Wow. Thats quite surprising to me, that some of the
IMF folks would actually question the Faith.

I mean, thats like some of Saluman’s big Orc-thingies, questioning whether its really a good idea to eat manflesh.

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NERam wrote:

Any idea how many of his big plays were called back for holding, or stupid bonehead plays on special teams? Just curious.

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Some computer genius like X
should do a vid on the big plays Tavon has had called back.

He aint ever gonna be Jerry Rice as a WR, but i do
think he’s more than a ‘gadget’ player. I think this is
the year we find out how good a WR he can be. He doesn’t have
to learn a new system, so he should be able to concentrate
on route-running, and holding onto the ball.

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Ozoneranger wrote:

… the US will adopt the single payer system. It’s inevitable, really. But I don’t think we’re going to like it very much and God help you if you find yourself in a dire medical predicament…there are no “heroic measures” in this system.

——————————–
The Personal: Sounds like you did everything you possibly could to
help your wife, O. It makes me smile to think how
much you care/cared about her.

The Political: As far as the politics goes, I agree a lot of folks wont like single-payer. But a lot of folks dont like the corporate-profit-system either.
Big awkward systems are never fun to deal with, no matter what they are based on. But ask POOR PEOPLE how much they like this corporate system we got now.
Again, the example from wv — in poverty-stricken McDowell County — average lifespan for males is 65. Six hours away, in wealthy Fairfax County Va — ave lifespan 84.

Now… Can you imagine the “health care stories” in McDowell County WV ?
Can you imagine the “health care stories” in Fairfax VA?
Do you think the health-care stories would be different? I do.

Single-payer helps the POOR. Thats why I’m for it. Its not perfect, though.
But there should never be a 20 year difference in lifespans between the rich and poor in one country. That…is…wrong. Just my opinion, of course. One man’s opinion. 🙂

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PA Ram wrote:

I don’t think it’s patient care they’re worried about–medicare works fine. Insurance companies routinely turn down claims and patients don’t get procedures done.

They just happen to be trying to protect their own profits.

—————–

You know, Pa, one of the most dis-spiriting discussions I’ve ever had in my life, happened when i went to a dinner with a friend of mine, about seven years ago or so. My friend’s brother-in-law was in medical school. And this dinner was a get-together of Med-students. (all wealthy, white, privileged young people) — and somehow we got on the topic of single-payer. Every single med-student at the dinner (about eight or ten) was against single-payer — and several of them flat-out said things like “I did not take out all those loans so i could be poor.” It was all about the money. And they were adamant. And angry at the thought of not making a lot of money as doctors. That was their priority. It was painful to listen to. Not a word about poor people or what is happening to the poor. No understanding of what is happening to non-privileged Americans. Sigh. Ignorant, ignorant privileged med-students.

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“Our patients can’t afford care and don’t have access to the care they need, while the system is ever more wasteful, throwing away money on bureaucratic expenses and absurd prices from the drug companies,”

Mackeyser wrote:

… status quo narrative and people think they’re being informed and that they are engaging in the process. So now, they can freely and without guilt discuss openly the murder of children by the US Government abroad or homeless Veterans in the same breath as a school bake sale. They can feel good that they’re talking about it (well, really it’s the meta in that they’re usually talking about talking about it). That’s the gratification part….

=======================

Wonder what the odds are, that Hillary will name a VP candidate
that is far-left? Would she invite Bernie to be VP?
would you vote for her, if she added a Kucinich, or Warren, or Bernie as VP?

Wouldnt it be in her interest to do that? Or would it be in her
interest to add another pro-corporate, DNC-type like herself?

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—
“I hate goddamn fruits and vegetables. And your omega 3’s, and the treadmill, and the cardiogram, and the mammogram, and the pelvic sonogram, and oh my god the-the-the colonoscopy, and with it all the day still comes where they put you in a box, and its on to the next generation of idiots, who’ll also tell you all about life and define for you what’s appropriate. My father committed suicide because the morning newspapers depressed him. And could you blame him? With the horror, and corruption, and ignorance, and poverty, and genocide, and AIDS, and global warming, and terrorism, and-and the family value morons, and the gun morons. “The horror,” Kurtz said at the end of Heart of Darkness, “the horror.” Lucky Kurtz didn’t have the Times delivered in the jungle. Ugh… then he’d see some horror. But what do you do? You read about some massacre in Darfur or some school bus gets blown up, and you go “Oh my God, the horror,” and then you turn the page and finish your eggs from the free range chickens. Because what can you do. It’s overwhelming!”
— Woody Allen

Mackeyser wrote:

FYI, there’s a youtube channel called “liberal redneck”. It’s really something…funny and enlightening, challenging and thought provoking, the author of the channel (or whatever you call the content creator) embraces being a redneck AND being liberal and challenges the notion that one excludes the other.

I think the grad student is dead on about her critique.

The DLC’s embrace of the professional class has only FURTHERED neoliberalism which had been the sole domain of the Republican “trickle down” crowd since Reagan got elected.

With both Clinton’s not just embrace of the professional class, but the embrace of the professional class to the exclusion of the working class, it allowed the DLC to fashion a message that co-opted the Republican financial message with social moderation. Basically, they could be Republicans that weren’t openly racist, antagonistic assholes. They didn’t engage in openly hostile dog whistle politics. They nominally tried to fix social problems, etc. People could get dirty stinking rich AND feel good about helping brown people…over there…somewhere.

It became de rigueur to play politics with social and financial policies without taking into account the consequences.

I came up with a quote for that (I do have the time for such contemplations…)

Politics is pornography for polite society. It is the observation, embrace, acceptance and engagement in social intercourse and/or engagement of governmental processes regarding the non-consensual violation of the people for the express purpose of self-gratification.”
William Keyser

When policy makers engage in politics, we truly see obscenity displayed before the masses.

No three way or German fetish was more obscene than a white man in bad suit giving an uninspired speech enumerating badly articulated and poorly thought out reasons as to why a program that actually helps people in need should be cut, leading to a direct increase in children going hungry or a direct increase in women being exposed to harm or a direct increase in veterans going homeless or direct increase in Active Duty Service Members’ deployment length…

The DLC Dems who made the “compromise” seem fucking incredulous that young people see the hypocrisy and obscenity of what they’re continuing to propose.

At least the Republicans are only proposing obscenity. And even if the obscenity is worse, for some, that’s the difference. There’s such an aversion to hypocrisy that they’d rather choose extra obscenity than be part of any hypocrisy.

Worse, the Clinton campaign is in full attack mode online for anyone who has issues with her obscene policies.

In word and deed, it’s tribal, traditional “party first” politics where policies are secondary (if they rank that high). So, when someone points out to the Clinton Campaign that their policies are harmful, truly harmful…the reaction is visceral, defensive and feral. And it’s not on policy. They don’t defend the policy. It’s all about fearmongering about a Trump Presidency and about how everyone needs to get in line.

Which is kind of funny because the criticism all along is that DLC Dems are Republican lite and Bill Clinton’s own quote is “Democrats want to fall in love. Republicans want to fall in line.” The Clinton Campaign is desperately making the argument that Dems need to fall in line and are making NO arguments about falling in love. Compounding that dilemma for them is that Bernie Sanders has said that he’ll be “against Trump”, but if Clinton wants to WIN his supporters, she’ll have to earn them herself using…POLICY. Which has them freaking out because all along the Clinton and surrogates online have promoted the idea that “to the victor go the spoils”. Actually, they’ve used those exact words so often that it looks coordinated as if through Correct the Record as if it’s a building meme with Clinton supporters.

This whole thing is looking to become a steaming pile of clusterfuck and anyone’s who’s either in the bottom 80%, of color or disadvantaged or serves their country is going to get completely shit on no matter who gets in. The only difference will be where the shit meteor hits.

So, in that vein, I can see why some folks would want to be further away from ground zero from the massive shit meteor strike, but it’s still going to be catastrophic for nearly everyone…

Saying Hillary Clinton is the “lesser of two evils” is overstating it. Different evil, maybe. Lesser? Tell that to the families who lose loved ones in the military due to her sending troops to Libya or back to Iraq or staying in Afghanistan or who continue to lose jobs due to manufacturing jobs going overseas. Lesser of two evils is a false narrative. In order to believe that you have to diminish the power of flag draped coffins and why we have them.

————–
I think i agree with all that Mack-a-doo.

Cept for the quote, which was over my head or somethin.

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“For us to maintain our way of living, we must tell lies to each other and especially to ourselves. The lies are necessary because, without them, many deplorable acts would become impossibilities.” — Derrick Jensen

canadaram wrote:

My great grandma considered herself a Red Guard Finn. She used to take part in secret meetings and sorts of shenanigans that the Canadian government used to fear back in the day.

http://warfarehistorian.blogspot.ca/2014/02/finlands-civil-war-1918-red-white-suomi.html

———————————————–
Interesting link about the Finnish Civil War and “Kinship Wars”. I did not expect to be learning about such things today.

The Internet. Ya just never know.

That finland-war-thingy seemed quite complicated. Kinda like the spanish civil war.

…i couldn’t find anything on the symbols or insignias of Finland’s Red guard. I’m always curious about flags, symbols, etc.

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“….Finland’s Civil War left an indelible mark on the young nation’s psyche especially for such a small country. 35,000 Finns would perish in the civil war and the Kinship Wars, around 1 percent of the total population of the country at that time. Less than half of this number would be killed in engagements with the enemy, many more would perish in executions, persecutions, disease, or by famine throughout the conflict.

An independent Finland would remain a divided society long after the painful memories of the civil war had faded. Communist constituents gained seats in the republican government for many years thereafter and enjoyed a large and loyal following amongst the industrial workers and laborers of Finland until well into the 1980’s. White Guard and Jäger veterans of the civil war and the Heimosodat dominated army leadership until the 1960’s and their White political representatives would dominate Finland’s upper echelon of politics for many years after. The last White Guard President of Finland was Urho K. Kekkonen (1900-1986) who served as the 8th president of the republic from 1956-1982….

waterfield wrote:

I get how you feel about Clinton or for that matter anyone out there that might be considered a moderate democrat. But I really posted the article because of my concerns over a Trump presidency. Of course the Clinton haters can and will dodge that issue and use it as a vehicle to attack Clinton. As I said earlier the attack on middle of the road democrats are -on this board- far more intense than the spectrum of Trump becoming President. That scenario is far scarier to me than Clinton ever could be. Of course there are those who say its hopeless, the system is rigged. Even the opening sentence in your post is “were out of time on climate change”. Well I’m not as cynical as you and I don’t believe we are “out of time”. The part that is given is that climate change is here to stay. But we can do things to not further escalate it at the pace we have been going. A Trump presidency may well further the escalation at an even faster pace. But maybe climate change and the continued pouring of fossil fuels into our atmosphere ain’t all that important to you. That seems to be the case when you casually state its all over and “were out of time”.

The one thing I notice about my “moderate” republican and democrat friends is that they are not susceptible to “group think”. They are mostly independent thinkers who believe in some policies advanced by republicans and some by democrats. And they even disagree among themselves on issues. However my far right -and I mean far -as in tea party-relatives (wife’ side) in Arizona and Colorado are all on the exact same page on every single issue. I sense the same with the progressive left.

————————–

So, this kind of thing is ok with you?

“Big oil companies like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips have given millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation, as have Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich nations in the Middle East. Thursday brought the latest exposé on this issue from the International Business Times, which reports on donations from Pacific Rubiales, a Canadian oil company accused of human rights violations in Colombia. Pacific Rubiales’ founder, Frank Giustra, now sits on the Clinton Foundation’s board. IBT reports, “After millions of dollars were pledged by the oil company to the Clinton Foundation — supplemented by millions more from Giustra himself — Secretary Clinton abruptly changed her position on the controversial U.S.-Colombia trade pact. Having opposed the deal as a bad one for labor rights back when she was a presidential candidate in 2008, she now promoted it, calling it ‘strongly in the interests of both Colombia and the United States.’” A cynic would say oil companies are buying influence with the Clintons without being subject to campaign finance laws. A Clinton defender would point out that the foundation gives away this money, it isn’t going into Hillary Clinton’s pocket or her campaign account.”
8 things you need to know about Hillary Clinton and climate change

Ozoneranger wrote:

Hi, Billy. How you doing? And how’s the island doing?

Well, the old gang is all here, I suppose. Now all we need is GRITS to post regularly…you know, that guy is still believing the Rams are going back to LA. Crazy fucker…

Oh, wait…

———————

The Rams will never go back to LA. I’m tellin ya, football failed there.
The Rams are in St.Louis to stay, and all the LA talk is just smoke and mirrors.

Kronky is FROM Missouri, for goodness-sakes. He’s NAMED after Stan the Man.

This is just a no-brainer.

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Look, as the board socialist-anarchist-cake-examiner,
It is my job to make sure Pa-Ram cuts fair-and-equal pieces
for all of us. I have measured all the pieces of CAKE so far,
and it appears that Pa-Ram has given himself the biggest piece of Cake.
In fact PA-Ram’s piece of cake is 90 percent of the entire cake.
Then the rest of us have pieces that amount to less than One percent of the cake.

I call for a Cake-Revolution. This kind of cake-a-tocracy cannot be allowed
to stand. I call for a Redistribution of the Cake.

I mean, does PA really think we will fall for his “well if I get 90 percent of the cake, that means many many crumbs will fall to the rest of you” routine?

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PA Ram wrote:

2nd berman vid

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Geezus. The first video gets a pass from me. His meltdown was probly justified, but that second one was bad.

Its almost like he’s not the Hero i had always imagined. Ya know.

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