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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#78876: May 8th 2014 at 11:05:36 AM

So, how about that runaway inflation, guys? Looks like we'll be Zimbabwe any day now if the Very Serious People keep wishing hard enough.

For the NY Times-impaired, the monetary base (USD) has almost quintupled since 2008 while core CPI has risen somewhere in the 5-10 percent range; the resolution of the graph doesn't let me see for certain. But devaluation! Zimbabe! Weimar Republic!

Oh, and government intervention works — in this case, by reviving the fishing industry, which was flagging severely in the 80s and 90s.

edited 8th May '14 11:57:47 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Achaemenid HGW XX/7 from Ruschestraße 103, Haus 1 Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: Giving love a bad name
HGW XX/7
#78878: May 8th 2014 at 11:25:15 AM

[up][up]

Good links. [tup]

Schild und Schwert der Partei
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#78880: May 8th 2014 at 12:30:14 PM

The thing with the FCC is that we need some kind of regulation in the matter, because right now we have none at all to the best of my knowledge. I'm not saying I like what was proposed, but the Supreme Court has shot down every attempt at enforcing complete neutrality thus far.

edited 8th May '14 12:30:59 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
PotatoesRock Since: Oct, 2012
#78881: May 8th 2014 at 12:42:12 PM

If the Supreme Court keeps doing so, I don't see it working well in the long run for them. Silicon Valley and the various computer megacorps want Net Neutrality (for varying reasons besides the kindness of their hearts, heh.)

Might end up one of those populist issues, either to make Net Neutrality an amendment, or force term limits on the Supreme Court. (Which due to the current Court's horrendous record is growing more popular according to polling.)

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#78882: May 8th 2014 at 2:23:06 PM

I don't mind, in theory, term limits on SCOTUS justices. That said, I'm wary of changing any system just because we don't like the results of it now. Had things been different such that the Court were now 5-4 liberal, Republicans might well be screaming for term limits for the exact same reason. Same with the filibuster rules in the Senate.

Changing the rules because you don't like the outcome of the game has a habit of backfiring.

edited 8th May '14 2:23:30 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#78884: May 8th 2014 at 2:39:26 PM

And Rubio would know, because he's Hispanic, so clearly there's no racism in the Republican Party. The Uncle Tom accusation is extremely nasty but it seems to apply here. He's joined The Man who's busy oppressing his people and is sticking up for them in what can only be willful blindness.*

More broadly, the GOP has an interest in disclaiming its inherent racism because the entirety of movement conservatism is based around being racist in secret. To admit it publicly would break the illusion.

* I'll allow for the possibility that Rubio, on the surface, believes that what Hispanics need is not legal protection but to "bootstrap" themselves into prosperity, and that those who are here illegally need to go home and try again because the law is the law. I would find it very difficult to believe that he has not, in his own career as a Republican, experienced the seedy underbelly of that party and rationalized it to himself.

edited 8th May '14 2:54:36 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#78885: May 8th 2014 at 2:52:27 PM

Here's to hoping more people see the light.

Oh really when?
Ogodei Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers from The front lines Since: Jan, 2011
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
#78886: May 8th 2014 at 4:36:41 PM

Rubio does care about immigration reform though. That's what killed his presidential ambitions.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#78887: May 8th 2014 at 5:00:32 PM

True. Maybe he's just got ideological blinders on. It happens to the best of us. Sadly, any attempt to take an honest, ethical position on the matter is going to alienate him from the GOP's voters.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#78888: May 8th 2014 at 6:32:21 PM

The top 25 hedge fund managers in the U.S. make more than twice as much money as all public kindergarten teachers combined. There is no evidence that they earn any more money for their clients than anyone else in the market, and possibly less, making them the greatest parasites in history.

edited 8th May '14 6:56:29 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#78889: May 8th 2014 at 6:41:43 PM

Didn't the guy who's causing K-Mart and Sears to crash and burn start out as a hedge fund manager?

MPCV from Las Hellas Since: Jan, 2014
#78890: May 8th 2014 at 6:43:55 PM

@Fighteer True. Maybe he's just got ideological blinders on. It happens to the best of us. Sadly, any attempt to take an honest, ethical position on the matter is going to alienate him from the GOP's voters./quote

It seems like parties in the US are more than happy to excommunicate people who might have a single difference in thought.Like Rubio on immigration.

I find that I hate partisanship more and more every time I look at politics.

DeviantBraeburn Wandering Jew from Dysfunctional California Since: Aug, 2012
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#78892: May 8th 2014 at 6:54:16 PM

In a rare example of me not citing Krugman, this other editorial seeks to explore the role of the Koch Brothers in our current climate of political disinformation.

edited 8th May '14 6:56:01 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#78893: May 8th 2014 at 6:55:08 PM

Of course they're silent.

Also what good would releasing the autopsy report do? Do they expect him to have been covertly assassinated by Obama or something?

Oh really when?
Ogodei Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers from The front lines Since: Jan, 2011
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
#78895: May 8th 2014 at 8:24:26 PM

Interesting. A nod to the reality that the law is largely indefensible, a play to patronize PA voters? (interestingly, voter ID *is* one of those right-wing things that middle america agrees with, so likely not that).

Saw my first political ad for the governor's race today. Corbett run, anti Wolf. Wolf was apparently the chief tax collector for the state at one point?

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#78897: May 8th 2014 at 9:46:16 PM

More posturing. "Why didn't sequestration hurt government workers more!? We tried our best but that evil government won't lay down and die. Damn those parasites, sucking on our tax dollars to provide services for people that have been established by the laws we passed!"

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Achaemenid HGW XX/7 from Ruschestraße 103, Haus 1 Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: Giving love a bad name
HGW XX/7
#78898: May 9th 2014 at 2:49:54 AM

US-China high speed rail link proposed by Chinese official.

The proposed line would start in Manchuria and then go up into Siberia, before going through a 125 mile tunnel beneath the Bering Strait to Alaska, then down through Canada and into California. The 220mph train would take two days to run it's line - which is 3000km longer than the Trans-Siberian railway.

But before you get excited:

  • It would be arguably the largest civil engineering project in history.
  • It's not clear if the Russians or Americans have been consulted.
  • The Russian-America tunnel would have to be four times the length of the Chunnel.
  • Cost would be astronomical, though potentially possible if shared between Russia, Canada, China, and America.
  • One suspects that, if the "NAFTA Superhighway" gives the old right-wing crazies the rustled jimmies, then a Commie rail-link might just cause Michelle Bachmann to explode.

Cross-posted to the train and railway thread.

edited 9th May '14 2:50:15 AM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei
3of4 Just a harmless giant from a foreign land. from Five Seconds in the Future. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
#78899: May 9th 2014 at 3:09:39 AM

[up]If the last thing truly happens, I'd say money well spent.

"You can reply to this Message!"
Barkey Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#78900: May 9th 2014 at 3:11:30 AM

Hmm, that's interesting, I hope it happens.

Depending on where in California it would stop at, if it were close enough to LA I might consider trying to find work there, as a new project they'll need tons of security management, especially with people coming into the country and all the infrastructure that will be involved from having foreigners entering the country from such a railway.

edited 9th May '14 3:12:42 AM by Barkey


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