1. #25516
    Old school comic book fan WestPhillyPunisher's Avatar
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    News about the CPAC shitshow:



    Conservatives Show Loyalty To Trump At CPAC

    Former CPAC Chair Minces No Words Slamming What The Event, GOP Have Now Become

    CPAC Canceled An Anti-Semite. Here Are The Extremists They Didn’t Cancel.

    CPAC Attendees Boo, Yell ‘Freedom!’ After Being Told To Wear Masks

    Republicans At CPAC Are ‘Horny For Another Insurrection’ In Stinging Supercut

    **********

    3 Percenter Sticker Found On Truck At Capitol Riot Belongs To GOP Rep’s Husband

    Revealed: Meet The Trump Fanatic Who Tasered A Cop At The Capitol Insurrection

    Find them all. Arrest them all. Charge them all. JAIL THEM ALL.

    **********

    U.S. Finally Admits It: Saudi Crown Prince Responsible For Jamal Khashoggi’s Murder

    President Joe Biden published intelligence on the Washington Post journalist that Donald Trump hid for years despite a law requiring its release.

    **********

    It’s Been 1 Year Since Trump Boasted 15 COVID-19 Cases Would Soon Be ‘Close To Zero’

    “That’s a pretty good job we’re doing,” he gloated. Twelve months later, the U.S. coronavirus death toll has passed 510,000. Yeah, that boast hasn't aged at all well. And Trump STILL doesn't give a **** about all the people who died from the virus under his watch.

    **********

    Faith Leaders Denounce The Radicalization Of White Christians In Wake Of Capitol Riot

    Hundreds of Christian leaders have signed a letter rejecting Christian nationalism and conspiracy theories. Too late, folks, you own that ****!
    Last edited by WestPhillyPunisher; 02-27-2021 at 02:45 AM.
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  2. #25517
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    Andrew Yang Helps Photographer Facing Attack on Staten Island Ferry

    A photographer who was shoved by a man who then came at him with a metal pole during a trip on the Staten Island ferry on Friday was able to get out of harm’s way when New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang intervened.

    Spencer Platt, a photographer with Getty Images, said he was on the top deck of the boat heading toward Staten Island around 11 a.m., talking on the phone after taking some photos of Yang, who was headed to campaign events. Platt said when he turned around, the man was “just right in my face, like an inch away.”

    The man pushed him, sending him down onto a bench, and Platt said he saw he was carrying some kind of metal rod.
    “He immediately lifts that up, comes at me and has it raised over me,” he said.

    The photographer got the attention of Yang and his campaign, who were inside, and he said they came out, with Yang in the lead.

    "I realized he was in danger, seemed like he would be struck by the pole imminently so I ran outside and tried to get between the assailant and the photographer," Yang told NBC New York.

    “He came out … and he just kind of yelled, the guy turned around, and that allowed me to just kind of bolt out of there,” Platt said.

    Yang said that the man did have the pole raised when he initially came out, but was seemingly surprised to see the former presidential candidate out there.

    “I think most people would have the same impulse I had - to try and do anything that you can to protect somebody who might be threatened or endangered,” Yang said in a statement. “I got up and tried to intervene as quickly as I could. I’m glad that when he turned he saw me and recognized me, and the situation deescalated quickly.”
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  3. #25518

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    In 2015, in 2016, and in 2017, “Crazy Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of Peter Kinder, a former Lieutenant Governor of Missouri who has the uncomfortable reputation of having held numerous campaign fundraisers at Missouri area Hooters restaurants, and once frequented a strip club enough to get to know a dancer there who would go on to become a Penthouse Pet. Kinder also lied to the public about the Affordable Care Act, telling citizens not to sign up, and during the 2012 elections, he got on social media to claim that United Nations poll watchers were helping President Obama “steal the election”. In the past few years, Kinder has not done much to repair his reputation, either. During the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri back in 2014, Kinder made the level-headed decision to start demonizing the protesters, calling for the arrests of Michael Brown’s father and the Reverend Al Sharpton, and demeaned the citizenry return to “Anglo-American values” (because that doesn’t sound racist at all). Kinder was quoted in an interview with Steve Malzberg on Newsmax that “the protests in Ferguson were based on a lie” and “the Justice Department is more racist than Ferguson”, shortly after the Department of Justice released their own report on the killing of Michael Brown, and blamed all of the fuss on President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, who he said were “obsessed with race”. He defended his remarks later, saying the DoJ was staffed with “Marxists and Black Radicals” and that they were “fanning the flames of racial division”. His bigoted tone had not changed by November 2015, either, when he responded to the terror attacks in Paris that were carried out by jihadists from France and Belgium by asking Governor Jay Nixon to stop accepting Syrian refugees into Missouri, adding that they must be sure “terrorists are not coming to Missouri masquerading as refugees.” Kinder lost in the 2016 GOP Primary to become the next Governor of Missouri and has now faded from relevance.


    It was on this date in both 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled the U.S. House Representative from Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District, Ann Wagner, who after a long career that included working on the 1992 Bush campaign and several years during the second Bush administration as a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, was first elected to the U.S. House back in 2012, when she ran for the seat being vacated by former Congressman Todd Akin, who decided to not for his House seat and instead make his epically disastrous run for the U.S. Senate. Thus far in Wagner’s tenure, she has missed over double the amount of votes of the average member of Congress, at 4.2% of the time, and 30% of them from October through December of 2020. Apparently the fact that she so frequently doesn’t bother to even show up to represent the people of Missouri’s 2nd District (the gerrymandered district covers the wealthy portions of St. Louis in its suburbs) isn’t a deal breaker for those voters, who keep electing her. Although, it’s starting to become less of a lay-up for her to win re-election.,

    Ann Wagner was a bit endangered in 2018, what with her unsteady allegiance to Donald Trump in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape where he boasted of committing sexual assault was released. While at first Rep. Wagner condemned Trump for his remarks, she ended up waffling again and admitting she would vote for Trump anyway prior to the election. She didn’t get a serious primary challenger, but still, in the general election, Ann Wagner was definitely sweating about whether or not Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District’s +8 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index would be enough to protect her from the Blue Wave, what with Democrats having a +8 advantage in polls with generic Democrats versus generic Republicans. She was nervous enough that she actually tried claiming that a campaign mailer Missouri Democrats sent out that criticized her immigration record was “illegal, which isn’t only untrue, it’s also a bizarre attempt at stifling the First Amendment rights of her opponents to speak ill of her.

    Still, even with the fact that she has never hosted a town hall in the six years she had held office… the partisan lean for Missouri’s 2nd ended up being just about enough to allow Wagner to hold on, as she won re-election in November with 51% of the vote. In 2020 with 52% of the vote, her second consecutive election where she barely failed to win even a plurality of the votes, as the suburbs start trending more blue all the time.

    Back in 2015, Wagner became a hyperbolic opponent of Planned Parenthood, when she went to the floor of the House to call for the organization to be defunded based on the fraudulent “sting” videos provided by the anti-abortion group, the Center for Medical Progress. Rep. Wagner bought the lie hook, line, and sinker, ranting that it showed “barbaric murder” and insisting that Planned Parenthood was “selling body parts of unborn babies. That however, as far as extremist lunacy goes, pales in comparison to what might be her lowest moment as a member of Congress in October 2017, when she got on Twitter to try to link Planned Parenthood to, and we’re not kidding… the Church of Satan. Where would she get such an idea? Well, apparently Ann Wagner gets her best information from Breitbart News, who linked two separate stories about the groups individually suing the government over anti-abortion laws as “proof” of their plot. We’ll let Snopes.com cover just how stupid that is, and then have you wonder how much of a moron Ann Wagner would have to be to believe it.

    But that isn’t to say Rep. Wagner is ready to attack all who might wrong the public… when it comes to banks and payday loan lenders, she’d like to allow them to victimize the public as much as possible, as evidenced by her efforts in March of 2017 to gut the protections provided by Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform as well as the budget of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

    Wagner is also a climate change denier, and she may have also eaten her own booger in a live Fox News interview, so there’s that.
    Last edited by worstblogever; 02-27-2021 at 06:08 AM.
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  4. #25519

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    Her recent voting record seems to show she’s being held hostage by the demands of the Q-wing of the Republican Party.



    Ann Wagner remains one of the few Republican women left in Washington, and still one of the worst. We’re hoping the erosion of the GOP’s base in the suburbs is enough to bring an end to her reign of madness after a whole decade in 2022.
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  5. #25520
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    NJ Teen Admits to Coordinating Neo-Nazi Group's Plot to Deface Synagogues Across U.S.

    A New Jersey man admitted Friday to coordinating a neo-Nazi group’s plot to vandalize two Midwestern synagogues and cause other damage across the country.

    Richard Tobin, 19, of Brooklawn, pleaded guilty to conspiracy against rights, according to federal prosecutors in New Jersey. He faces up to 10 years in prison when he’s sentenced June 28.

    Tobin admitted communicating online in September 2019 with other members of The Base, a neo-Nazi group, and directed them to vandalize synagogues in Michigan and Wisconsin. At the time, he told investigators that he had launched “Operation Kristallnacht,” a reference to the deadly pogrom in 1938 when Nazis looted and burned synagogues and Jewish-owned homes and stores in Germany.
    Tobin also told FBI agents that he was “triggered by the state of the country” and recounted a time when he became enraged at seeing large crowds of Black people at a mall in Edison, New Jersey.

    During the brief plea hearing in federal court in Camden, New Jersey, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, Tobin told U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler that he has undergone mental health treatment since his arrest in 2019, which has helped him manage his violent urges.
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  6. #25521
    Ultimate Member Malvolio's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by WestPhillyPunisher View Post
    News about the CPAC shitshow:



    Conservatives Show Loyalty To Trump At CPAC

    Former CPAC Chair Minces No Words Slamming What The Event, GOP Have Now Become

    CPAC Canceled An Anti-Semite. Here Are The Extremists They Didn’t Cancel.

    CPAC Attendees Boo, Yell ‘Freedom!’ After Being Told To Wear Masks

    Republicans At CPAC Are ‘Horny For Another Insurrection’ In Stinging Supercut

    **********

    3 Percenter Sticker Found On Truck At Capitol Riot Belongs To GOP Rep’s Husband

    Revealed: Meet The Trump Fanatic Who Tasered A Cop At The Capitol Insurrection

    Find them all. Arrest them all. Charge them all. JAIL THEM ALL.

    **********

    U.S. Finally Admits It: Saudi Crown Prince Responsible For Jamal Khashoggi’s Murder

    President Joe Biden published intelligence on the Washington Post journalist that Donald Trump hid for years despite a law requiring its release.

    **********

    It’s Been 1 Year Since Trump Boasted 15 COVID-19 Cases Would Soon Be ‘Close To Zero’

    “That’s a pretty good job we’re doing,” he gloated. Twelve months later, the U.S. coronavirus death toll has passed 510,000. Yeah, that boast hasn't aged at all well. And Trump STILL doesn't give a **** about all the people who died from the virus under his watch.

    **********

    Faith Leaders Denounce The Radicalization Of White Christians In Wake Of Capitol Riot

    Hundreds of Christian leaders have signed a letter rejecting Christian nationalism and conspiracy theories. Too late, folks, you own that ****!
    Looking at that statue again, I am now sure of it. Someone is trolling the Republican Party and they are totally falling for it.
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  7. #25522
    Horrific Experiment JCAll's Avatar
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    I just realized the Golden Trump has a fairy godmother wand, and I'm losing my mind.

  8. #25523
    Invincible Member Kirby101's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JCAll View Post
    I just realized the Golden Trump has a fairy godmother wand, and I'm losing my mind.
    And Apollo Creeds boxing shorts. It is just too weird.
    There came a time when the Old Gods died! The Brave died with the Cunning! The Noble perished locked in battle with unleashed Evil! It was the last day for them! An ancient era was passing in fiery holocaust!

  9. #25524
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kirby101 View Post
    And Apollo Creeds boxing shorts. It is just too weird.
    Next year he'll probably have a bastardized Superman cape

  10. #25525
    I am invenitable Jack Dracula's Avatar
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    I've voiced this opinion about the minimum wage in one of the other threads.

    I'm not an economist so I could be completely wrong here, but it seems to me that raising the minimum wage is like trying to spend your way out of debt.
    I absolutely believe that people need to be paid a living wage, but wouldn't it be more economically sustainable to lower the cost of living to increase the value of the wages they're already making?
    Keeping the costs of our goods and services lower means the minimum wage doesn't need to be raised keeping the products produced in the U.S. cheaper increasing our competitive power overseas and more overseas trade means more jobs created and kept here.

    Please point out where my thinking is flawed. I'd rather be proven wrong and learn in the process than go through life believing the wrong ideas.
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  11. #25526
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    Quote Originally Posted by ChadH View Post
    I've voiced this opinion about the minimum wage in one of the other threads.

    I'm not an economist so I could be completely wrong here, but it seems to me that raising the minimum wage is like trying to spend your way out of debt.
    I absolutely believe that people need to be paid a living wage, but wouldn't it be more economically sustainable to lower the cost of living to increase the value of the wages they're already making?
    Keeping the costs of our goods and services lower means the minimum wage doesn't need to be raised making the products produced in the U.S. cheaper increasing our competitive power overseas and more overseas trade means more jobs created and kept here.

    Please point out where my thinking is flawed. I'd rather be proven wrong and learn in the process than go through life believing the wrong ideas.
    Controlling prices is easy...if you have a centrally controlled economy. For those without a commerce shogun, the more effective levers are either mandating more equitable compensation, or incentivizing more equitable compensation.

    Even if you have central controls, there's going to be opportunity costs to the sellers of goods because a black market will appear for anything with any degree of scarcity to it. That will start to imbalance the costs of anything associated with the controlled offering.

    Personally, I like the idea being floated of a progressive tax against companies paying under a livable wage.

  12. #25527
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    I think you're correct it'd be a better fix, but the difference is we could pass a minimum wage increase today if we wanted. It looks like business interests/Republicans have successfully avoided having to do that now, and we'll probably end up with some half measure or be told to wait until after the mid-terms. That said, it's still possible if there's political will. Cutting the costs of housing, food, healthcare, energy, etc. across the board in order to benefit the poor and middle class would take USSR levels of state control that we will almost certainly never have. Even when the right proposes something outrageous like opening up protected areas for drilling and someone saner asks if we can set aside a portion of that to help those in need or even to set it aside for the strategic preserves of the country they balk and insist it has to go on the open market internationally.

    Honestly we probably don't want our government to have that level of control. The greatest thing Trump may have done for the conservative cause is give the left pause in pushing for greater centralized power, given what can obviously happen if the wrong person is in charge.

  13. #25528
    Ultimate Member Mister Mets's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ChadH View Post
    I've voiced this opinion about the minimum wage in one of the other threads.

    I'm not an economist so I could be completely wrong here, but it seems to me that raising the minimum wage is like trying to spend your way out of debt.
    I absolutely believe that people need to be paid a living wage, but wouldn't it be more economically sustainable to lower the cost of living to increase the value of the wages they're already making?
    Keeping the costs of our goods and services lower means the minimum wage doesn't need to be raised keeping the products produced in the U.S. cheaper increasing our competitive power overseas and more overseas trade means more jobs created and kept here.

    Please point out where my thinking is flawed. I'd rather be proven wrong and learn in the process than go through life believing the wrong ideas.
    Many forms of price fixing would be difficult, but there are a few major categories where we can cut costs: rent, higher education and health care.

    These are costs that have been increasing significantly, largely due to regulations.

    A major reason rent is so expensive is that various NIMBY (Not In My BackYard!) laws keep supply low, with onerous approval regulations resulting in delayed constructions as well as restrictions on density and requirements for houses to have a particular level of quality (bans on micro-apartments) making it impossible for ordinary people to afford anything but rent-controlled apartments in high-demand areas. Rent control also comes with some drawbacks, creating incentives for people to stay in high-demand areas that aren't the best fit.

    Part of why the cost of higher education has gone up so much is administrative bloat (students paying extra for all those staffers) as well as requirements on nonessential services that colleges/ courses have to offer.

    With health care, it's impossible for someone to buy a plan that covers only the rare but expensive situations that make health insurance essential rather than everyday stuff. That would probably result in cost improvements for other plans as they would need to compete with the so-called catastrophic care plans. The same applies if someone can sell smaller apartments in San Francisco or create a college where students get the bare minimum. It gives more choices to people struggling financially, and creates incentives to lower the costs for higher-quality services.
    Sincerely,
    Thomas Mets

  14. #25529
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mister Mets View Post
    Part of why the cost of higher education has gone up so much is administrative bloat (students paying extra for all those staffers) as well as requirements on nonessential services that colleges/ courses have to offer.
    In some respects correct, in others, very much not.

    Yes, the increase in higher ed is 100% administrative bloat. The cost of teaching per student has not risen, and the cost of research (easily 1/3 of the mission of all but the pure teaching colleges) has risen, but not at the rate of of overall university cost. Some of the services are nonessential, but many are not (e.g. today's veterans, veterans children, and first generation students often do require additional attention, and those do add costs).

    The real costs come from three sources:
    1. Reduction of public support as a % of higher ed budgets
    2. Abandonment of trade schools
    3. A proliferation and/or growth of colleges following WWII

    The first of those (not so oddly) correlated with the late 1970s resurgence of conservative influence in the wake of the school integration movement and Vietnam protests. The second was a consequence of growing commercial globalization, and an unfortunate consequence of the Civil Rights and Gender Equality movements (people, understandably, wanted their kids to have access to the best opportunities, and not be "stuck" in what was unjustly maligned as a "lesser" blue collar life). The third was powered by a combination of the post-WWII GI Bill, and the abandonment of trade schools as a popular path to success, as well as an effort to make education available to more people.

    Simply put, colleges outran their viable market, and so began competing on something other than their real value proposition (discovering knowledge and improving minds). They began leaning in to experiences of all kinds, including athletics (which rarely pays for itself, not matter what revenues it generates). With diminished public investment, the only way for universities to fund their offerings was public donations of various kinds, and that requires a whole infrastructure of its own, and that really accelerates the bloat you speak of.

    Now, as with any large entity, there's definitely inefficiencies in every university or college. However, the causes are not as unilaterally at the feet of the institutions' mismanagement as your post suggests.

  15. #25530
    Ultimate Member Mister Mets's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DrNewGod View Post
    In some respects correct, in others, very much not.

    Yes, the increase in higher ed is 100% administrative bloat. The cost of teaching per student has not risen, and the cost of research (easily 1/3 of the mission of all but the pure teaching colleges) has risen, but not at the rate of of overall university cost. Some of the services are nonessential, but many are not (e.g. today's veterans, veterans children, and first generation students often do require additional attention, and those do add costs).

    The real costs come from three sources:
    1. Reduction of public support as a % of higher ed budgets
    2. Abandonment of trade schools
    3. A proliferation and/or growth of colleges following WWII

    The first of those (not so oddly) correlated with the late 1970s resurgence of conservative influence in the wake of the school integration movement and Vietnam protests. The second was a consequence of growing commercial globalization, and an unfortunate consequence of the Civil Rights and Gender Equality movements (people, understandably, wanted their kids to have access to the best opportunities, and not be "stuck" in what was unjustly maligned as a "lesser" blue collar life). The third was powered by a combination of the post-WWII GI Bill, and the abandonment of trade schools as a popular path to success, as well as an effort to make education available to more people.

    Simply put, colleges outran their viable market, and so began competing on something other than their real value proposition (discovering knowledge and improving minds). They began leaning in to experiences of all kinds, including athletics (which rarely pays for itself, not matter what revenues it generates). With diminished public investment, the only way for universities to fund their offerings was public donations of various kinds, and that requires a whole infrastructure of its own, and that really accelerates the bloat you speak of.

    Now, as with any large entity, there's definitely inefficiencies in every university or college. However, the causes are not as unilaterally at the feet of the institutions' mismanagement as your post suggests.
    To be clear, I do consider athletics to be one of those nonessential services that raises costs of tuition.

    I certainly agree that there should be more room for trade schools.

    I'm not convinced that it is the responsibility of every university to provide resources for students who need additional attention. The tradeoff is rising costs and student loans. I don't think universities spend money efficiently enough to merit public support. The Bowen effect suggests public support will raise spending but not lower costs, as universities have a tendency to spend as much as they can.

    I wrote about the costs of colleges years ago. The reasons still apply, and the links do include a Washington Monthly article about administrative bloat, and a Washington Post series about rising tuition costs.

    https://community.cbr.com/showthread...l=1#post891561
    Sincerely,
    Thomas Mets

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