "play[ing] it for political gain" and, if they were, why haven't you mentioned it?

She was the loudest and strongest proponent for his ouster. Is that her fault? Is it the media's fault? I don't know. What I do know is I did not hear Sanders or Warren as loudly on the issue as I heard her. And I'm not alone, as she is seen as largely responsible for Franken's resignation. I don't believe that where there's smoke there's always fire, but there's a reason this sticks to her and not to Sanders or Warren.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I'm being charitable. His checking off all the boxes is, as I suspect and have noted, based on handlers crafting a really swell platform for him.

He's also benefiting from looks. Chicks dig him, and he was running against a portly, mean, hunch-shouldered Joseph McCarthy lookalike (and sometimes soundalike).

Warren would own him on economics in 30 seconds.

He didn't have any handlers. He took no PAC money, and he didn't hire any consultants. You can tell by looking at how bad his ads were. (The "'cmon Ted" ads by Linklater were Linklater's alone.) There were a lot of people here begging for him to hire consultants, but he did the whole thing with just a handful of people who were seen pretty much every day on his facebook live feeds. It was one of the most transparent campaigns in recent memory.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

He is a charismatic guy with good ideas who is a bit too green right now but will be a contender in a few years. I guess "vacant" doesn't mean what I thought it did.

Thanks for policing my brand, my brother!

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

Yes. We all have opinions. Why should the ones with the loudest megaphones apply their standards?

TM

this is what I was saying a few days ago. I got yelled at.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

this is what I was saying a few days ago. I got yelled at.

Ummm, you're gonna have to show me how what you were saying and what I am saying is the same.

TM

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

I underrated Clinton in 1992 and Obama in 2004 because I didn't realize how good they were at this sort of thing. Being a Senator gets you attention from the political press, but it doesn't necessarily mean you are a good retail politician, and the longer you are in the Senate the less good you have to be, because incumbency protects you and you only have to run every six years.

I went to an early event in January last year and then a few more during the heat of the campaign. I had a selfie taken with him right before I voted for him the first day of early voting. The man NEVER stopped talking to people and shaking hands. It was amazing to watch. And he actually seemed to listen.

Again, Anne Helen Petersen:

Afterward, the small group — these were the early days — moved over to a nearby beer garden. O’Rourke came up to her, and apologized for what he called his “pitiful” answer. She went on what she describes as a rant: about the Texas state budget cuts of 2011, the shuttering of women’s health clinics across the state, and the maternal mortality rate in Texas. He started taking notes and admitted he was embarrassed by what he didn’t know. He gave her his email address and asked her to follow up. She emailed him a bunch of sources and statistics. The next day, her friend in Houston attended a different rally. O’Rourke was talking about the maternal mortality rate. He now brings it up at nearly every event.

My sister, who is an introvert and the last person in the world I'd ever think would do such things, was so taken by the campaign she knocked on over 2000 doors and registered over 100 voters, personally taking 8 to the polls and taking one to the Secretary of State's office and then the county to work out some registration issues.

I only managed to knock on about 100 or so (I was also volunteering for the Texas Voting Rights project), but from what I saw, it was an efficient, well run organization, insofar as predominantly volunteer organization can be efficient. His strategy was to focus on the non-voters, and it almost worked.

Obviously, the last two plus years have motivated a lot of people to not be complacent about elections, and progressives in Texas have been waiting for decades to find someone to rally behind. There have been a few other attempts, but nothing like this.

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

I skipped the reply because I don't think he's ever even heard him speak.

TM

Nothing in the reply or since suggests otherwise.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

I'm not quite sure what you're saying. It doesn't sound that far off from what I'm saying. If the offense merits the "death" penalty, so be it. But why should a few extra-vocal reps wield the power to make that decision for the entire Party or the accused's constituency?
TM

More than half of his Senate caucus (some of who expressed no opinion because they were on the ethics committee) called for him to resign. As did a nontrivial
Number of his constituents.

When you lose the majority of your colleague (to be fair, in no small pet because your presence hurts them politically) and a bunch of constituents...

[Adder]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

She was the loudest and strongest proponent for his ouster. Is that her fault? Is it the media's fault? I don't know. What I do know is I did not hear Sanders or Warren as loudly on the issue as I heard her. And I'm not alone, as she is seen as largely responsible for Franken's resignation. I don't believe that where there's smoke there's always fire, but there's a reason this sticks to her and not to Sanders or Warren.

And you should probably think about who wants it to stick to her and why, because I think you will find they want someone else to be president.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by Adder

More than half of his Senate caucus (some of who expressed no opinion because they were on the ethics committee) called for him to resign.

And some of them expressed that they rushed to judgment later and wished they hadn't just jumped in. Either way, I'm not sure why you or any of them is resistant to an investigation or letting him have his day at a hearing if the outcome would be the same.

Originally Posted by Adder

As did a nontrivial number of his constituents.

Hahahaha. I can't believe you included this. Stop it.

Originally Posted by Adder

When you lose the majority of your colleague (to be fair, in no small pet because your presence hurts them politically) and a bunch of constituents...

Yes. You said this in this very post already.

TM

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by Adder

And you should probably think about who wants it to stick to her and why, because I think you will find they want someone else to be president.

But some of them don't want her to be President specifically because of this.

TM