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Elephants and Jackasses...

Discussion in 'Permanent Threads' started by Nettdata, Oct 14, 2016.

  1. Aetius

    Aetius
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    Wanting to overturn Roe is a minority position in the country, but a majority position within the Republican party, and those voters are the most dedicated and aggressive voters within the party. You can't win a Republican primary without them.
     
  2. Nettdata

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  3. bewildered

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    Deeply satisfied pooper

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    For my personal experience rush, I would have to disagree with you. I know a whole lot of people who have a huge problem with abortion and would love it to be overturned. In fact, the high school I went to essentially attempted to radicalize it's young students and sent multiple buses of people to march in DC against Roe versus Wade every year.
     
  4. Kampf Trinker

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    Yeah, Roe v Wade is never getting overturned. Consider 3 things:

    1. People have been freaking out about this every time a conservative justice gets appointed, going back to Reagan. Why is this time special? Its not.

    2. The justice in question outright said he won't. That should pretty much ends the discussion, but here we are...

    3. Most republican politicians don't actually want it overturned. It just isn't very popular. Historically when voters get scared that it will, they show up to vote blue. As a campaign issue it is far more useful as something they can finger wag about.

    I agree with Rush. Some republicans really do want a ban, but most just want a politician reiterating that it's oh so bad. That said it doesn't matter how they feel anyway because the generated hysteria is about democrats getting asses to the polls come midterms. If history is an indicator it's a good play, at least strategically.
     
  5. Aetius

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    If 2016 taught us anything, it should have taught us that the days of Republican politicians promising things to their wingnut base with the intent of never delivering are over. The base will put up their own candidates if they have to, and that is what they have done over the last 10 years. Given the number of laws against abortion passed at the state level (including trigger laws in the event Roe is overturned), I think it's clear that the politicians will vote to ban it if the courts allow them to.
     
  6. Revengeofthenerds

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    Republicans: we need to tell women what to do with their bodies!!!!

    Also republicans: what trump does in his personal life is none of your business!!
     
  7. ODEN

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    Couldn't you say something similar about Democrats? I'm sure there is something......I think it will come back to our standards as a society.

    Women are equal in every way to men, except if they are Muslims, then it's how dare you question their religious way.....that is Islamophobia.

    Whereas being against abortion as a Christian tenet is laughable.


    As in: If it weren't for double standards we would have no standards at all.
     
  8. Crown Royal

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    Also, if it weren’t for religion practically none of that bullshit would be an issue at all. In a perfect world people don’t give a shit about things that don’t effect them. Instead, they have to put a roadblock in somebody’s life who lives a thousand miles away because “what’s right is right” in the eye of the beholder.

    ...that’s what our Ontario government is doing right now. Shutting down our green energy programs hard-stop, getting rid of our acclaimed sex Ed program because “Masturbation and gay, ewwwww” (fucking seriously)....these decisions are being made by our new fat, cackling criminal of an education minister who previously worked as a goat farmer and never worked in a school in her fucking life. And not giving a shit about schools allowed her to cancel a $100 million dollar school renovation grant so they can take one step closer from turning us into fucking Kentucky. She’s a climate change denier, it’s so goddamn embarrassing.

    These lying faggots let our kids education get hijacked by religious right tardbuckets —in this fucking country of all places— and they can all get raped with a glass-shard laced dildo for it.
     
  9. Nettdata

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    I have zero problem with shutting down the "green energy" programs because really they were some bullshit "carbon tax refund" shit that didn't make any sense. Why is it that my next door neighbour's roof was reshingled and 50% of it was paid for by that program? Where's the "green energy" part of that?

    By the same token, I'm quite OK with Ford just wiping out the entire leadership at Hydro One like he just did; CEO and the Board are all gone in one swoop. Good... they let us, the consumer, get fucked over so that we'll be digging ourselves out of a hole for the next 20 years or more. Never mind the "wind energy" programs that they ran that totally fucked us all over.

    The sex education thing is more about parents having control over what their kids are taught, and if they want them to be stupid and follow abstinence, then that's on them. It sucks, but so be it... they'll be dealing with pregnant teens, we won't. At least they're still firm on vaccinations, which is a good thing.

    But yeah, there are some shitty things that came with Ford.
     
  10. Revengeofthenerds

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    I was about to make fun of you for hoping to make a serious political point while also calling someone fat, cackling, and a goat farmer, but then I read this...

    And I realized you have a reason to be angry.

    If those are your fears, they are legitimate. Maybe misplaced, but legitimate. Like people who are afraid of airplanes. Yeah, they're more likely to die in the car on the way to the airport, but at the same time plane crashes do happen
     
  11. ODEN

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    So, is Trump still in the bag for his bro Putin or what? https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0707d06e72fc

    You would think that if you colluded with Russia to get elected, one of the major agreements would be to not stand in the way of their future designs, right? So why would he wake Europe up? If he were truly aligned with Putin, then why push Europe to prepare themselves to be able to defend themselves? I read somewhere that Germany has 10 flight-worthy fighters. 10. How can you seriously defend yourself from the likes of Russia with that? Don't get me wrong, I understand that the US essentially underwrites European security to ensure that Europe doesn't do what Europe has always done in the past - which is kill each other. The fact still remains though, they need to contribute to the effort towards their own security, especially in a day and age where Russia has designs on reuniting the former empire. Everyone else to the East of Germany know whats coming and they are trying to be ready: https://hotair.com/archives/2018/07/12/trump-nato-partners-agreed-substantially-commitment/
     
  12. Aetius

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    I'm not one who believes that Trump is literally on a phone taking orders from Putin, but his undermining of NATO, and his threatening to leave it, is the thing he does that Putin most approves of. The point of the North Atlantic Treaty is its deterrent value, and any indication that the US will not abide by its Article V commitments (which Trump has hinted at many times) undermines the value of that deterrent. All the article says is that Trump came in, threw around a lot of bluster, and then Europe agreed to the spending increases they had already agreed to under Obama.
     
  13. Nettdata

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  14. Crown Royal

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  15. Aetius

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    Anyone watch the Strzok hearings? It was a perfect example of why I think things are only going to get worse. Fox is only going to play short clips and the base is going to yell "deep state!" and "libs btfo" without ever coming close to understanding or acknowledging what an absolutely embarrassing and corrupt display the entire procedure was by the Congressional Republicans.
     
  16. scotchcrotch

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    Can someone please elaborate on what exactly China is doing that warrants a trade war? Or for that matter, how China has an upper hand in our trade partnership?

    Don’t say trade deficit. Anyone with a basic understanding of economics knows a trade deficit isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
     
  17. Aetius

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    China's biggest malfeasance is its rampant intellectual property theft. It violates patents, copyrights, and all other manner of IP out the ass to produce cheap versions of things without funding any R&D. Of course if you care about IP abuse by China, the single greatest tool against it was the TPP, which Trump scrapped in its entirety without trying to modify or adjust for whatever shortcomings he felt it had.
     
  18. scotchcrotch

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    So this tradewar basically comes down to who can weather the inflation storm longer?
     
  19. Kampf Trinker

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    This scratches the surface on what shady fucks they are.

    They've been engaging in dumping for years. When countries try to stop it they engage in any activity they can to get around it. It's not just steel, although that's been a major area of contention.

    It's worth pointing out too that it isn't just Trump getting sick of their shit. The EU put far higher tariffs on steel well before Trump did. Pretty much everyone in the first world is getting sick of it.

    It's not just dumping either. There was a really good article by The Economist a few years back that I can't find at the moment that outlined what an absolute joke their court system is, always ruling against foreign companies and in favor of domestic producers no matter what the infractions or how blatant. Then there's intellectual property theft, adjusting their currency to boost their exports, widespread fraud, you name it. Here's another article that covers a small tidbit of their shenanigans.

    I have no problem trading with them, but they don't give a flying fuck what the rules are and they lie their asses off constantly. There's nothing wrong with a deficit, but that deficit shouldn't be caused in part because of cheating. There can be/will be some serious fall out from a trade war with China, but I prefer that to putting up with their never ending bullshit. The way some left wing outlets have tried to downplay it because Trump said it so therefore it is wrong is some really shameful stuff. Of course, a lot of those people are about as qualified as a 3rd grader using google.

    A rational, well informed person could certainly argue that a trade war needs to be avoided. I'm not saying someone with that sentiment is outright wrong. Just don't tell me it's nothing but a bunch of redneck circus seals clapping their hands for Trump.

    They don't. I mean, of course they have some hand, but it's not like one side has all the power or visa versa. Obviously, our current economies our interdependent. In my opinion, China would be much more fucked in the long term than we would, but regardless of how that is projected anyone saying things like "China holds all the cards" is an idiot.
     
  20. ODEN

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    In my opinion, the reason China doesn't have the upper hand in this deal no matter which way you look at it is because they are a net importer of non-durable goods and an exporter of durable goods. The US is a net importer of durable goods and a net exporter of non-durable goods.In other words, we can feed our people, China cannot. Unless, of course, they will feed them ipads.

    We hold the leverage here. How long ago was Tiananmen Square? Seething just below the surface is revolt. It will show up again as soon as this unsustainable growth subsides. You can only soak up the global manufacturing slack that has avoided labor cost growth and avoided environmental standards for so long before something breaks. It has already started in earnest. When I was on the horn of Africa China was the big swinging dick there setting Ethiopia up as their new seat of manufacturing: http://www.delivered.dhl.com/en/articles/2016/09/africa-chinas-china.html When this happens, they are just a middleman, what stops American firms from bypassing China and going to the source in the heart of darkness?