Strunk'sDessert

Agree with most of this, or at least the sentiment of them. The ideas around the social safety nets would work for today's society if implemented tomorrow. But looking forward 15-30 years, things get a bit dicey. The wealth gap is increasing, Boomers dying off, for the most part, aren't leaving large inheritances because they're living longer and riding these safety nets into the grave. Gen X and perhaps even Millenials are looking at potentially slightly lower life expectancies with even less for retirement. And trust me if, you've ever had a loved one in a typical LT Medicare/Medicaid facility, you'd root for the disease to take you out before you got there. So, even if life expectancy goes down, there's probably less money in individuals pockets leading to an even worse, albeit different, aging crisis. Not that I have the solution, just that that whole piece of it gets complicated. I think easy wins are on the corporate tax rates and downsizing the military - maybe we only need to be twice as large as the next largest military. For the corporate tax, there's always fear mongering that they'll leave the U.S., but it's easy to put stipulations in place around an action like that and they still want American consumers & workers. Those 2 easy things are a pipe dream, though.

God dammit, I hate this party, but the sliders were just shitty enough to be addicting. Sue me. I'm going to try to unpack your sentiment here for my own b understanding of what I think your saying. Democrats carry the water for some nut jobs (the worst swing between parties, but that's neither here nor there), they spin half truths, they want to be the bastions of civility & morality, which is overly lofty and leads to unnecessary political policing. Lastly, they aren't in anyway less susceptible to the pitfalls of humans. I think we can all mostly agree on these items, but will never agree to what degree or on what scale. I'm not even bringing up equivalencies, but what can be agreed upon for Republicans is that: 1) Trump mowed through Iowa with 51% of the votes in the largest margin of victory ever for the state 2) Roughly 2/3rds of those that voted for Trump in Iowa, still believe the election was stolen That's a level that's kind of rare of on basic issues, but unheard of on an issue that is so patently and quickly proven to be false. Now, it's easy to call them idiots, some of them truly are...see Little Earl. Some of them willfully choose the party over the country because they want the country a "certain way"...fuck them. And then a good chunk are honest people that have been sucked into the media hole of the last 25-30 years and can't understand or accept the fact that they can be this wrong...many friends of mine and my own parents fall into this category, it's probably the largest group in this stratification, amd the most frustrating group. And then others are just in the mood for a good conspiracy or need one to justify the misshappenings in their own life... these people I genuinely feel sorry for, but are probably too far gone. To your point, they're not all worthless individuals. They may be frustrating because they're the closest to snapping out of this alternate reality x, which is why I think we, myself included, turn to vitriol. "Hey dumbass wake up..!" Respectfully, though, if that ain't it. Fuck this shit, I'm stealing the sliders and exiting out the garage where I'm grab some skunk beer on my way out.

"Everyone on the road is driving like an asshole, but not me!"

I'm not pouring over interaction between you and Starkiller. But given the context leading up to that comment, I'm not sure how else that should be taken. Either way, I'm not engaging further in this conversation. Seems fruitless for all involved. Just dropping in to say hi and now performing my Irish goodbye for a party I don't want to be at.

Wait, are you saying that climate change is a made up conspiracy that only Dems believe in? Does that make something like 95% of climate scientists Democrats? Dentists can't even agree to that level on mouthwash. I lean left of center, but Democrats can be annoying as hell. I take no offense to any of your takes here, but in less words than @Bink: not sure what your point is even though you've stated it or, at minimum, the points behind your takes are disjointed. Although your statements have no impact on my life, I've now nailed every facial reaction that the cast of The Office made during every Steve Carrell monolog while reading the last handful of pages of these posts. Do with the what you may. P.S. I'll still be axing coffee breath with my support of Listerine.

Ah, she's a staunch conservative, big difference. The Republican party has rid themselves of anyone with a principled ideology. Edit: But yes, LE is an idiot and is probably all alone lapping up some Elmer's glue that he thinks is off-brand cool whip because even the special needs club couldn't tolerate him enough to invite him to their Friday night ice cream party.

I don't have a messiah because I'm not dumb enough to need one. Obama, I like the guy, but average to slightly above president. I'm sorry he didn't find a policy to get you the work program and assistance you need, though.

In a twist of irony, @Little Earl proves that Obama failed just by LE's current existence. I'm sure there's some philosophical term for this - manifest destiny doesn't quite seem to fit. Also, is it a mental illness, a mental disability, or a dual diagnosis?

Eh, they're not mutually exclusive. Both can be true.

Trump will die and some will be embarrassed, but millions will stay with the ideology and where there's a void, someone will fill it. Maybe not to the degree of Trump, but it's going to take a generation until MAGA as an ideology crawls back into the shit pile it came out from. That's probably if everything goes right & well.

Edit: although almost humorous, this account is pure satire. @OILERMAN got duped and we all fell for it. Little lesson for us all here. I just did a quick Google search on this and couldn't find any corroborating sources, and his youngest is either a giant or much older than 6. Not saying it didn't happen years ago or under anther context recently but doesn't seem truthful off the bat.

Sooner or later one of these gun nuts literally won't even have a leg to stand on! And let's be honest, the kid did it on purpose or is even dumber than his father, either way it's much funnier!

Dan Ariely has a new book unpacking how people can get to this stage. I haven't read it yet, but heard him discussing his findings to a fair depth on a podcast. Almost started feeling sympathetic for these people based on the explanation.

Feel like you've dragged my points out of the worst case scenarios lately. Hope it is that cut & dry, just very skeptical it will be that way or written in a way that cuts some of the BS behaviors out. Even if so, folks aren't great about thinking beyond 2 steps ahead.

It will be overturned because of the justices on the bench, perhaps not because of the legality. Very torn on this one individually and haven't read from anyone educated enough to have a non-biased opinion on the matter. I lean towards ruling it unconstitutional because it leads to political games and disenfranchisement. However, if they rule in favor of DT on this matter, it may open the door to easier voter laws - IE those charged or convicted of crimes in overly staunch states, which would also turn into a States Right mess. Not opining on it, just stating on what I think would be the following legal battle(s). The "if he can do this, why does my 3 oz of weed in 1998 that lead to a felony rule mebout from running from office or voting." That would also piss of the current GOP. Can be hard to have your cake & eat it, too.

Not sure what Adams, Jefferson, Monroe, Hamilton, etc. would've even done in the current environment. They'd probably be upper-middle class pencil pushers thinking how they can't even overcome their non-existant Lords. At least re-reading the Federalist & Anti-Federalist papers, there's a common hope and understanding of a greater good even with ardent disagreements. Citizens United ruined any fringe hope of that in our lifetime's. It's the rule of thee, the rule of me, and the power of attorney's. Edit: A few of the fuckers just murdered each other, so I won't glorify it further. But at least some of them had some dignity.

I'm very torn on this topic. I think Trump has absolutely disqualified himself as a candidate by every legal standard. These states are well within their rights (listen, hard-core Republicans) based on their state constitutions. Don't love the precedent it sets. Don't love the the current SC attempting to rule on it when they expedite it. Almost getting at a more F'd EC. The current Republican party, not true conservatives or constitutionalists, but the Republican party, has screwed this so far from Sunday. I don't love the current Democratic party, but what are they to do in this scenario? Bend over and take it? That's also not the answer.

Maine Sec. of State ruled that Trump is disqualified from the Maine ballot. https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/28/politics/trump-maine-14th-amendment-ballot/index.html

He's a pretty damn good QB that has improved YoY. He didn't start his career that way. He was pretty raw coming out. At one point in time, Tannehill was the better QB. It was a short-ish window, Tannehill declined, and Lamar improved. Pretty easy discussion. Lamar isn't a HoF QB by any stretch right now, but he's good. Maybe he'll make that leap, maybe he won't. And his development is totally independent of Tannehill. Y'all make some shit harder than it needs to be sometimes. It's not always that difficult. Occam's Razor...

I feel for the troops and commercial vessels having to deal with this shit. It still feels like the lack of action is actually the right response. Don't let a peon dictate your moves by acknowledging them publicly. It also feels ripe for a little show of force with some highly acute special forces in the region. But I'm not abreast on all these movements at the moment.

Clinton and Obama definitely aren't religious. Halfway decent men.

I've heard of the brain fog from quite a few people. Really hard to describe. I will say, it also took me about 6-7 months to get back into my full workout routine. I was just sucking wind no matter how hard I pushed or recovered. The only other person that I've heard with the speech/language piece was a coworker that had an English degree and was functional in about 3 languages and then moved into corporate work. I'm not on their level so I may just need to be tested for a mini-stroke!

Well, that's also fair! Not disagreeing completely, but, like most things, the truth is probably in the middle. In this instance, I just happen to think it's in the top half of the top half.

My wife and I caught it in early 2022. My wife was a puddle for about a week then totally fine. I was a puddle for about 10 days. Tried to power through work, and once the worst of it cleared, I literally couldn't remember a good chunk of that time. For about 4 months, I had the mental fog in a bad way. Had to have physical post-it notes everywhere, leaned into recording meetings and using stupid ass OneNote just to get through the day. The most frustrating part was the impact to my speech. Every other word seemed to be stuck to the tip of my tongue. Almost 2 years later, I still get tongue tied or combine/flip words when talking, which had never happened prior to Covid. Anyway, really nasty shit that impacts people very differently. Hope the recovery goes well.

This is a really bizarre take. He's certainly not guilt free of milking things for some points, but that's every politician. He's certainly in the top quartile of most genuine, high-ranking politician of my lifetime, which is saying something.