Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
ZooeyModeratorI really like John Oliver.
Was disappointed that he really rolled over as a corporate sellout comedian when it came to discussing third party candidates. That was disappointing, but over all, he’s been really funny.
Haven’t watched the last episode cuz it’s a family thing and our family struggles with the schedule boss
—————-
I just haven’t felt the same about him since he attacked Jill.
w
vMe neither. But he’s still funny, and this was a good bit.
ZooeyModeratorYeah, in the John Oliver piece I posted, the CNN guy (Zucker?) was saying that the problem was that they gave a bit too much attention to Trump, letting his entire speeches run start to finish, covering all his rallies – you know – the free publicity angle.
And I’m thinking…that’s your angle? You gave him too much coverage? You exposed him so much that the rabble voted for him, so the lesson you learned is don’t give the rabble so much red meat? THAT’S THE LESSON YOU LEARNED?!?!?
Fer shitssake.
How about you do your fucking job and run stories on the issues. The causes and consequences of policies, and where the candidates stand. How about THAT lesson?
Nope.
Next time a populist runs for office, against against an inside-the-beltway sanctioned asshole, we will just freeze him out. That is CNN’s response. CNN. The one the right thinks of as the Communist News Network.
ZooeyModeratorI really like John Oliver.
Was disappointed that he really rolled over as a corporate sellout comedian when it came to discussing third party candidates. That was disappointing, but over all, he’s been really funny.
Haven’t watched the last episode cuz it’s a family thing and our family struggles with the schedule boss
Yup. Feel the same.
You know…when comedians are the only ones in the media who give voice to our perspective, it stings when they sell out.
ZooeyModeratorChomsky: It has always been understood…that when the voice of the people is heard, you’re in trouble because they are always going to make the wrong decisions. The stupid and ignorant masses, as they are called, are going to make the wrong decisions. So therefore what we have to have, what Walter Lippman called back in 1920 or so, is the manufacture of consent. We have to insure that actual decision-making, actual power, is in the hands of what he called the specialized class, us smart guys, you know, who are going to make the right decisions. And we’ve got to keep the general population marginalized because they are always going to make mistakes.
Moyers: Marginalizing meaning…?
Chomsky: Reduce them to apathy and obedience. Allow them to participate in the political system, but as consumers, not as true participants. That is…allow them a method for ratifying decisions made by others, but eliminate the methods by which they might first inform themselves, second to organize, and third…act.
And that is exactly where we are. The DNC is a perfect example of this… “Here…you have a choice: ratify Clinton, and then we will see you in a couple of years.”
Eliminate the methods by which they might first inform themselves.
This is why net neutrality is such a big issue. Mainstream media is already owned completely by the plutocrats, and mostly serves as the circus aspect of “bread and circuses,” and what “information” it presents is carefully selected and packaged to keep everybody concerned with trivia, and if not apathetic about politics, operating completely within the frames of debate they establish. And they will never give up on trying to take over the net.
second to organize
They have been actively undermining unions since Reagan, and now are pushing “right to work.”
and third…act
Any actions are ridiculed relentlessly. Black Lives Matters. Trump supporters. Anti-Trump rallies. Occupy Wall Street. Ignored if possible, ridiculed if not possible. Turn people against each other along partisan lines.
ZooeyModeratorWhat the hell? Suddenly, people are starting to make sense on this issue. Out of nowhere. Nine weeks of armchair analysis filtered through beer goggles, and now people are saying sensible things. What is the world coming to?
Loved Robinson’s article.
I like Myles Simmons. We have a good one there. I have seen only a few videos that he does with the former cheerleader whose name I’ve forgotten, but I like both of them. They know what they are talking about. Refreshing.
ZooeyModeratorI suppose it doesnt really matter why she lost — what matters is who is going to win the meme-battle among the folks trying to tell the STORY of why she lost. I mean what matters NOW is just what STORY the public is going to BELIEVE about why she lost. Because the DNC is going to tell ‘one’ story (she lost because of the Russians, Cheating, Bernie, Dum-people, etc) And the progressives are going to tell ‘another’ story — she lost because of her neoliberal fuck-the-poor policies and because she’s totally unethical and a lying weasel.
If the DNC story wins the day, the Dems will continue to be the disgusting creepshow they are now.
If the Progressive story wins the day, the Dems have a chance at cleaning up their act.w
vThat. Right there.
ZooeyModeratorFace it. George W. Bush was the worst president we’ve ever seen. Not close, imo.
There was no “awakening” and swing to the left. The divisions, the ignorance, the total misunderstanding of our situation is so vast…people can’t awaken to that!
————–
All true…but there was no Bernie Sanders back in the GW days. The fact that Bernie did as well as he did, ‘may’ indicate the landscape is not as gloomy as we once thought. Maybe.Itz all i got. Hope in the dark.
w
vOkay, but it won’t be an “awakening.” It will be reactionary. Not fundamentally long-lasting. Well, what do I know? I am just skeptical of an “awakening.” People have talking about “awakenings” since the 60s, and there ain’t been one.
November 16, 2016 at 8:08 pm in reply to: informal poll #2 … what do you expect of Goff this game? (Miami) #58648ZooeyModeratorHe’ll make some great throws.
He’ll also fumble at least one snap.
Step on the center or guard’s foot, at least once, and fall down.
Scramble early and often.
Throw at least 2 picks. Hopefully no pick 6s.
Look confused.
Have a couple of delay of game penalties.
And have 1 sack/fumble.
Overall, he’ll have some good plays and some ugly plays. Hopefully, the ugly plays don’t lose the game.
I like this list, and will add that Goff sticks his hands up the butt of one of the guards once.
ZooeyModeratorGoff’s Hall of Fame career begins Sunday.
Rams explode, and win 16 – 13.
ZooeyModeratorYeah, I was batting around Zizek’s theory several months ago. Not only do I think the damage Trump will do will be significant and long lasting to the point of making a swing to the left too little, too late, I also think it’s naive.
Face it. George W. Bush was the worst president we’ve ever seen. Not close, imo.
There was no “awakening” and swing to the left. The divisions, the ignorance, the total misunderstanding of our situation is so vast…people can’t awaken to that!
It is like Mack was saying in another thread…most people just root for a Team. It’s the Dems or the Reps. But they don’t understand football, really. And just because your team has an extremely crappy coach and general manager doesn’t mean fans will suddenly “awaken” and understand the differences between the WCO and Air Coryell and the Spread and the 46 and Cover 2 and Cover 3 and whatever.
If anything, the history of America teaches us that the next candidate (in copy cat form, like EVERYTHING else that is ever popular in America, from candy bars to movies, to genres of TV shows) will try to say crazy ass shit to fire people up. That is more likely than an “awakening.”
Since Ronald Reagan, we have been in a whirlpool to the bottom, and the vortex gains speed with each election.
ZooeyModeratorSteve Bannon actively sought to be make Breitbart the platform of the alt-right, the white nationalist movement.
He’s the antithesis of William F Buckley who used his intellect to drive back the Birchers and make the case successfully that anti-semitism had no place in the Republican party nor American discourse.
Why do we call them the alt-right? They’re nazis. We can call them nazis. It’s okay. Nazis are really hard to offend. I guess a different term will help historians keep their eras straight, and avoid confusion.
William F. Buckley. I used to hate that guy. He used to be the worst of the Republican party. Right now, I can’t think of a single Republican I would prefer to William F. Buckley.
This country has tacked so far to the right that it is arguable we have a fascist government starting in January. Heck, it’s arguable it became fascist long ago. I will have to pull out my handy Cheat Sheet on the 14 characteristics of fascism, if I can find it.
But to think…William F. Buckley seems reasonable by today’s standards.
OMG.
ZooeyModeratorOh, and if these assholes actually pass a Muslim registry, I think we should ALL register and render it moot.
There’s a big movement for that. If there’s a Muslim registry, non-Muslims should register. Choke the machine.
There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.
ZooeyModeratorYeah, i agree.
But will the Dem-Machine EVER allow a true progressive to be at the head of the Ticket?
Whens the last time that happened? 1972? McGovern?
w
vLet’s see who emerges as DNC chair.
ZooeyModeratorI have waited a week to see what Taibbi would say.
And I don’t know what that was.
Kind of like watching somebody scratch his head, and wonder. And both take credit for seeing things, and take blame for not seeing things. And leaving us without a handle.
Okay.
Yeah–what I got out of it is that no one saw this coming in any real way and now that it has–they are all shocked. To his credit, Taibbi is a very good journalist who does a great job of covering subjects. I think he’s genuinely stunned at how much he and others missed here. It’s almost a self- autopsy of the whole thing. But what he doesn’t discuss is the role the media played in building Trump. They fed off Trump this year, for ratings, for sales articles, etc. Trump meant profit. That’s a subject that interests me that I hope he writes about some day.
I have faith in Taibbi, even though that wasn’t a very good article.
But he will have a perspective on it later that will add dimension, I think.
He is still processing, and the deadline got there before he finished thinking. That’s okay.
I dunno.
To me, Trump tapped into something very real. Both he and Bernie tapped into the sense of disenfranchisement that many working Americans feel. Bernie was more intellectual about it, whereas Trump was more emotional about it. They were both describing the same problem, but from different angles.
And Bernie got muscled out of the picture. So there was only Trump’s appeal left to stand against Hillary’s algorithmic posturing that addressed sound bite issues instead of what many Americans see and feel is wrong.
And, yeah, he’s disgusting personally in many ways, and unreliable, and contradictory, and just plain dicktory. But as erratic as he is, he at least spoke to something closer to the truth than Hillary did. Hillary in her shitty pantsuits, trying to crack prepared “zingers.” In the end, she got more votes, but in the wrong places. She lost in what should have been Democrat heartland. But her husband sold those people out, and she never recognized it, or admitted it if she did.
ZooeyModeratorAs I recall every time we have seen Fisher make a qb change, he said just after the benched qb’s last game “we’re not changing qbs.”
Yeah, on the radio today a couple of guys were talking and said that Fisher said Keenum was the guy still on Monday, but on Tuesday morning, he sudden tells Keenum and Goff that it’s Goff, so Stan or Les must’ve got to him, or job pressure, or something.
Noooo.
Fisher says whatever he has to say to the press, and runs his business indoors. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn later that this date was targeted during the bye week. But you don’t say anything to Keenum, and you don’t say anything to Goff, and you certainly don’t say anything to the press until you’ve told both Keenum and Goff. That’s just basic. And you don’t tell Keenum and Goff until the beginning of the work week. Any other course would be foolish, imo.
ZooeyModeratorI have waited a week to see what Taibbi would say.
And I don’t know what that was.
Kind of like watching somebody scratch his head, and wonder. And both take credit for seeing things, and take blame for not seeing things. And leaving us without a handle.
Okay.
November 15, 2016 at 11:02 pm in reply to: Robert Reich: The Democratic Party Needs To Clean House #58503ZooeyModeratorThose are the people making the videos.
And the shock value of those videos is fantastic, I imagine. (I haven’t watched a single one, of anything, ever).
Nobody wants that.
They are about as relevant as the people who carry guts around in Times Square yelling about baby seals.
So they aren’t interested in a peaceful solution. Neither is PETA.
If we were to address the problems of the vast majority of people who mostly just want to be left alone, in peace, the support for ISIS will plummet.
But I think we agree they also ought to go get the bastards at the top. I am all for the policing aspect of this. Get the key people. But if you can’t somehow restore hope for the nations of Syria, and Libya, and Iraq somehow, new leaders will take their place. And you just can’t kill everybody.
ZooeyModeratorI suddenly cannot wait for this game. Against. Somebody. Miami, yeah.
ZooeyModeratorThere are a lot of theories out there, but the one that makes the most sense to me is the one Fisher has been saying publicly, more or less. He wanted Goff to be ready. He wasn’t ready.
And, sure, he told everyone Sunday and Monday there was no change, but any coach worth a nickle would say that. He wanted to talk to Keenum privately first, and Goff. Only an asshole would say to the media that he was switching QBs before he talked to the QBs. I wouldn’t be surprised if they thought Goff was ready before NY, and decided it was better to start him at home, and just waited for this moment. This idea that Stan or the fans or Les “got” to him, or he panicked and reversed course, or whatever, just is ridiculous. I think. This guy has coached for over two decades, and played in the spotlight since he was a kid. He knows the difference between the locker room and the media. I just do not buy any of these conspiracy theories at all.
Fisher is starting Goff next week for one reason: he thinks Goff is ready to start.
The rest of the chatter is manure.
IMO.
November 15, 2016 at 9:52 pm in reply to: Robert Reich: The Democratic Party Needs To Clean House #58492ZooeyModeratorYeah, I know Bin Laden’s reasoning. But we were cool when we armed Mujahideen groups to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. So we’re only evil when we’re not serving their interests.
Which serves my point. It isn’t religion we are fighting. Our struggle is only a “holy war” in the press. In real life, it is political. Religion has little to do with it. We get along with Muslims just fine when our political interests align, and butt heads when they don’t. Go figure. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Turkey, Indonesia…they all do what we want, and we do what they want. No religious conflict there… Somehow “religious” conflict only happens with Muslim nations we have conflicting political interests with.
3. US support of Israel and its illegal occupation and suppression in Palestinian areas.
Ironic. Non-support of Israel by the United States would likely lead to an escalation of settlement building in the region and over the green line. We’re actually keeping them in check with our diplomatic influence and military aid.
That could be. I don’t know. But at the same time, our financial and military subsidization of them allows them to continue doing it. We have Israel by the balls, but we never squeeze them to encourage a two state solution, or any other solution.
November 15, 2016 at 9:14 pm in reply to: Robert Reich: The Democratic Party Needs To Clean House #58485ZooeyModeratorAnd I will just throw in…another way to fend them off is to stop abusing them with our foreign policies. Ya know. Invading Iraq was not really necessary.
True, but their hatred of Christianity and Zionism, predates the Iraq war. They tried to bring down the WTT during the Clinton Administration, too, as you’re fully aware. But that aside, and as I’m also sure you’re fully aware, global-jihadism is a goal resulting from a distortion of their religion and a literal interpretation of the Qur’an. They take the worst parts of the Qur’an and distort them to interpret anyone who doesn’t worship Allah should be murdered – in a heinous manner. It would be like Christian fundamentalists using the Old Testament as their guiding principles (you know, like they used to).
I agree with you that we should stop meddling in their business, but we’re way beyond diplomacy, and it’s far too late to remove ourselves from involvement. This is a global movement that targets multiple Nations, and with one objective. A Caliphate. Without delving too far into our ‘true’ objective of installing democracy in the middle east, it would be negligent to leave them alone now. Allowing that perversion of a religion to metastasize will further reap consequences we can ill afford.
Do you know what bin Laden said his reasons were?
1. US troops stationed in the Holy Land (i.e. Saudi Arabia)
2. US support for dictatorships (i.e. Saudi Arabia)
3. US support of Israel and its illegal occupation and suppression in Palestinian areas.That’s it.
No mention of Allah’s command to eradicate infidels.
It is POLITICS, not religion, that motivates ISIS. Yes, some people are easily co-opted into the movement on the basis of their religious beliefs, but most of them are motivated by politics.
I mean…Sweden and Switzerland and Portugal are largely Christian. But they aren’t attacking them. They are attacking countries that have tentacles reaching into their lives right now.
The Caliphate rhetoric isn’t a thing. The vast majority of Muslims are not on board with that, let alone anybody else.
There are 1.2 billion Muslims today. 0.00008% of them are in ISIS (100,000).
ZooeyModerator————-
True, zooey.But i still am skeptical about the breezy view that Sanders “would have won”. Maybe.
But i dunno. America does not seem like a nation that would elect a socialist to me.Granted, Bernie ran as an FDR progressive.
I dunno. I think it woulda been REAL close.
w
vHe woulda won by at least a touchdown.
How come you is so poor when you is an attorney? I thought you guys all wore Armani and drove BMWs.
ZooeyModeratorI don’t know the answers to any of those questions.
I do know that dozens of countries are doing it successfully.
Let’s go there and ask those questions.
ZooeyModeratorOK…looks like we’re gonna find out. Doesn’t matter to me anyway cause I’m more interested to see if he can help the team.
Don’t argue with me, you Tavon sniffer.
ZooeyModeratorYou can’t help but use electricity metaphors, can ya? Gives you away every time.
Now’s the time to start Goff if you think there’s a chance he could turn things around because they are only a game out of the last wildcard spot.
I don’t for a second think the Rams are legitimate playoff contenders and Jeff Fisher probably doesn’t either. They certainly aren’t with Keenum at QB. But Gurley showed some life against the Jets so if you want to find out if there is a playoff run in this team now’s the time to make the switch.
The Rams defense is good. The Rams are 2-1 when they have scored fewer than 10 points. The rest of the league is 0-14-2 when scoring less than 10.
If the Rams can increase their scoring by 5 points a game, they can make the playoffs.
And lose.
But they could make it.
So…what will they draft? OL? WR? Long snapper?
ZooeyModeratorI have read this several places, and I don’t agree.
Well…I don’t agree with the concept either…but to disagree that it’s gonna happen is just a little naive.
I read too many threads daily that no matter what they do it’s wrong…so, I already see the blood in the water.
Doesn’t bother me one bit because I firmly believe Goff wasn’t ready to start the season and even if he has a bit of a rough go of it, it won’t convince me he’s a bust…hell I don’t think GRob;s a bust even if he doesn’t work out at LT and I haven’t written that off yet.
I am not saying it won’t happen (i.e. if Goff does well, people will complain that Fisher didn’t start him earlier). I am only saying that criticism will soon be dropped because people will get excited by the Rams winning, and will soon forget to blame the coach for the fact they had to wait.
ZooeyModeratorThe thing on health care is that there are many, many countries with variations on the same thing. I think the key ingredient is basically the government is the insurance company. And we cut out the middle man. Aetna, Humana, Whoever…none of them actually deliver health care. They take your premiums, and then they reimburse health care providers for their services while keeping a cut for themselves. They are delivery boys for your money.
So the government acts as a non-profit insurance company. Then there is only one payer, and all the hospitals, doctors, etc. have only one set of rules and forms to fill out for compensation instead of dozens of companies to deal with, each with different rules and so on, and it streamlines the whole thing. Plus eliminates a bunch of advertising expenses (those geese in the commercials are expensive!), expense accounts, and CEO bonuses etc. It’s cheaper. Studies show that health care would cost 1/3 less than it does now, and…EVERYBODY would be covered.
So I dunno what the taxes would be. But whatever the taxes are, you wouldn’t be paying premiums. And right now, 1/3 of our premiums go to overhead whereas Medicare operates at about 7% overhead iirc. (Understand these numbers are ballpark). Our premiums also include the hidden costs of paying for ER visits by people without insurance. ER visits are MUCH more expensive, and those costs get past on to the consumers. So we are paying for the uninsured anyway as it is.
I heard a guy on the radio the other day talking about how the repeal of ACA would affect him, and he told about how crappy he had felt for a couple of years, and then he signed up for ACA, saw a doctor, and found out he has diabetes. He got treated, and feels better. He said if he loses ACA coverage, he will hold out as best he can, but he can’t afford the medication, and he would eventually end up in the ER where we will all pick up the tab anyway. And he will probably die sooner, and leave his family without his income which will make them dependent.
I once saw most of a documentary somewhere that visited 5 different countries – Taiwan, Germany, Japan, and 2 others that I missed – and looked at how they structure health care. Quite different approaches to it. All with better results than what we get, at lower overall costs. I can’t quite understand why we wouldn’t send some people out to study a bunch of these different systems, come back, and piece together some kind of proposal that would make sense in America. There are a lot of successful programs out there.
The devil is in the details, of course, but there are a LOT of countries doing better with health care than we are by any empirical measurement.
November 15, 2016 at 6:29 pm in reply to: Robert Reich: The Democratic Party Needs To Clean House #58449ZooeyModerator<
Fair enough. And maybe I was being over-sensitive, because I’ve been defending my choices and my POV for a few days, across multiple platforms, and to all kinds of people (in person). I have a lot of respect for you, Mackey Mack, and for everyone on this board, quite honestly. You’re all very smart and scholarly. Like wv said, it’s difficult to keep our animosities in check when discussing politics, but I had/have high hopes for this board in particular to do just that. So, going forward, I’ll try not to read ‘tone’ into the discussion, and I’ll do my best to elucidate in the same manner.Re: Destroying Islamic terrorists once and for all:
That’s a nonsensical statement. That’s like saying you’d like to destroy racism once and for all.It’s not nonsensical, and that’s a poor comparison. While racism and islamic fundamentalism are both ideologies, one of them (terrorism) is a movement that can be squashed by taking it apart from the top down. Not unlike Naziism. Instead of allowing them to grow and flourish, I’d like to see our tremendous military might, led by brilliant military strategists and Generals, and along with a coalition of States, systematically destroy their leadership and quickly put splinter cells into graves. I have a unique perspective on this, because I’ve seen hundreds of murders on LiveLeak, and I read about the atrocities they commit all the time. I seek it out. It’s on the same level as gassing the Jews, but with less mercy. They murder gays, they murder jews, they murder Christians, they stone women to death, they use children as human grenades, and they use human beings as shields. If you don’t think we have the power to assert our will against them, then okay. But doing nothing – or not enough – is akin to sponsoring their actions. Again, just like the Nazi’s, we need to destroy this movement before it grows. And we need to keep putting that flame out every single time it tries to reignite.
We all step on each others toes once in a while. It’s what happens when people have opinions, and in the case of politics, the only people interested in them are people who have them bound up strongly in their identity, their sense of values and morality. So. I personally wish the edit feature was available longer, and that we had a delete option. One of the boards we had once-upon-a-time allowed deletions. But here, once you said it, you have to live with the consequences. So sometimes we get pissy with each other.
On terrorism, this is from the Global Terrorism Index of 2014
This chart shows how 268 terrorist groups ended from 1968 – 2006.
Politicisation means that the terrorist group was somehow brought into the political system, its leaders getting seats in government etc.
Policing is the targeting (arresting or killing) of key leaders in the group.
In 10% of cases, the terrorists achieved their goals.
In 7% of cases, military action finished them off.
And I will just throw in…another way to fend them off is to stop abusing them with our foreign policies. Ya know. Invading Iraq was not really necessary.
ZooeyModeratorWho says that Goff can’t be a spark to the offense? Maybe Goff goes on a huge win streak, and shocks the world and upsets the Patriots and Seahawks in their places? We can hope. Just saying.
Nobody says he can’t spark the offense.
But even Dr. Frankenstein needed a bolt of lightning to bring life to his offense.
ZooeyModeratorFisher can’t win here. If Goff sucks, fans will be jumping off the top of the stadium. If he’s great, they will want Fisher’s head for waiting so long to start him.
That’s a fact…it’s a lose-lose for Fisher.
I will say, it’s probably a good idea he is starting Goff because I think the fans in Cali would be brutal to CK from the first possession and they MTL will be a little more forgiving to Goff…for a while at least.
I have read this several places, and I don’t agree.
If Goff does well, people will be excited that Goff is doing well. There may be some criticism of Fisher for one news cycle, but people will soon forget the whole thing. And, if I’m Fisher, I will live pretty damn happily with that criticism anyway. So to hell with that.
Meanwhile, there will be voices countering those, arguing that it proves Fisher was right. Because Goff WASN’T ready. He wasn’t. If he is now, that only goes to prove Fisher did the right thing, doesn’t it? In the long run, everybody forgets it.
No, the only thing to fear is Goff sucking.
-
AuthorPosts
