"MAY"DAY 2012 politics NC thread.

[74Offsuit]

Just popping in to say I really enjoy DV's posting. You really should start a blog or something. At the very least, the last few should be required reading for the WAAF brigade.

[2/325Falcon]

Originally Posted by zikzak

What in the heck happened to the elderly black population in 1979?

Disco.

[Happy_Fish]

Originally Posted by DVaut1

Basically. I mean it's been 12 hours but no one has really answered my question. I think it's worthy of another thread or something. Because we have this monthly thing where the right wingers show up and are like BREAKING NEWS FROM MY EMAIL, SOCIAL SECURITY NOW ELEVENT QUATRILLION DOLLARS IN THE RED, ZOMG.

And then after you get to the point where you recognize the number is crazy town and the chain email number is dissected to be asinine in context, because they assume no taxes will be paid, or Newt Gingrich moved all the retirees to the moon and SS funded it, or China took every last American job and we just mow each others lawns in 2050 but no one gets paid to do it, but then you're like, YEAH, okay, true enough, there is potentially a future funding problem, way smaller than your chain email but it's extant, so let's talk about a solution. And the solution from the WOOP WOOP DEBT ALARM crowd is usually like, stop handing out money, dismantle Social Security, it failed! Or just cut benefits, raise the retirement age, means test. That's fine. I'm not saying those are bad ideas. But then they should maybe search around then and wonder what all the emotion is about.

Because at it's heart, the whole ZOMG ELEVENTY QUADZILLION UNFUNDED!!! hysteria is basically a promise of benefits that we don't have funding for, right? AND SOMEDAY WE MIGHT NOT PAY OUT. But the solution from that crowd always seems to be LET'S CODIFY NOW WE WON'T PAY OUT!

And certainly there's a moral case to be made that's the right thing to do if that's the unchangable reality. I don't think is, but let's even grant it -- the solution it doesn't quite actually, you know, solve the problem of providing retirement security for the olds that Social Security was meant to solve. Now, the right's retort here is, glibly of course: we don't give a ****, old tymers don't deserve a guaranteed secure retirement off my dime, you work for that. That seems to be the guiding principle. Which, okay, I don't even have a problem with THAT. But then let's go back to the start: why do you give a **** about the unfunded promise in the first place?

As always, the DEBT ALARM DRUDGE SIREN $40 ZILLION IN DEBT stuff is really just a proxy way for the right to state their moral preferences in the guise of some actual policy concern. I get it: people should work and save and not expect a handout. Cool story bro. I get that mean liberals have been calling you heartless for a few generations, c'est la vie. And surely rambling on about debt problems, many of them fictitious and hysterical, surely win some short-term political battles. But then fancy people with high school degrees and calculators break out Excel and are like, oh but see, we CAN fund this retirement program by returning to tax schemes in place like 2 decades ago, that didn't like totally **** anyone over to the point of abject chaos, and you're predicting like horrible chaos, so let's do that less bad thing and raise taxes to avoid the really chaotic thing where we break a promise and default on SS benefits. At which point you guys are just like BUT YAH BUT STILL THESE PEOPLE ARE LAZY AND DON'T DESERVE MY TAX MONEY, GET A THIRD JOB IF YOU WANT TO RETIRE WITH DIGNITY. Fine guise, just say that. Just state the moral claim that you don't want to fund retirement programs. It's tedious fighting off all the noise to get to the real point.

This is an awesome post. The only criticism about SS that I understand is that the government has spent that money instead of Al Gore Lockboxing it.

[Hamish McBagpipe]

Luckily for DVaut and the other Marxist Social Security Ponzi Scheme apologists, great savings are already being found...

http://theamericanpartnership.com/20...nd-federalism/

[seattlelou]

I have no idea what to think a about this story but all the alternate jurors on the Edwards trial are wearing matching tops. Is this some sort of "runaway jury" (Grisham novel) thing?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...4pU_story.html

[JayTeeMe]

Originally Posted by seattlelou

I have no idea what to think a about this story but all the alternate jurors on the Edwards trial are wearing matching tops. Is this some sort of "runaway jury" (Grisham novel) thing?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...4pU_story.html

How the **** does an alternate juror flirt with the defendant? Especially John Edwards, who was shown to be the biggest scumbag of all time when he planned his second marriage (including location and Dave Matthews Band) while his first wife was dying but still alive.

[seattlelou]

Rich good looking dudes don't seem to have problems attracting chicks despite their scumminess I suppose. The entire story is sort of bizarre. If anybody reads any speculation as to what is going on in this trial please post.

[DVaut1]

I see a new reality show on TLC in these peoples' futures, called "The Alternates." We in the audience get to peer in the true life, unscripted, high stakes drama of the John Edwards jury alternates as they do battle picking out their matching wardrobe each day, and work hard to win the affections of the defendant, the former VP candidate facing trial for federal campaign finance fraud. They can probe The Alternates about how they feel about Edwards, and how they felt when they first heard about Edwards cheating on his cancer stricken wife and impregnated the filmmaker following him around trying to create some other reality TV show, and then hid that fact from his wife and blamed his campaign subordinate, and how The Alternates came to forgive him and decided he deserved a second chance, and how they are all fighting hard to become THE ALTERNATE, the woman that Edwards will give a promise ring to at the end of the trial.

Modern America 2012 imo, make it so TLC.

[seattlelou]

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — The judge in the John Edwards trial has closed the courtroom to reporters and is talking with attorneys about an unspecified jury matter.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...b6798658ebfb49

[DVaut1]

TLC should quickly get their interview with Edwards about how the judge is totally cockblocking him here in time for The Alternates premier Tuesday.

[seattlelou]

I am pretty sure it would be easy to turn a spot on the Zimmerman jury into a million bucks.

[goofyballer]

Originally Posted by 74Offsuit

Just popping in to say I really enjoy DV's posting. You really should start a blog or something. At the very least, the last few should be required reading for the WAAF brigade.

We've all tried to convince him to do this but he just wants to keep his brilliance confined to an internet forum. for us but for the rest of the innertubes.

[DVaut1]

http://politicalwire.com/archives/20...orn_stars.html

After porn stars Brooklyn Lee and Tasha Reign were shooed away from Bill Clinton by a Secret Service agent, the former president called them back over for a photo, ABC News reports.

However, the two were uncertain, but hopeful, that Clinton knew who they were.

Said Lee: "I kind of feel like he knows. We hope he likes us and we hope he likes to watch our movies."

Reign concurred: "I have a feeling that everyone watches adult entertainment."

[Money2Burn]

Looks like there was a seamless transition of power in North Korea

A new Amnesty International report paints a gruesome picture of summary executions, torture and ill-treatment in North Korea as Kim Jong Un succeeded his late father, Kim Jong Il, as the country's ruler last December.

The country used firing squads or staged traffic accidents to execute 30 officials involved in talks to unite North and South Korea, according to the 2012 Amnesty International report released Thursday. It also notes that the country had been questioned about another 37 reported executions between 2007 and 2010 for "financial crimes."

le sigh

[pvn]

Staged traffic accidents are pretty boss IMO.