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Negatory

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Everything posted by Negatory

  1. We’ll agree to disagree. Taken to an extreme, imagine it’s 2050 and only 100 people total lived in the 21 least populated states and 100 million lived in Texas. 100 people shouldn’t be able to stonewall the rest of society. All men are created equal and deserve fairly equal representation in their government. We are at the point now where it’s not even close. There is a limit, and the system as it is now is not a universal truth.
  2. Functionally, whether it’s an actual 24 hour reading or a pushing of the entire agenda by 41 senators, it’s the same. The founders intended on majority rules in the legislature. That’s how the constitution is written. That’s no longer a thing. Now, less than 15% of the population of the US (the population of the least populated 21 states) can stonewall all legislation. I get that that is nice for conservatism and not changing anything. Is that in line with the intent of government? Should Wyoming votes count 68 times more than California votes when it comes to legislation? Or do you defend it because it benefits “conservatism?”
  3. Ok dude. Tell me - even talk down to me - how “it’s clear” my understanding is flawed.
  4. We can agree to disagree. Personally, I believe that our current form of government is most definitely not optimal and should be updated. Many of you will say that is not the case. Some of you will say that’s not the case because it was designed this way from the beginning. Malarkey. I have read the federalist and anti federalist papers, and I’m not convinced they have as much foresight as you think. I personally believe that - hot take - the founding fathers couldn’t actually predict everything that would happen in a complex modern society. And I believe their glorification is actually counterproductive to discussions about how to change things to work better in a society that no longer resembles 1770s New England. I mean, the original government of the US only had to represent the ideals of a couple million homogenous white American males who all lived in the same place and did the same thing for a living. It’s more akin to the governance of Delaware, New Hampshire, or Vermont than a multicultural, 4000 mile wide nation with vastly varying interests, beliefs, and economic factors. And we are feeling the cultural issues with non-homogeneity and have been ever since our country expanded. A few obvious mistakes: the original constitution still enabled the oppression and non-representation of women and slaves. The founding fathers knew that a two party system would be a terrible thing for government, yet they couldn’t do anything or have any foresight to stop its formation. Additionally, I must say that our government since the early 1900s has taken sharp turns away from the original founding with both formal laws and amendments and informal changes, whether it comes to how/how many electors are appointed, how senators are chosen, tactics to stonewall legitimate legislation and appointment of officials, or powers of the executive/legislative branch. “We the people” used to mean a lot more when they had proportional representation, yet it was casually changed just so it was easier to deal with. And my point is that the changes that have led to the current American government are not necessarily a good thing. You could call me pro-reform. Pragmatically, we don’t stand a chance of uniting and making valid national change to strategy without a new boogeyman. The World Wars and Cold War were the only thing that brought Americans together over the last century, and without them, we resort to infighting. For many Republicans, their only policy is that they want to “own the libs.” Beyond that, they’re stumped. Many Democrats just want to expel “fascist Republicans” and sing Kumbayah. And now we on this forum are fighting about whether or not it is a valid tactic to read a cookbook for 16 hours because the majority of people don’t agree with your point. YGBSM. Maybe the actual governmental system is f*cked if people have to do that as a “balance of power.”
  5. I don’t think you understand. I don’t support Democrat or Republican filibusters. They’re all horseshit, and your opinion article doesn’t present any real reasons for them. And youre delusional if you think its current usage is whatsoever in line with effective governance. Also, it’s so-called “nuclear” usage in the past 40 years is new. With it especially peaking in... checks notes... the senates of the Obama presidency. The only thing it actually does is stop legislation when the house and the senate aren’t the same color. That’s when filibusters happen, and it’s not conducive to any legislative effectiveness. But I guess, overall, policies that aren’t conducive to legislative effectiveness help the Republican mantra that the government is ineffective. Mind you, republicans support policies that hamstring effectiveness because it limits scary change. Oogabooga!
  6. You’re really grasping at straws if you think that a grown man reciting Shakespeare or reading a recipe book for 24 hours is a constitutional way to force a majority to not pass legislation. My eyes immediately glaze over when I hear that someone supports the holy filibuster. Imagine the founding fathers in the senate when this happens. A lively debate brews. A majority of 51 votes is obvious. An idiot gets up front and runs the clock out by reciting the dictionary for 18 hours. “WTF is happening?” asks Ben Franklin. “Well, we tried,” says John Adams. “No, I give up. These guys are f*cked,” ends Thomas Jefferson.
  7. I’ll entirely agree that the whole of QAnon are not Republican voters. But the majority are.
  8. https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/npr-misinformation-123020 https://www.wbur.org/npr/951095644/even-if-its-bonkers-poll-finds-many-believe-qanon-and-other-conspiracy-theories And that’s called statistics of a representative sample size, brother. It’s not casual and I’m not happy about it, but it is what it is. Legitimately, that many people, plus or minus a few %, are there in their belief system, whether you like it or not. Maybe THAT’s what’s wrong with political discourse in this country.
  9. Oh, this ones easy. I think you draw the line somewhere between the 16% of Americans that think “A group of Satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media” and the 12% that think “Several mass shoutings in recent years were staged hoaxes.” So you can choose between 39-53 million people. I mean, I get why the Republican Party has a hard time disavowing these people, it’s a lot of idiots!
  10. Agreed that leaving was symbolic, but it was still counterproductive if we don’t have actual solutions or plans to make it “fair.” The only way to “win” here is using soft power to get everyone on board. You can’t invade China to shut off their manufacturing. And, as the past 4 years have shown, you can’t really impose tariffs nearly as effectively as we would hope. This is the cost of China becoming a superpower (mainly due to how much shopping I do at Walmart).
  11. It’s harder to argue we have some sort of moral high ground when our per capita CO2 expenditure is twice that of China’s. You can’t forget we have 330M and they have 1.4B. In that framework, what is “fair?”
  12. I’m on board with your point about Afghanistan and vaccinations 100%. The Keystone pipeline and the Paris climate accords are both issues primarily related to global warming. Which, many believe, is an existential threat to the world. In my opinion, they are much better solutions than the republican strategy of not doing anything at all. To me, the republican strat for global warming was similar to the COVID strat: say it will go away on its own and put earplugs in. There are hundreds, probably of thousands, of graphs like these that point to our future trajectory. What’s the plan?
  13. Wait til you find out the real reason for the plandemic: big gov needed to change out the batteries on all the birds. https://birdsarentreal.com/pages/the-history Spread this, brothers. Godspeed. #birdsarentreal
  14. That speech is full of so many bullshit false maxims and buzzwords I want to puke. The truth is many people think the Air Force is okay, but not the best. It’s not just awesome or soul crushing for the majority of folks. Which means there is a legitimate need to consider the entire picture when deciding on service. Many people can also make significant money outside of the Air Force. And they wouldn’t have to put up with holier than thou generals saying that you shouldn’t consider any amount of money in your calculations for your future, when money determines what kind of future you and your family will have. The talk about no amount of money being worth your life is also bullshit. Most of us will not come into actual significant physical danger during our jobs. And everyone knows that. When you sign the bonus, the vast majority of folks aren’t worried about being shot down or crashing, because, truth be told, those are extremely improbable. I’ve been on multiple fighter deployments, and, truth be told, I was often more worried about missing out on time with my family than the threats. His post, when broken down, says that you should not be worried about compensation whatsoever, because the job is so much more important. His post, when broken down, is such a poor argument that it could just as easily be applied to say that flight pay shouldn’t exist. That tricare shouldn’t exist. That BAH tax status shouldn’t exist. Why should the military provide any benefits whatsoever to career military officers other than job stability? Why don’t we stop paying doctors bonuses as well? Why should anyone actually ever make more than basic needs? His post, when broken down, debases the very pragmatic fact that, while almost all of us serve with a large amount of patriotism and nationalism in our hearts, we have to also simultaneously be preparing ourselves and our families for retirement. Because serving our country realistically means we are giving up the other high-performing lives we could live. Im predicting a short sighted decision that will backfire laughably when the dynamic reverses in 2 years.
  15. I’ve had multiple airmen pull out money from their TSP to “invest” in dogecoin. I guess, on the bright side, they’ll get a taste of reality and losses early in life.
  16. That video convinced me you’re not wrong, unfortunately. I guess we will get to see which evil was worse. Having to choose between Biden and Trump is the closest I’ll ever come to understanding an abusive relationship (hopefully).
  17. Your comment made me think of this tribalism cartoon from way back. Which applies to basically all facets of life.
  18. Robinhood is allowing people to close positions, just not create new ones. Which only benefits the short sellers who want to continue to create fake sell ladders to manipulate the price lower. Check out the order book that has entirely exhausted the sell pressure from private investment firms lol: Hard to feel bad that investment bankers, which do nothing for the world, may have less boats. When short selling and greed goes too far.
  19. Don’t get em too scared or they’ll just pack the court and add 2 more judges
  20. Appreciate you gents taking the bait. Because the constant talk of the election being stolen - even by many on this forum - is a giant conspiracy theory that has no more substance than 9/11 hoaxers, yet over 70% of republicans entertain this particular theory. Including a disheartening amount of you all. You guys spouting "let's just say that there were no shenanigans" implies that there is a debate about the election results. There isn't. And you may not understand it now, but every time that you say shit like this you're just further undercutting faith in American democracy. All for a little bit of political power. How do you see this turning out for the future of the country? 61 out of 62 election lawsuits filed by Trump/Giuliani failed in bipartisan courts The one that passed was PA saying that voters had 3 days to provide ID, but didn't come close to changing the results whatsoever. GA was recounted twice - Biden won three times in a row. Wisconsin was recounted once. Biden won twice in a row. Election officials - bipartisan officials - across all contested states have said that there is no meaningful fraud. To the point that Georgia secretary of state, a republican, has to tell the president to STFU about his elections. And if I'm just flat out wrong here, and you can prove that there is substantial election fraud that would have affected the results, let me know. Because the way that Tucker Carlson and Rush Limbaugh and conservative media heads work is that they show real evidence that election fraud occurred 12 times across the state of GA. Then they have everyone take a poll that asks "do you think any election fraud happened?" And then 90% of people say "yes, of course there was election fraud, but-" and he cuts you off there and says that "an overwhelming majority of Americans believe there was a fraudulent election! Get out there and support the president! Jan 6!" Without representing the fact that the majority of rational people talking were going to finish their sentence: "Yes, of course there was election fraud, but it was small and limited. There was fraud probably on all sides. But a handful of people registering incorrectly - or even a handful of people maliciously doing things incorrectly - does not warrant the destruction of the democratic process." Provide proof that substantial election fraud occurred that would have changed the results or STFU saying things like "Let’s just say there were no shenanigans regarding the election itself and everything was pure, fair and balanced."
  21. Well the shenanigans wouldn't have been needed if the republicans hadn't faked 9/11 to garner unilateral support and install fox news and the patriot act in 2001. YOU really only have yourself to blame.
  22. Do you ever think that Trump may have gotten more negative press coverage because he’s a worse human being with worse policies? Just like how I talk more shit about my sisters abusive ex husband than her current husband? Not everyone is entitled to 50-50 good:bad press.
  23. Is your point that meritocracy shouldn’t exist or that it doesn’t?
  24. The blunt truth is it hurts non minorities. That’s the harm in affirmative action policies. It’s why white male pilots, for the most part, should go ahead and stop applying to be astronauts. Edit: The sinister end result is the debasing of the meritocracy.
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