Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Ghengis Jon]

A new poll finds that nearly three-quarters of Democrats would consider voting for the freshman congresswoman if they could.

That's the WP stooping to Fox level "research". Or perhaps the question was phrased "if running against Trump..." Convenient that the questions were not listed. A quick survey of 7 colleagues here at the office professing to be dems show exactly ZERO willing to consider voting for AOC (too young, not eligible for the office, don't know anything about her positions). Not sure how my demographics measured against the poll's (4 white, one Asian American, one Indian-American, one African American. All with graduate degrees and a salary north of $100k).



In other news, Krapture won't be going to basic training after all.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-transgender/supreme-court-lets-trump-transgender-troop-restrictions-take-effect-idUSKCN1PG1RI

[froot loops]

I thought Kapture has already been to basic training.

[hack]

WaPo published 4 AOC-skeptical pieces in 5 days earlier this month. All opinion. If only they could do some proper reporting about the history of marginal tax rates, they wouldn't have to resort to that? But I guess there's nothing else newsworthy these days...

[Kapture1]

WaPo published 4 AOC-skeptical pieces in 5 days earlier this month. All opinion. If only they could do some proper reporting about the history of marginal tax rates, they wouldn't have to resort to that? But I guess there's nothing else newsworthy these days...

an increase of the marginal tax rate isn't going to pay for her 32 trillion dollars over 10 year healthcare bill.

neither will accounting errors at the Pentagon lol

[iam416]

"The world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change." -- Palin-Cortez

Seems super newsworthy.

[Kapture1]

or the other 50 trillion over 10 years for her green new deal.

[hack]

Pretty easy to fact-check that sort of thing. You'd think they'd do it. Maybe they understood that statement in a particular context. Others certainly have. Then again it is even easier to do the fact checking on 70% marginal tax rates, since that's not unprecedented. But they can't do that either. Her exchange of stupid parables with Walker on twitter actually counts as a more substantive tax-policy discussion than most of the tax reporters in DC have been able to publish.

[iam416]

Palin-Cortez is following the trail blazed by PDJT. Gads and gads of free advertising. A general lack of concern for facts and accuracy bordering on malevolence. And full of sick burns on twitter and triggering the other side. She just gets in under the wire to run in 2024, but I rather doubt she'll try to dislodge President Harris. So, she'll have to wait until 2028. That's a really long time to keep that media love going. And, of course, by 2032 the world will have ended, so 2028 is pretty much her chance. Well, and 2020 -- she could win in 2020. Much to Jon's chagrin and contra his straw poll.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Look, the risk here is voters getting misinformation about AOC's policy positions. By that, I mean social media and the press incorrectly describing them in glorious terms and giving her an unfettered platform from which to speak without representatives with opposition views given equal time. AOC is a Bernie Sanders socialist, maybe worse, more radical. Voters looking for government to take care of them are going to love her. Without understanding the consequences of this drift to the left, she has a dangerous message.

Since the media generally sucks at this kind of balanced news and information - and this is not a nod to you Kapture as you are, on the right, as bad as the left - we need to be vigilant in working to discern the dangers that the Sanders/AOC camps represent to the Republic.

Side story ...... I visited Havana, Cuba last week. We had two days there. Two lessons learned: (1) Communism is an entirely failed political and economic system (duh). Seeing the implications first had though is worth the effort. (2) Despite the utter failure of the Cuban government to bring economic "equality" to the people through the false promises of Communism, private enterprise, in the form of a black or underground market thrives - for the energetic entrepreneur that isn't looking for the Cuban government to take care of them - they can't and won't. The economic well being of the average Cuban is a comparative disaster to the first world. You have to see it to appreciate it.

Here's how the under ground market place in Cuba was described to me by such an entrepreneur: The best jobs in Cuba are with the government and the military. Let's say I have a friend who works in the government's supply office and he has access to auto parts for government vehicles. I need a water pump for my car. I contact him. He gets in contact with his man outside government that receives his new government auto part and replaces it with ones he refurbishes. Money is exchanged at the first transaction level. Money is exchanged when I receive the new part; it is good quality part (probably OEM) but I am paying much less for it. My contact in and outside of government makes money. I suspect this sort of market is in place in places like Vietnam (I saw this in person too), NK, China .... any and all places where Communism, in all it's variant forms, is the economic and political reality.

I need to read some more history of Fidel's time as he came to power and his relationship with the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations - anyone who knows good books on this, let me know - but I now this. Kennedy was duped by Castro and America's initial support of Castro's Revolution was a huge mistake. Batista was a crook completely aligned with the Mafia - he needed to go but Castro was the completely wrong answer. American business interests in Cuba (and South America where Che Guevara was doing his thing) were considered by even moderate democrats as exploitive and property ownership in Cuba advantaged non-Cubans to such an extent that over 95% of Cuban land was owned by Americans or Europeans - a large portion of ownership in the hands of the Mafia. But there were anti-communist groups who were concerned about Castro's Revolution. Castro visited the US at one point early in the process of his consolidation of power, not officially, but he went to New York. He made a speech in which he declared he was not a communist. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. He persuaded the Kennedy administration to stop supporting the growing anti-communist movement in Cuba. Over the next 10 years, he nationalized every industry and seized all private property in the name of the Cuban People. After that, the US imposed the infamous and poorly timed (it should have been much earlier) embargo against the Castro regime that persists today and drove Castro into the open arms of the Soviet Union and that precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963.

I relate this story only to highlight the dangers of politicians in the US, like Sanders and AOC, among others, harboring socialist agendas. It sounds great at first but the end results are always catastrophic to economic well being of citizens. I don't think there is middle ground. I used to think that but it won't work in this country like it seems to work elsewhere. Socialism, even as m ilk-toast as AOC and others make it sound is a slippery slope that will ultimately destroy private property ownership and private enterprise in America - the live blood of this country. I've seen it first hand in Cuba - a sad story.

[hack]

Palin-Cortez is following the trail blazed by PDJT. Gads and gads of free advertising. A general lack of concern for facts and accuracy bordering on malevolence. And full of sick burns on twitter and triggering the other side.

And it's about fucking time. If she goes the next step and masters Stephen Miller's art of the plausibly-deniable trolling, things might turn out ????.

[Kapture1]

leftists are now pressuring colleges around the country to decline any applicant from Covington Catholic High.

and they have the balls to call the right authoritarian

[hack]

I relate this story only to highlight the dangers of politicians in the US, like Sanders and AOC, among others, harboring socialist agendas. It sounds great at first but the end results are always catastrophic to economic well being of citizens. I don't think there is middle ground. I used to think that but it won't work in this country like it seems to work elsewhere. Socialism, even as m ilk-toast as AOC and others make it sound is a slippery slope that will ultimately destroy private property ownership and private enterprise in America - the live blood of this country. I've seen it first hand in Cuba - a sad story.

Are you suggesting that on the continuum of economic policy countries exist at one extreme or the other and there are none inbetween? That's quite easy to demonstrate as untrue. Just roll back to the Reagan period. That's a pretty easy-to-occupy middle ground.

[iam416]

leftists are now pressuring colleges around the country to decline any applicant from Covington Catholic High.

and they have the balls to call the right authoritarian

Liberals fascists are for-realsies.

[hack]

Anyone read the BuzzFeed feature on targeting Soros? Not bad. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml...rban-netanyahu.

Very sad though. In recent memory are the color revolutions and that very brief period of hope that the Arab Spring would be a good thing. Back then the name of the game in public protest wasn't plausibly-deniable trolling. It was sitting in public spaces, non-violently and untrollably, until the strongman just couldn't go on anymore. Mubarak sent thugs all around in 2011 trying to rile up the crowd, and people didn't take that bait. Sure are in a different period now. Lessons were learned by one side and not the other.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Palin-Cortez/Bernie Sanders in 2020!!!

The Dem Dream Team!