Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[THE_WIZARD_]

hack...you are quite possibly the dumbest mother fucker I've ever come across...

[Kapture1]

That's Democratic Socialism in action. Canada features a strategic reserve of maple syrup. We are a resources-driven economy that understands how to do it and won't rely on the invisible hand. Similar to how the Saudis use their dominant-producer status over another type of commodity to control world markets. Proper resource-exporter policy is non-partisan.

Canada has less people than California.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Bernie is an avowed socialist. He championed Chavez and Venezuela as more suitable to achieving the American dream than, well, America. Chavez's Venezuela was a democratic socialist government. I certainly don't profess to be in anyone's head, Bernie or otherwise, but I think of myself as at least semi-sentient and periodically rational. The dots are children's menu easy to connect.

EFZ

[iam416]

If Sanders, Salon, HuffPo and any other prog wants to champion Chavez's Venezuela as a "miracle" or great example for the "American dream" precisely because it's socialist (ignoring the obvious oil component), then it is, to my mind, fairplay to throw it back at them.

[SeattleLionsFan]

Just give Bernie a chance. I think the fact that his is a Marxist should not be counted against him at all. We elected a Muslim twice!

Bernie is a clown with clown ideas.

[Kapture1]

[hack]

If you want to look at the ideas, they're on his web site. And they basically involve a retightening of financial regulations to what they were in the 1980s. There's no talk of government owning the means of production or a command economy.

Sanders is a politician, and it's fair enough to throw his words back in his face, sure. But I too I think of you as semi-sentient and periodically rational myself though, and able to have that discussion not according to the labels but the actual policy positions a politician has argued for. If you shift focus to meme swapping, however, kapture may deem your status as ready for an upgrade.

[hack]

hack...you are quite possibly the dumbest mother fucker I've ever come across...

Shut the fuck up, Donny.

[Kapture1]

If you want to look at the ideas, they're on his web site. And they basically involve a retightening of financial regulations to what they were in the 1980s. There's no talk of government owning the means of production or a command economy.

Sanders is a politician, and it's fair enough to throw his words back in his face, sure. But I too I think of you as semi-sentient and periodically rational myself though, and able to have that discussion not according to the labels but the actual policy positions a politician has argued for. If you shift focus to meme swapping, however, kapture may deem your status as ready for an upgrade.

he also supports universal health care, and to pay for some of that he wants to raise taxes on... everyone.

I watch him on his tax debates, and he gets nasty whenever it's a small business owner is asking him a question about taxes. He likes to throw out millionaires and billionaires and the top 1 tenth of 1% but he would raise rates on everyone, including the owners of small businesses.

I'm not entirely sure he understands how basic economics work.

[iam416]

There are multiple points flying around here.

(1) Bernie Sanders' statement and how much stock one should put in it. That's entirely unrelated to policy and entirely related to politics. I've stated why I believe his statement wasn't rhetoric but rather a clear expression of what he believes to be absolutely true.

(2) Semi-related to (1) as it's politically motivated, but the comparison of the "Venezuela Miracle" type pieces to the current pieces and the way socialism is mentioned or not. There wasn't a great deal of nuance or exploration of a multitude of factors in the "miracle" pieces . Chavez was a hero. Not oil. Chavez. And his policies.

(3) The substantive policy discussion re Venezuela that has to account for numerous different factors including form of economic system, oil-dependency and profligate government spending. In that context, e.g., the WaPo's short comparison to Bolivia is useful. And, TBH, Bolivia and it's relative austerity may be a better long term case study. Exports boom; companies come in because there is money to be made -- GDP goes up, quality of living goes up; inequality goes down -- but will they do anything to retain those companies? What will they do when their exports fall (as they are) and are dealing with foreign companies and foreign capital that want no fucking part of that government? In any event -- the larger question is certainly more nuanced.

[hack]

1. I believe he was trying to draw a contrast between what we think about income inequality in some classic banana republics as opposed to here. IMO the numbers are jaw-dropping and speak for themselves. Bernie has to win over a lot of reasoanble people, and taking it a step further as he did was stupid. But I don't know. I'm not in his head.

2. Not sure what pieces you're talking about, but it wasn't hard to understand what Chavez was up to. He used the oil comapny as a slush fund to buy friends. Anybody that failed to understand that he happened to be around during an extended bull market for oil was missing a major factor, and is suspect. Same goes for Putin. How evil is he? A lot less evil over time with oil at $60 or less.

3. Bolivia article? Where? Will read. My point is as follows -- you can take the whole suite of petrostates in this world and evaluate what has happened to their macroeconomics since the oil price collapsed in 2014, and you can see that political ideology means very little when state revenue is cut in half. Concepts of right and left exist in a much smaller universe out there in the developing world. The huge mass of states are following a neoliberal policy approach dictated by the IMF. Even many of the ones that call themselves communist or democratic socialist or whatever.

[CGVT]

Annnnnnd...

Kapture proves my point.

Jesus.

Time to play the chicken game.

You lose.

[iam416]

Re Articles:

Venezuela/Bolivia: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.d35db1fa41cf

Venezuela Miracle: https://www.salon.com/2013/03/06/hug...nomic_miracle/

NYT OpEd: https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2...-in-venezuela/

Of note in the NYT piece is the explict championing of Chavez policies as reducing infant mortality -- the exact subject of the NYT piece I linked to start this all off.

[AlabamAlum]

A really nice topping for vanilla ice cream is this maple praline stuff.

Reduce two cups of maple syrup over and add 1 cup of chopped pecans and one quarter stick of salted butter.

Let cool a bit and drizzle over a good vanilla bean ice cream.

Good recipe, AA. Gonna try that.

[Kapture1]

Annnnnnd...

Kapture proves my point.

Jesus.

Time to play the chicken game.

You lose.

neither of you even attempt to prove me wrong. Because you can't.