Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Hannibal]

One of these days Talent will realize that none of his arguments matter in the face of identity politics and the short term craving for gimmiedats.

[iam416]

But I bet that we get a Harris or a Booker in the end that won't upset the apple cart, and instead of sane economic policy we get SJW recalibrations

IMO, politically, the battlegrounds -- the suburbs -- are by and large ok with SJW shit and by and large leave it the fuck alone with big ticket economic stuff. So, if the Ds want to keep them in the fold they sort have a tough line to walk that will result in almost nothing of significance.

that tax policy can't do much to drive tax revenue, but I disagreed. I think that tax policy can/will impact tax revenue.

To put it in like terms, I don't find tax policy a significant driver of revenue unless it's on the margins. You presumably do find it a significant driver of revenue.

IMO, tax revenue is primarily dependent on growth and the economy.

[iam416]

One of these days Talent will realize that none of his arguments matter in the face of identity politics and the short term craving for gimmiedats.

Meh. IThese are more like a series of position statements. Is that hypertechnical?

And you may right. My opinion on intersectionality is a thousand times lower than a high marginal tax rate.

[froot loops]

If the latest BuzzFeed dump on the crimes of the Trump organization isn't the final nail in the coffin, this one surely is.

[Kapture1]

If the latest BuzzFeed dump on the crimes of the Trump organization isn't the final nail in the coffin, this one surely is.

lmao


THIS ONE SURELY IS hahahaaa

The "libertarian" that wants to ban "assault weapons"

[Hannibal]

Meh. IThese are more like a series of position statements. Is that hypertechnical?
.

It's not hypertechnical, but there's one position that eventually determines the outcome of all others.

The "libertarian" that wants to ban "assault weapons"

The Libertarian Party was never a viable path to victory but at least it used to be a decent protest vote for disaffected Republicans. Now it's not even that.

[Kapture1]

The Saudis and UAE have been giving US military hardware to Al Qaeda and Iranian-backed Houthis as a way to curry their favor in the Yemeni War

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019...-lost-us-arms/

Dyqw9gUWwAc7abH.jpg


only problem?



Dyqw-7YXgAE3Yw6.jpg

[Jeff Buchanan]

It could be that Russia and China have elevated their level of ability to get desired outcomes, but I wouldn't take that as a given.

I would and the latest "World Wide Threat Assessment" will confirm it. I've read it cover to cover. If you had just read the forward, you wouldn't be taking the position you appear to have staked out on this particular issue.

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/os-dcoats-012919.pdf

I have thoughts on that wider issue, sure. Powell Doctrine applies to this conversation and what if it had been applied in the past 20 years, for example. If you want to get to that bigger conversation that might be reasonable, but I just found that column to be a very poor entry point. If it was in the service of those bigger concepts it used very poor and easily debunked points in service of it, and it pretended that the other side is getting all its desired outcomes when that's just not true.

Well, I'd argue that the "other side" is making significant and identifiable strides in getting it's desired outcomes in comparison to the US getting theirs. US power has eroded. I find the Trump administration to be particularly blameworthy for this as it looks at the moment. That's because of the reasons the article put forward which you called silly and easy to debunk it's "entry points" - Trump and Congress are immersed in a distracting political struggle that the Russians and The Chinese never have to deal with. It bothers me that a smart person such as yourself didn't get this or if you did you dismissed it out of hand.

Things could change and as I've said previously, there are several Trump administration policies and international and national initiatives that I support (renegotiating trade deals - although not sure I like Trump's methods of doing that - , pulling out of the climate accords, ditching the Iran nuke deal, initiating dialogue with NK over nukes, pulling out of Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, securing the southern boarder - but not with a physical wall). Some of this hasn't had time to percolate and it can take years for positive or negative outcomes to be realized. So, there is that.

And yes, if you want to get "to the bigger conversations" sure, I think better at the macro rather than the micro level. So, tell me your perception of what the application of the Power Doctrine over the last 20 years might have brought us. Meanwhile I'll study it a bit more thoroughly and get back to you.

[Kapture1]

Bernie pretends to be on the phone


best part is the end where he points back as a "look over there" then takes off in the other direction lol

[Jeff Buchanan]

It's Official: The Trump Tax Cuts Were a Bust.

Trying to be fair and balanced here but all of this goes to the point I posted up thread. Tax cuts or increases as far as they impact growth and the economy overall get a lot of visceral responses from the right and the left than they actually do anything. Too many other factors drive GDP and the Economy in the broadest application of that term:

SPX, +0.47%

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-official-the-trump-tax-cuts-were-a-bust-2019-01-30?mod=MW_section_top_stories

[Kapture1]

I'm happy with my tax cut.

strange to me that some are upset with more money in their paychecks. On top of which how much of that tax cut played into the first real gain in paychecks on 10 years and employment gains?

[hack]

That's a great improvement, Jeff. The quality of sources underpinning the discussion has gone from a silly piece of propaganda written by an econ guy looking to grind his ax in a place where it does not have any relevance to official documents. That's good, even if historically we know there's an institutional incentive to overstate the threat. And we still know what Russian and Chinese core goals are, and we know they haven't accomplished them. So that's perhaps useful to keep in mind when trying to figure out exactly whether the ability gap is closing.

The Powell Doctrine as I understand it: go only when you must and have an exit plan before you get there. I don't know if that would have saved us from going to Afghanistan, but it sure would have ruled out going into Iraq. I would guess that at the few various inflection points in Afghanistan an application of that kind of thinking would have resulted in the creation of an exit strategy or an outright exit.

It's remarkable to imagine what things would have been like had we not gone into Iraq.

[Dr. Strangelove]

there is evidence CNN received a copy of the sealed Stone indictment prior to the raid, and the metadata has Weissmann's initials on it

Following up on this again, when I went looking for the source of this story last night, Infowars and Gateway Pundit were the only places I could find reporting it. Not Breitbart, Not the Daily Caller. Not any of the more legitimate news organizations. Can't imagine why. Heck, not even Infowars is featuring the story prominently any more. You'd think they'd be hammering it like crazy if there were legitimacy to it.

Were you aware that Roger Stone recently settled a defamation lawsuit and had to admit that he frequently uses his position at Infowars to spread lies and misinformation?

https://deadline.com/2018/12/roger-stone-admits-using-infowars-to-peddle-lies-misinformation-1202522094/

[Kapture1]

did the CNN reporter named deny leading it?

[Dr. Strangelove]

did the CNN reporter named deny leading it?

They possibly don't even know about the story seeing as it's restricted to dumbass conspiracy websites.