Lord Ratner

I kind of hope we choose both. We're just going to have to accept some level of inflation to accommodate our obscene amount of debt, but insolvency is going to be the only thing that implements the austerity required to dig out of this hole. Zero and negative interest rates for a decade didn't save Europe from their debt, and it won't save us.

Just watch, the microsecond after the election is over the Democrats are going to be suddenly and deeply concerned with the mental health of the president.

He did say it would be higher than the previous dot plot. Ironically, it's not going to be the Fed that takes us into phase two of the bear market. The tidal wave of earnings revisions is starting to hit. That'll be ugly.

Faip mafia The O club Hook them all High speed low drag

With the autopilot, no sweat. But flying a heavy ≠ flying a small plane designed for single pilot ops. We saw this often when the fighter guys would transfer to a guard KC-135. Just because the mission is a joke (and it is a very, very easy mission to execute), doesn't mean the plane was. Maybe the newer ones though? I've never flown the triple or the dreamliner. But a raw navaid approach in a 737 in actual weather would be a real ass kicker.

Incredible touch giving the helicopter an authentic native American name. Bravo.

Tell me you only watch conservative media without telling me you only watch conservative media. I listen to NPR in my car. Nothing else. It is incredible how they twist and stretch every story to downplay the innumerable failings of the left. Honestly sometimes it's downright impressive how completely warped their presentation is. Regardless, it presents a completely different reality to those listening than when I listen to Ben Shapiro or (occasionally) Tucker Carlson. This stuff is *not* in the news every day if you only consume left-leaning media. And it's not like they are extolling the virtues of chopping off some confused teenager's tits. They are simply not reporting on the bad parts, and spending all their time on the "emotional struggle" and bullying of trans kids. I don't care what you do because you're a random stranger on the internet, but you might learn something surprising if you leave the conservative echo chamber. Granted, the conservative echos are largely correct, but you can't defeat an enemy you don't understand, and you clearly do not understand how the perpetrators of this nonsense are taking the moderate liberals along for the ride. It's eye-opening.

Uh, who are you arguing with? Where did I say I was liberal? And what is a conservative liberal? Is that a moderate? If you were drunk when you posted this, just say so🤣😂. Did you miss the part where I explicitly am against trans procedures for kids? Lemme help: Agreed on the Boomer stuff. Their generation has doomed us all.

Look at her arms turn into panda paws!! 🤣😂

Ok this is awesome

I think the culture aspect is much more important than the policy aspect, since policy is much easier to change than culture. But: Conservatives need to rediscover capitalism. If they are still scoffing at the idea of "income inequality" then we are in trouble. Check out how the wealthiest .1% did during the pandemic. https://wolfstreet.com/2022/09/26/my-wealth-disparity-monitor-september-update-qt-rate-hikes-dropping-stocks-bonds-reduce-outrageous-us-wealth-disparity/ What we have now is corporatism, and it's bad. As long as the government keeps a death grip on the macroeconomy (through Central Bank policy), the rich will continue to have better outcomes from better access. Beyond that, the 30 years experiment of globalism is burning to the ground around us. We killed the unskilled middle class in exchange for cheap TVs, and we funded the rise of our greatest geopolitical adversary in the process. Republicans (until Trump) are just at much to blame for allowing the wide scale infiltration of all areas of American life by the Chinese. That needs to end, and it's going to be painful. Always and forever, children are key to voters' hearts. There are a few areas the Republicans can really pull ahead. First, continue the fight against medicalizing trans kids. Next, as the social security and Medicare systems start to collapse under their debt, propose a new medical paradigm where old Americans have their unlimited medical costs capped in exchange for a new government policy that covers anyone under 20 for anything non-cosmetic. The most powerful country on Earth should not be paying to keep old fat people alive way past their expiration date while kids are medical victims of their parents' decisions/fate. A bonus, you take away one of the most traditionally Democratic campaigning strategies. Continue the push to return this country to a states-first mentality. The more issues we can push to the states, the more apparent the failings of progressive leadership will be. But it's not going to matter without conservatives taking the lead on the cultural front. And that's going to require the conversations I've been advocating for in this thread. We spent decades allowing the left to redefine reality, and they've been able to do so starting at a very young age, knowing that social change is measured in generations, not days, months, or years. That means conservatives are going to have to start now and plan on a very long and painful process of regaining the cultural narrative.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump having a tea party An octopus playing poker A baby firing a nuclear missile A very attractive woman seducing a panda bear

Well, I didn't specifically ask for a demonstration of the failings of the conservatives, but this'll do. If you think the bulk of Democratic party are even aware of the fringe leftist ideology, much less subscribed to it, it might not be me whose been "had." Again, conservatives have to decide if they want to save the country, or win the political pissing match. We can't do both.

No. Literally the opposite. You have to talk to the non-extremists. When the "regular" Democrats realize the descriptions of conservatives as evil and hateful (characterizations that cannot survive an intimate dialog) are made up nonsense, they will not feel like their party is "the only option for their views." I am 75% conservative, and while I despise both parties, I overwhelmingly side with the Republicans. I am certainly no Democrat. Never once voted for one. That's my point. Conservatives are spending all their time talking to each other. It's not going to fix anything. The hard work of reaching out falls to us. Is it fair? No. But if we don't fix it, who will? It's just one of the differences between conservative and liberal humans. We conserve. We defend and reinforce necessary systems. Liberals identify failings and bring attention to them. Neither side can succeed without the other, but not neither side will interact. Conservatives abandoned academia and government after the 60s. College got stupid, but conservatives shrugged. "The college kids will grow out of that when reality hits them." How'd that work out? Yup. Not easy to go against a 24 hour news cycle or social media outrage machine. But what is your alternative? It's not getting better, and now the conservatives are starting to do the same shit liberals do. Just look at Jan 6th. Conservatives *never* used to riot. Absolutely. A private conversation where you can ask questions and exchange opinions. Shack. It's amazing how far you can get in a conversation simply by doing nothing but asking questions, especially when you are attacked. When my mother in law said that the anti-abortion crowd is evil, during a conversation where I was definitely against abortion, all I had to do was ask "do you think I'm evil? Is your daughter?" Then wait. Let the wheels turn, which can't happen if you go on the attack. Someone said the left is all emotion. 100% true. But emotion can be overruled by thought and reason, if thought and reason are invoked. My favorite Jordan Peterson quote: "in order to think, you must be able to speak." Liberals (voters, NOT activists) aren't speaking, because we aren't speaking to them anymore. If we don't find a way to talk with them about our reality, do we really think they are going to stumble upon it on their own?

Again, separate what Trump might call "the elite" from the voters. Your average run-of-the-mill Democratic voter does not support censorship. Just like they don't support defunding the police. Censorship is exactly how the Democratic elite intend to maintain their control over their voters. Keep *you* from talking to them. If we throw up our hands because they censor a few prominent conservatives, they win. Believe it or not, you aren't censored, and the loudest conservatives are making millions. Don't buy into a narrative that isn't true.

Good luck. That's never worked on the past, but maybe this time will be different...

Good Lord, you must have been a real treat to give "feedback" to. So much for thick skin. You weren't lambasted for being pro choice, you were lambasted (specifically, I called you an idiot) for doing exactly what we're talking about now: Then you tried to play dumb that that wasn't an intentionally inflammatory and reductionist attack instead of just starting the conversation.

Conservatives have to talk to liberals. That's the solution. Those conversations have to happen without all of the usual conversational violations that shut down any chance of consensus or persuasion. Some examples: - Strawmanning - Acting as though the person you're talking to is responsible for, or agrees with, all the ideas/opinions of someone else just because they voted for the same party - Assumption of ill-intent - Using perjoratives to describe the party or the politicians they support our have supported. This is an implicit insult. "That fucking moron Joe Biden," for example, implies that anyone who voted for him must also be stupid, because only an idiot would vote for an idiot. Libtards is another example. - Spiking the football when you prove them wrong - Forcing someone to own a previously held opinion even though they may have changed their mind since then. You get the idea. It's all the exact same shit the liberals have been doing to conservatives for as long as I've been alive. But this isn't about what's fair, because it's not at all fair; it's about what works. Conservatives, as a group and as individuals, have to decide if they want to fix the society, or be viewed as the winners of a battle. Those are mutually exclusive goals.

Yes... That's exactly my point. Welcome. But if your can't distinguish between Democratic politicians/activists/academics and the Democratic voters, then there will be no progress Elections are not going to wake them up. Meaningful interactions with conservatives who can demonstrate a sane alternative to their no-longer-sane party, will. This was always the problem with Trump; he could very effectively communicate the hypocrisies and insanities of the political left, but only to Republicans. His pure odiousness was anathema to anyone you'd actually want to persuade. As anyone in the Air Force heard a million times, perception matters.

I'm my experience, most overwhelmingly are not. Again, I'm not talking about someone who runs a nonprofit or PAC. Just a Democratic voter. The dialog is dead, and if you can't talk, you can't think. Abortion, transgenderism, racism, policing, immigration... I haven't found a single person, including some of my actual progressive friends, who actually hold the party line. But they have to be prodded, they have to go through the process of hearing the ridiculous policy, saying it out loud themselves, then trying (and failing) to explain it coherently to someone who is legit interested in hearing their reasoning without calling them a clown. I *rarely* ever have to do more than ask for a cogent explanation and then just let them stumble around until eventually they say something in direct conflict with the activist message. Some examples of things I have yet to see survive this process: - All white people are racist. Actually racist against minorities. - The current border situation is ok - Abortion should be allowed for any reason on the day of delivery (this one *never* survives contact with a parent, and only rarely survives with anyone else) - 5 year olds should be given irreversible hormones if they think they are a different gender - The police are systemically killing unarmed black people (have to be able to cite FBI statistics) - Homeless people should be free to live the way they are living now in most cities Over and over and over I'm amazed at how quickly these insane ideas disintegrate upon the first instance of the well-intentioned liberal having to explain it to someone who isn't making fun of them, using some stupid nickname to describe their affiliation, or (and this is the big one) implying right off the bat that anyone who's would vote for a politician who supports/makes these claims must be stupid, unpatriotic, or evil. You'd think after being treated that way for years, the Trump voters would realize how shitty it is and refrain from doing the same, but social media and 24 hour cable news have turned politics into a revenge sport, where whataboutism and score keeping are more important than consensus and finding truth. Shit, I see it with family members (in my family as well). People who spend decades living together suddenly accusing the other of being anti-American, evil, of hating some group or another, of "being the problem." Never once for something they actually *do,* and always for who they voted for, as if a single vote implies absolute allegiance to any and all of a political party's most dogmatic or absurd positions. It's obviously wrong, yet so easy a trap to fall into.

Definitely the former, who make up the vast majority of Democratic voters (not activists or politicians). They are, by and large, the Democrats we live with, served with, and work with. And they are the only path to "fixing" the Democratic party, so yeah, we shouldn't treat them like shit for the mistake of trusting an activist class with an agenda.

Exactly. And they won't be guided back to reality through ridicule.

So wait, the guy who posts a dozen times a day on the web board is now whining about unsolicited feedback? Why would I ignore you when I can just call you out? Who's the Karen exactly? Just another retired cog that didn't rock the boat when they could have made a difference, but now has a mission to keep it real on the internet. I'm sure the fight against social justice insanity will make huge strides with Boomer memes and more worthless political team-ism, but I think I'll stick with faith in the American people and not write off half the country because Fox News told me that Democrats all hate genders and white people. 😉

You either believe that liberal American voters are by and large patriotic Americans who love their kids the same way you do and serve their country with the same motivations, or you believe they are committed operatives of the Democratic party who engage in online conversation to soften the beach head for absurd policies that target the most vulnerable amongst us. If you believe the latter, then maybe you're the problem too. My point is that your approach to have conversations with those who politically disagree with you can't start with clearly demeaning commentary if (big "if" in the era of look-at-how-smart-I-am Internet posting) your goal is actually to change minds and build consensus against stupid/dangerous policy. Or perhaps put more elegantly by someone we can all look up to, regardless of background or political alignment...

Do you and SurelySerious fight over who gets to sit on the other's lap when you yell at people on baseops for upsetting the fighter pilot gods?