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Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This has been my family’s most successful year financially by far. I got a new job with a big raise, my wife got a promotion, our retirement and bank accounts are way up, our daughter started grad school after being furloughed in 2020, one brother bought a bigger house, my mom sold her house and downsized with a nice profit, four nieces are doing well in college. So a little temporary inflation is not a problem.
Anyone invested in the market did great. The state of Virginia is running a huge surplus. Life is pretty good here in NOVA. Roads are being fixed. Bonuses being given in public service. There's not much to complain about here even with some inflation. Of course Omicron or whatever variant comes could change that.
Are you a Republican?
Because this is what Republicans used to be accused of in the past - as long as everything was hunky dory for them, who cared about the plights of other people.
I've long observed that the Republican and Democratic party are switching places and it sure does seem like it. The growing indifference of the Democrats to the everyday plights of ordinary people is getting worse, their obsession with grand schemes and fix-it-all policies (which of course never fix anything but promise to make things worse) at the expense of paying attention to the nuts and bots of everyday reality aka prices and rents and inflation and wages is something that really concerns me, especially as a greater share of Democrat leadership and voters live in affluent bubbles with no real clue as to what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck with inflation and economic worries. The Republicans, for all their many, many, many flaws, are capitalizing on these fears for a good reason - because these fears do exist and are real problems.
The GOP had all the levers in 2017 and 2018. Did the TCJA do anything for the plight of ordinary people? Heck, I've even asked what the GOP plan to tackle inflation might be ... McConnell surely knows after 2024 he has to do some actual governing; if inflation goes away on its own in 2023-4 it'll be Morning in America again (maybe, if the Dems can resist the temptation to be superwoke.) But for 2021-24, opposing is easy and it's all he has to do.
I suppose conservative judges allowing pro-life and anti-trans legislation through made ordinary people's lives a bit better if they started out that way. (pro-life/anti-choice and/or anti-trans/pro-gender norms.)
I suppose you could argue that they could've done more if it hadn't been for that nasty Schumerses and his filibusters, but, well, isn't that what Dems are running into? It does seem both parties are unable to get their stuff done, but get the blame from their less-devoted will vote no matter what base and from swing voters as if they could just Thanos snap and make stuff happen.
Now with that said ...
If front-line hourly workers are seeing their wages go up from $9-$10 an hour to $14-$16 an hour, they're doing okay even if inflation is at 10%, and skilled white-collar workers making $125k and up aren't feeling the pain (yet). The local grandee class (think the owner of a construction business, the McDonald's franchise owner, etc.) is likely feeling the pain as much of their business model is predicated on paying their workers $9-$10 an hour and their raw materials are going up in cost.
But skilled blue-collar workers/lower end white-collar/pink-collar workers making $20-$40 an hour (depending on locality) likely aren't seeing their wages keep up with inflation. (Plus they're more liable to feel the competition from foreign workers.)
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:"we're a bunch of f**kin racists" and/or "black people can't be trusted not to be lazy criminals."
I still do not understand why mentioning research on this topic when discussing different cultures makes someone a " f**kin racist" who believes that "black people can't be trusted". Can you please explain that a bit?
You're conflating the two statements which isn't always appropriate. I've seen both sentiments expressed as reasons why Nordic countries can have nice things and we can't. Racism means that we aren't willing to give up some of our resources to benefit people of different races regardless of their personal qualities. The lazy black person trope -- which in fairness could be immigrants or anyone of color -- means that even if we're willing to share our resources, these lazy Others would just bankrupt us by taking without giving. But, very often, these two sentiments are intertwined.
Ok. It’s still unclear to me why you feel that mentioning fact based research on racism/homogeneity in different cultures makes someone racist or someone who believes that black people cant be trusted. Can you explain why you feel this way?
So why does a multi-cultural society make implementing a welfare state more difficult? I've been kind enough to point out that Nordic countries aren't as monolithic as you thought. (Also, Australia's been multi-cultural since the 1950s and has always been a place for British outcasts. Canada has been just as multi-cultural as we have been, yet seems able to have a welfare state.)
It's only authortarian if it affects you.
Anonymous wrote:Fun fact PP, if the government consficates 100% of the billionaires wealth that would equate to 4 trillion, less than a year of Federal spending.
So, this means we need to cut their taxes some more?
also a lot would depend on how Trump got his second term.
If he had gotten it through chicanery and state legislatures finding fraud where none existed, then we'd be too busy re-creating mai 1968 (misspelling deliberate) to notice.
If he'd been re-elected fairly, then my earlier scenario kicks in.
If he had gotten it through chicanery and state legislatures finding fraud where none existed, then we'd be too busy re-creating mai 1968 (misspelling deliberate) to notice.
If he'd been re-elected fairly, then my earlier scenario kicks in.
I suspect vaccines overall would've been delayed a few weeks to several weeks in states with ineffective leadership. I don't know if it'd have coincided with the first waves of Delta, but I don't think it'd have been THAT bad.
We probably would've had more reachout to MAGA-heavy skeptics and less reachout to anti-MAGA skeptics (i.e. Blacks and White hippies). I don't know if the MAGA reachout would've ended like Trump's attempt to encourage vaccination. SO in the end, I suspect vaccination rates would be a few points lower.
Not sure who'd reach out to White hippies but I suspect Blacks would've had ministers and other trusted figures reach out to encourage higher vaccination.
Probably more work done on treatments, both those that work (monoclonal antibodies) and those that probably don't (the paste of the horse).
Testing probably would've been an afterthought, with a 20-30% chance of someone deciding to go Operation Warp Speed.
We probably would've had more reachout to MAGA-heavy skeptics and less reachout to anti-MAGA skeptics (i.e. Blacks and White hippies). I don't know if the MAGA reachout would've ended like Trump's attempt to encourage vaccination. SO in the end, I suspect vaccination rates would be a few points lower.
Not sure who'd reach out to White hippies but I suspect Blacks would've had ministers and other trusted figures reach out to encourage higher vaccination.
Probably more work done on treatments, both those that work (monoclonal antibodies) and those that probably don't (the paste of the horse).
Testing probably would've been an afterthought, with a 20-30% chance of someone deciding to go Operation Warp Speed.
What's the Republican solution, though?
Raise up interest rates and trigger another recession? If we're looking at 10-15% inflation in 2023, I'm thinking that may end up being our last resort.
Take away income (i.e. the child tax credit) from a few who can weather its loss and many who probably couldn't?
I'm sure the billionaires could use another tax cut or two. Maybe some more conservative judges.
We've already gotten rid of extra unemployment - been rid of it for three months now. Yet inflation's gotten worse. I strongly suspect something else is at play here, but what do I know?
The problem - and I know full well Biden can't admit this - is that we as a nation have become addicted to cheap labor. It has taken hold of us and we are resenting its absence. 60-65% of us are reliant on paying the other 35-40% of us peanuts for various lower-skilled jobs and treating them as an underclass. In a few cases, these workers can age out, but in many cases, you've got several million among us who're essentially stuck there. With COVID restricting immigration, many of these workers are realizing their true worth and need.
Basically - the dignity of honest work - all honest work - must be emphasized. If it means we start treating Wal-Mart workers and ditch digger - currently objects of derision - with good pay, steadier hours, and dignity, is that a better alternative than giving people money just for existing (this may be a necessary evil, but it is hardly the ideal)? Is that better than Wal-Mart telling its part time associates how to more easily apply for food stamps?
Raise up interest rates and trigger another recession? If we're looking at 10-15% inflation in 2023, I'm thinking that may end up being our last resort.
Take away income (i.e. the child tax credit) from a few who can weather its loss and many who probably couldn't?
I'm sure the billionaires could use another tax cut or two. Maybe some more conservative judges.
We've already gotten rid of extra unemployment - been rid of it for three months now. Yet inflation's gotten worse. I strongly suspect something else is at play here, but what do I know?
The problem - and I know full well Biden can't admit this - is that we as a nation have become addicted to cheap labor. It has taken hold of us and we are resenting its absence. 60-65% of us are reliant on paying the other 35-40% of us peanuts for various lower-skilled jobs and treating them as an underclass. In a few cases, these workers can age out, but in many cases, you've got several million among us who're essentially stuck there. With COVID restricting immigration, many of these workers are realizing their true worth and need.
Basically - the dignity of honest work - all honest work - must be emphasized. If it means we start treating Wal-Mart workers and ditch digger - currently objects of derision - with good pay, steadier hours, and dignity, is that a better alternative than giving people money just for existing (this may be a necessary evil, but it is hardly the ideal)? Is that better than Wal-Mart telling its part time associates how to more easily apply for food stamps?
Anonymous wrote:Costs of MAGA-approved COVID treatments:
Horse paste for humans: $94 for 20 pills
https://www.drugs.com/price-guide/horse_paste
Monoclonoal antibodies: $2,000 and up
https://www.goodrx.com/monoclonal-antibodies
Costs of MAGA-disapproved COVID preventatives that also give you 5G:
COVID-19 vaccine: $150 for full freight
https://www.managedhealthcareexecutive.com/view/the-price-tags-on-the-covid-19-vaccines
I strongly suspect people refusing to get the vaccine to own Big Pharma aren't owning Big Pharma as much as they think. It's like the guy who picked up deer poop to spell out LGB.
That was me.
However, given that persistent vaccine refusers are some 20-30 million people, public health planning has to account for that. Given that many of them are more MAGA than Trump Himself (the booing when Trump waded into encouraging folks to get the vaccine), I'm not sure that celebrity endorsements will work here.
Also, let's face it, we'd be facing a bad healthcare season based solely on older vaccinated/boosted folks who're still getting COVID. Some focus now has to be on testing - to allow normal life to continue as easily as possible, and on treatment courses for those who do come down with the virus. Presumably we can do this without letting the vaccine giving machinery rust in place, since who knows if 3x boosted folks will be needing another booster in 1-5-10 years. This will cost money, but so what? It costs more money when we get caught flatfooted.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is historically ignorant. Homogeneous populations have killed their own kind, oppressed their own kind, raped and murdered their own kind, divided into clans and sects and waged civil wars and revolutions against their own kind. Have you read Dickens or Hugo or Dostoevsky or anything else written about how shitty and dangerous those homogeneous societies were for most of the population? That’s why they came to America, because being poor in Europe was horrible.
It depends on how you define homogenous. The mistake, as is often make by modern woke progressives, is treating everyone of a certain race as one homogenous population.
17th century Europeans didn't define themselves as white. They defined themselves by religion and then by region. You were Catholic or Protestant. Then German or French or or English whatever. The same thinking persists in much of Africa today, where Africans define themselves by tribal loyalty, not skin color, despite everyone being black. They don't see themselves homogenous in being black.
It's easy to pick out the samples of Dickens or Dostoevsky while ignoring that these societies also perpetuated, for centuries, a dominant cultural ethos that was a synthesis of religion, culture, and class (feudal societies, for example), which provided a great deal of solidarity and identity for its people. The Islamic world still has similar approaches, they are uniform in being Muslim and that dominant shared heritage is the glue that binds their society despite any ills within in. I've spent time in various Islamic nations and it's striking how despite enormous income disparities and certainly elements of oppression, they are singularly peaceful and safe places (almost all the time doesn't rule out the periodic exception). They see a strong solidarity in being Muslim that transcends everything else (and also allows various irascible people to become leaders).
This is *not* an argument against diversity at all. But an acknowledgment that diversity does present challenges in fostering solidarity and fellowship, much more so than the woke progressives will want to admit, while homogenous societies find it easier to develop the larger community trust as we see in the Nordic nations or countries like Japan and South Korea. But I do not see it impossible. The US has always been diverse and has carried that diversity successfully by balancing the wishes and desires of smaller communities to their own identities while establishing a neutral playing field for these communities to coexist. It wasn't always perfect (Jim Crow), and at points nearly destroyed the US (civil war) but by and large it was remarkably successful in bringing tremendously diverse groups of people together into a nation. Something I trust it will continue to do so but both the alt right and the woke progressives pose their own dangers to the American liberalism that allowed this flourishing.
A nice post, although I'd want to see some stats on crime in 90%+ Islamic nations. Also those countries range from Ireland 1980's attitude towards non-Catholics (oh, isn't that cute, we'll let you practice without official government harassment, but probably some social difficulty) to "you need to practice in virtual secrecy and better not let a Bible be seen by anyone."
From the wiki:
Australia 30% foreign born, although it's in the 25% range if you take out England, Scotland, and the USA.
Switzerland 25% (although I don't see a date here) as of 2016.
Canada 21.9% as of 2019.
Norway: 16.8% as of 2017
Sweden: 14.3% of its population is foreign born as of 2010.
USA: 14.4% of its population are immigrants as of 2015.
Denmark: 8% as of 2014.
Finland: 7.3% as of 2018.
Just wanted to correct the belief that the Nordic nations are homogenous in their immigration patterns.
Australia 30% foreign born, although it's in the 25% range if you take out England, Scotland, and the USA.
Switzerland 25% (although I don't see a date here) as of 2016.
Canada 21.9% as of 2019.
Norway: 16.8% as of 2017
Sweden: 14.3% of its population is foreign born as of 2010.
USA: 14.4% of its population are immigrants as of 2015.
Denmark: 8% as of 2014.
Finland: 7.3% as of 2018.
Just wanted to correct the belief that the Nordic nations are homogenous in their immigration patterns.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I feel like I get soured by the anticapitalist tone among some of the democrats. I am all for social programs and that includes universal health care. But there are a lot of programs pushed by the Democrats that I think are just redistribution of wealth and I am not for that.
There is a small, very vocal, very left group saying this. Not even Elizabeth Warren is anti-capitalist. Please don’t think activists represent the Democratic Party. The rightwing and mainstream (cable news) media LOVE to focus on the “radical” portion of the left while ignoring the very real radical takeover of the GOP by an anti-democracy faction.
The truth is, our country lags in so many programs that make a healthy up society. Paid time off, affordable healthcare, lower prescription drugs, affordable college…
Yes, there will always be scammers. I consider the biggest scammers to be the billionaires & wealthy corporations who have convinced the American public that they should be allowed to skip paying what they owe in taxes because they are
1. job makers
2. have “pulled bootstraps/ worked hard for their money, while ignoring that much of their wealth was built from the public good i.e. they and or their workers were educated in schools, their goods travel on public roads & purchased over publicly seed funded Internet…
They are laughing all the way to the bank, or in some cases to outerspace.
I thought that too. I feel like Biden is drawn to that group more than I expected and it lends a lot of legitimacy to their goals. Which makes me wonder if more democrats today are for that type of stuff. A lot of young people really want free college or tuition forgiveness. I hear some sad stories of people who got scammed by banks but for many I hear about massive tuition to earn a Low earning degree. That is a choice, not a tragedy. I know young people at my work who have massive debt but at least some of it was accumulated doing mostly frivolous semesters or summers abroad. I took loans and worked every summer and during the school year and NEVER got to do that because I couldn’t afford it. Or should I say, I wasn’t willing to take out loans to do it. I should not now be asked to pay for Larlas summer in Spain. Nope. But those same colleagues all talked about loan forgiveness. It made me so mad.
Canceling student debt is not anywhere in Biden‘s agenda. Yes progressives are pushing that but the only way it will pass is if Biden does an executive order.
I think he should. There’s tons of evidence that by canceling even a fraction of student debt is going to help our economy. Without crushing dead those millennials, many who are now in their 40s, will be able to buy homes and invest more in society.
Again you seem very much fixated on the few bad actors. There’s always a few bad actors but this policy will help many, many people. Some were prayed on by predictors lenders from for-profit colleges, others were told over and over again that college was the only way to a better future only to find out when they graduated their degree that was worthless.
I feel to see what other policies Biden has been movie to the left on. So far we’ve had the American rescue plan and a by bipartisan infrastructure plan. The two policies that progressives really care about have gone nowhere. Criminal justice reform has totally fallen apart, White House seems to be dragging their feet on voting rights. So excuse me but I’m just very confused of what you were talking about.
This person is the reason I lose faith in the Democratic Party. So, poster, after we forgive your crushing debt, and you buy a house you can’t afford, should we forgive that too? What do you owe, where did you go to school and what is your job? What jobs did you have before college? What kind of car do you drive? Did you study abroad? Do you have roommates? In many instances there are programs in existence to help people who really need it. But lots of people take on tons of debt and then are like “ew, yuck.” And you want a bail out. No. No. And the fact the democrats entertain this nonsense makes me want to barf.
Lots of undeserving people get bailouts from time to time. If $$ going to basket weaving Milliennials bothers you more than $$$$ going to going to the 1% (or what was 2008-9 all about?), I'm not sure what to say.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:A huge portion of the "pro-Russia" people in Crimea and western Ukraine weren't even originally from there. They arrived as part of massive repopulation efforts prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union. 100 years ago you would have found a lot of Tatars living in Crimea - they were displaced and replaced with ethnic Russians.
Well it's not like it was virgin lands you know. Go back in history a hundred years and you'll find one people living them, go back another hundred, and the picture will be quite different. You can't build a policy based on that.
Hmm... would you be talking about the Pale of Settlement? Yes, Russia has traditionally been extremely anti-Semitic.
It's not Russia that wiped out its Jewish population with the utmost enthusiasm before the Nazis came and by god, after.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1992-02-23-1992054004-story.html
To be fair, the Russians were otherwise occupied:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre
Posting on behalf of my wife, Chrome barfed before she could hit send.
Well, op, your wife did exactly what this bord suggests, you two went to therapy, and from her perspective, it didn’t work. She didn’t threaten divorce, something the board says to never ever do, she just told you she wanted one.
You said yourself you were lazy and selfish, nobody wants to be married to that. It can be especially painful to be married to someone who can be all in for the kids, but then expects you to “take yourself to the movie” “get your own dinner” “buy whatever you want for Christmas”.
W
Hatever was or wasn’t going on, your wife decided she didn’t want to live with it. Given that you didn’t seem to learn from therapy or your wife’s unhappiness, why do you care?
Know that if you get a girlfriend, the relationship will look very different. The girlfriend will never say “Sally can’t see the movie on the 18th” because Sally isn’t her kid. She’ll never say “I said no to 5 more minutes of Ipad” because it isn’t her kid.
In other words, all you’ll see is pliant adult who helps you, not a wife and mother.
I told my husband this morning “we are raising young lady here” when he said I was angry. I wasn’t, I simply said that what our kid wanted to do on given day wasn’t going to work.. other days would, but not the day she wanted. It took me an hour to sort out how to explain it to him and to his credit, he “got it”. This won’t happen with a girlfriend who is probably doing the pick me dance.. which may be what you want. Remember, as divorced dad, you get free rein to neglect the women you date. That should work out well for you.
Well, op, your wife did exactly what this bord suggests, you two went to therapy, and from her perspective, it didn’t work. She didn’t threaten divorce, something the board says to never ever do, she just told you she wanted one.
You said yourself you were lazy and selfish, nobody wants to be married to that. It can be especially painful to be married to someone who can be all in for the kids, but then expects you to “take yourself to the movie” “get your own dinner” “buy whatever you want for Christmas”.
W
Hatever was or wasn’t going on, your wife decided she didn’t want to live with it. Given that you didn’t seem to learn from therapy or your wife’s unhappiness, why do you care?
Know that if you get a girlfriend, the relationship will look very different. The girlfriend will never say “Sally can’t see the movie on the 18th” because Sally isn’t her kid. She’ll never say “I said no to 5 more minutes of Ipad” because it isn’t her kid.
In other words, all you’ll see is pliant adult who helps you, not a wife and mother.
I told my husband this morning “we are raising young lady here” when he said I was angry. I wasn’t, I simply said that what our kid wanted to do on given day wasn’t going to work.. other days would, but not the day she wanted. It took me an hour to sort out how to explain it to him and to his credit, he “got it”. This won’t happen with a girlfriend who is probably doing the pick me dance.. which may be what you want. Remember, as divorced dad, you get free rein to neglect the women you date. That should work out well for you.
Anonymous wrote:So paternalistic and condescending of woke whitey telling the browns what to think. Kind of like when WaPo surveyed native Americans twice and surprisingly found that >90% had no issue with the name Redskins but woke whitey knew better than those ignorant savages. The hypocrisy and stupidity is absolutely amazing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Redskins_name_opinion_polls
The WaPo poll did at least seem to try and screen out "American Americans" who had a "Cherokee princess" somewhere in there. On the other hand there was no outside way of verifying who was really "100% Native American."
https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/02/21/a-new-study-contradicts-a-washington-post-poll-about-how-native-americans-view-the-redskins-name/
https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/02/04/native-mascots-survey/
A later poll found there was more concern over the name. Of course, the argument could be made that the Berkeley poll was conducted and asked with the intent of making Native Americans mad.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Someone in San Francisco area who returned from South Africa on Nov. 22. They were vaccinated but not boosted. Mild symptoms, close contacts have tested negative.
All of that is good news.
+1, OP. I think there is media hype over Omicron for ratings. I am not discounting it, but I give it a side eye.
To be fair, Israel, Japan, and other countries are closing their borders. So it's sort of a feedback loop - country reacts, media covers it, panic ensues, more countries react.
If you're serious about stopping variants at the border, I do like the idea of testing ALL visitors to the US (or quarantining them for 5 days). These specific country travel bans are like Swiss cheese and have the perverse effect of discouraging countries - imagine how well we'd be doing if the PRC government was as open about OG COVID as the SA government has been about Omicron.
Yeah, it will blow a giant hole in the tourism industry. So too will an Omicron boom over January/February. Go big or just don't bother people.