2024 ELECTION THREAD
The next presidential race will be here soon! Please see current Bovada odds. Thoughts?
Affirmative action is racism, and unconstitutional, according to the law as interpreted currently by the judiciary in the USA. It's not "conservatives", it's the law.
I need to give this more treatment than the pithy response I posted. I too am ideologically opposed to affirmative action. In fact when I was younger I spoke much the same as you, although with a different ideological baseline, with absolutes like "that is illegal" or "that is objectively unfair". What I learned as I grew older is that the world doesn't work in absolutes. I also learned that the subversive influence of money in politics makes it impossible to orient oneself around the rules of the game when the rules themselves are controlled by the game. In short, I started to let wisdom guide my thinking rather than repeating the last thing I learned from a book or some influential ideologue. You're running around these forums parroting what you think is righteous but you really don't have a clue. You're the 18 year old version of myself had I never grown up.
I've noticed many people that grow up on the threshold of middle/high class will downplay how well they had it, especially in these times. Both of Harris' parents were insanely successful and I doubt that she wanted for anything growing up. She's been a corrupt vessel of the government her entire life. She is not someone that people lacking generational wealth can relate to. Meanwhile, you have people regurgitating these standard political
I wouldn't say that growing up as the daughter of a university professor and a lab researcher qualifies as growing up in the midst of "generational wealth."
I've noticed many people that grow up on the threshold of middle/high class will downplay how well they had it, especially in these times. Both of Harris' parents were insanely successful and I doubt that she wanted for anything growing up. She's been a corrupt vessel of the government her entire life. She is not someone that people lacking generational wealth can relate to. Meanwhile, you have people regurgitating these standard political
So being successful and raising a child in comfort is bad thing now?
Donald Trump knew exactly what he was doing in Michigan
In the 1970s and ’80s, at the peak of the city’s links to the
white supremacist movement, Robert Miles, the grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan,
had a Howell mailing address and was known to hold rallies on a nearby farm property.
Black residents of nearby Detroit knew full well not to set foot in the town of Howell.
a small group of masked white supremacists
marched through downtown Howell chanting “Heil Hitler.”
Later that day, another demonstration was held on a highway overpass,
featuring a swastika flag and people chanting, “We love Hitler. We love Trump.”
They chanted, “We love Hitler. We love Trump.” Trump hasn’t condemned them.
I need to give this more treatment than the pithy response I posted. I too am ideologically opposed to affirmative action. In fact when I was younger I spoke much the same as you, although with a different ideological baseline, with absolutes like "that is illegal" or "that is objectively unfair". What I learned as I grew older is that the world doesn't work in absolutes. I also learned that the subversive influence of money in politics mak
Wait a sec, Michelle claim was comparing a *now unconstitutional, and always controversial* STATE practice, with a *almost universally recognized as moral, and perfectly legal* PRIVATE event called "inheritance" ok?
Money influence in politics and whatnot had nothing to do with the claim. She simply claimed people who inherited money have a easier life and can "fall forward" which means even if they make mistakes they can go on easily, they have extra help.
It's true that happens, that rich people have an easier life, but they do because they either made or inherited the money, which has nothing to do with receiving illegal help from the state.
At 41 i understood a lot of things better, including the fact that making money even if you come from money is harder than i assumed (seeing a ton of friends from money failing miserably) so if anything i increased my propensity to think that people with money deserve it, compared to 20 years ago.
I wouldn't say that growing up as the daughter of a university professor and a lab researcher qualifies as growing up in the midst of "generational wealth."
We don't have much data but, presumably, shouldn't Harris father come from decent money just because he was able to study in London and then at Berkley being Jamaican? how does a 20 y old Jamaican in 1958 manage to get to study in London without very significant for the time (ie top5% at the very least in Jamaica) family money? maybe there were free programs or something i am not aware about
back in my 20s when i was still a smoker i was standing on an empty outdoor train platform in nj waiting for the train to take me into nyc
i was the only person there
literally just a concrete platform next to the tracks - no structure, nothing, just a trash can, a bench, and a ticket vending machine and not a single person in sight
so i'm standing there smoking and waiting for the train, i see one coming and walk over to the trash can and put it out and toss it in
train pulls up but the conductor only stopped to yell at me for smoking at a "train station" i'm a bit flabbergasted - say i had no idea, i thought we were outdoors and didn't realize you couldn't
he then refused to let me board the train and said i'd need to take the next - i tried pleading with him that i honestly had no idea about the rule but he kept telling me that i was lucky he didn't call the police on me
so i had to stand and wait until the next train, which as you can probably guess by the lack of people at this one meant it wouldn't be for another hour or so because it was during off peak times
was absolutely livid about that
yes, smoking is disgusting
yes, smoking causes massive public health problems
but we take it way too far - like how in most cities you can't smoke within a certain amount of feet of a building entrance, which means there's literally nowhere you can legally smoke
all of this is new too, in my lifetime you could smoke on planes, distinctly recall the smoking/non smoking schtick whenever we went to a restaurant, being able to smoke in bars, etc and now you can't even smoke outside the door of thoses places
just wild how we did some nice common sense things like no smoking on planes and restaurants and made it to where you can't smoke on a concrete slab outdoors when nobody is around you
meanwhile, obesity, which causes far more harm and doesn't even have a specific tax which pays for some of it is all about body positivity
but we take it way too far - like how in most cities you can't smoke within a certain amount of feet of a building entrance,
Take a few steps from the door so the smoke doesn't come into the bldg.
Also don't take your last big hit and walk back in the bldg before exhaling.
Not too difficult to be just a little considerate of others.
One of the best lines from tonight's DNC speeches is when Michelle Obama said this about Harris:
"She understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward. We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth."
Yeah it’s pretty crazy to go through the past republican nominees:
Trump: inherited 9 or 10 figs
Romney : Dad was governor
McCain: Navy destroyer named after his grandfather and dad.
W Bush: lol
You have to go back to Dole to get a non affirmative action candidate.
back in my 20s when i was still a smoker i was standing on an empty outdoor train platform in nj waiting for the train to take me into nyc
i was the only person there
literally just a concrete platform next to the tracks - no structure, nothing, just a trash can, a bench, and a ticket vending machine and not a single person in sight
so i'm standing there smoking and waiting for the train, i see one coming and walk over to the trash can and p
I took a train this summer in italy and every stop i went to the little stairs to vape and that was it. People working on the train did the same, as well as others on the train (to vape or smoke).
Once in the 6 occasion a karen told me to actually step out, staying on the stairs while puffing toward the exterior wasn't enough. That was the extent of the rule enforcement. Ofc the next time karen wasn't there and i was back on the stairs (too hot outside, train had AC).
That's just an example but it matters for freedom.
Other examples can be mask mandates, you can imagine how much they were enforced in Italy for adults in the streets or in private places, imagine putting the mask on when you stand up from the table at the restaurant to pay and stuff like that. Only a drone would comply with that nonsense, and most italians aren't drones.
Btw i strongly disagree that smoking causes "massive public health problems". Health is a private matter, people who smoke have worse health, that's it. You can't aggregate health and claim it's public, same as if you take 100 people private assets and sum them togheter they don't become "public assets". They are private assets.
The idea that your own personal health is "public health" is horrific, collectivist, and false. "public health" can exist as a concept if we mean "water being contaminated can cause random people problems" and approach that as a "public" problem, but not the reserve, individual private actions that only harm the person doing those actions never become "public"
I finally found the reason why not having to pay taxes on tips won't matter for a lot of people.
'The problem, economists say, is “no tax on tips,” as Trump dubbed it, would probably not help many of the food servers that voters think of when they hear the idea.
“I don’t think it will change things in any meaningful way, in large part because many of the people who get tips don’t pay taxes. They don’t make enough money to pay [income] taxes,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody’s Analytics, an economic research and financial modeling organization.'
My guess is that even for those that do have to pay taxes it would save mostly just 10% of the tips.
Yeah it’s pretty crazy to go through the past republican nominees:
Trump: inherited 9 or 10 figs
Romney : Dad was governor
McCain: Navy destroyer named after his grandfather and dad.
W Bush: lol
You have to go back to Dole to get a non affirmative action candidate.
Seems the move for Republicans is to be rich and get elected.
The move for Dems is to be poor, grift the system as President, and then become rich.
I finally found the reason why not having to pay taxes on tips won't matter for a lot of people.
'The problem, economists say, is “no tax on tips,” as Trump dubbed it, would probably not help many of the food servers that voters think of when they hear the idea.
“I don’t think it will change things in any meaningful way, in large part because many of the people who get tips don’t pay taxes. They don’t make enough money to pay [income] taxes
I tried to explain why even if they are evading taxes right now for a decent amount, this is false.
1) more and more tips are paid by credit cards, that's far harder to avoid taxes on. The restaurant will need to wire you your part and you have a transaction in your favor, from your employer, with traceability.
2) If you can declare all of them without paying taxes on them, YOU CAN AFFORD CREDIT, which you can't with the base salary. You can get a mortgage, a car loan, and so on. Huge difference.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/articl...
Vladimir Putin manipulated Donald Trump’s ‘ego and insecurities’, book says
Number of people shocked by this: 0
https://www.theguardian.com/books/articl...
Vladimir Putin manipulated Donald Trump’s ‘ego and insecurities’, book says
Number of people shocked by this: 0
I'm really surprised the dems aren't pushing the "look, this is what people who actually worked with/for him last time are saying about him" line a lot harder. Should be plastering those quotes on billboards IMO.
I'm really surprised the dems aren't pushing the "look, this is what people who actually worked with/for him last time are saying about him" line a lot harder. Should be plastering those quotes on billboards IMO.
They can't, Harris has one of the highest ever turnout rates among people who worked for her, they risk insane backfiring.
92% turnover in her VP office
They can't, Harris has one of the highest ever turnout rates among people who worked for her, they risk insane backfiring.
92% turnover in her VP office
Do people who worked for Harris say terrible things about her?
There was a whole bit on colbert or daily show (both?) about things Trumps former cabinet said about him.
I think pretty much everyone knows who Trump is at this point. I don't think anything like that is a surprise or moves the needle
