Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 2
No. of Recommendations: 1
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
-- Upton Sinclair
No. of Recommendations: 3
Would you rather have someone falsely accused? I'm happy that real evidence still counts and not innuendo.
No. of Recommendations: 3
No. of Recommendations: 6
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
-- Upton Sinclair - Kof3
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'The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable..."
― H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy
No. of Recommendations: 9
bighairymike: The most dangerous man to any government...
Heck, Mencken even predicted Trump in the White House:
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
-- H.L. Mencken, On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe
Although perhaps a less political Mencken quote is a more relevant response:
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
And to bring this back on topic:
"Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."
-- H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy
Mencken is like Twitter but rather than there always being a tweet, there's always a quote.
No. of Recommendations: 3
The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable.
It certainly looks that way right now. We have a populist figure who has become the identity of some 70 million people to the point where nothing he does phases their loyalty to his being their identity. To the dismay of most of the rest of us, our way of government and living seems to have rested on pillars of norms with little shafts of laws supporting the creaky edifice. The whole thing takes too long to right, we find out that many of our institutions are riddled with populist supporters, some destroying evidence, some obstructing... It gives us no joy to disbar Eastman or Guiliani, no joy to sentence foot conspirators to prison, but there will be joy in Mudville if we can finally hold that figure accountable for throwing the norms and the law to the wind and not loving his country more than his own perishable vanity.
No. of Recommendations: 3
It certainly looks that way right now. We have a populist figure who has become the identity of some 70 million people to the point where nothing he does phases their loyalty to his being their identity. To the dismay of most of the rest of us, our way of government and living seems to have rested on pillars of norms with little shafts of laws supporting the creaky edifice. The whole thing takes too long to right, we find out that many of our institutions are riddled with populist supporters, some destroying evidence, some obstructing... It gives us no joy to disbar Eastman or Guiliani, no joy to sentence foot conspirators to prison, but there will be joy in Mudville if we can finally hold that figure accountable for throwing the norms and the law to the wind and not loving his country more than his own perishable vanity.
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Seems that you leaving out any malfeasance or policy failures on the part of the Biden Admin. Are you asserting there aren't any?
No. of Recommendations: 3
It certainly looks that way right now. We have a populist figure who has become the identity of some 70 million people to the point where nothing he does phases their loyalty to his being their identity. To the dismay of most of the rest of us, our way of government and living seems to have rested on pillars of norms with little shafts of laws supporting the creaky edifice. The whole thing takes too long to right, we find out that many of our institutions are riddled with populist supporters, some destroying evidence, some obstructing..
I know you mean Trump here, but Biden is the President and he's doing 100% of the things you mention.
And speaking of cult figures, the guy that started it was Barack Obama.
No. of Recommendations: 2
I know you mean Trump here, but Biden is the President and he's doing 100% of the things you mention.
And speaking of cult figures, the guy that started it was Barack Obama.
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You should actually read what I wrote.
No, Barack didn't start it. He was just black. And his sin?
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." LBJ
Success.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Seems that you leaving out any malfeasance or policy failures on the part of the Biden Admin. Are you asserting there aren't any? BHM
Got something close to the insurrection? I'm listening. :)
No. of Recommendations: 8
bighairymike: Seems that you leaving out any malfeasance or policy failures on the part of the Biden Admin.
Malfeasance? Okay, I'll bite: what malfeasance? And I hope you're not going to bring up the accusations of the indicted whistleblower who fled the country.
Classified documents? Okay, that issue is under review.
And while you're at it, which policy failures? The border? Kind of a mixed bag, no? The increase in migrants ballooned but has decreased by about 50% and Biden got a billion-plus bucks and cooperation from Mexico. And any immigration solution requires congressional cooperation and the republican House isn't about to cooperate.
Inflation? That ain't Biden but even if you argue it is, here's a comparison of inflation rates around the world:
Argentina: 116%
Turkey: 38.2%
United Kingdom: 8.7%
Australia: 7%
Germany: 6.4%
South Africa: 6.3%
Netherlands: 5.7%
Mexico: 5.06%
France: 4.5%
Canada: 3.4%
United States: 2.97%
And a reminder: every republican voted against the Inflation Reduction Act.
Debt? Okay. But you can hang debt around the neck of every modern president, as well as a lot of other presidents.
But I'm all ears... whatcha got?
No. of Recommendations: 3
Seems that you leaving out any malfeasance or policy failures on the part of the Biden Admin. Are you asserting there aren't any? BHM
Got something close to the insurrection? I'm listening. :) - lapsody
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Ahhh, the old familiar, "Your guy did something worse than my guy so my guy's bad behavior is excused" pseudo-argument.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Ahhh, the old familiar, "Your guy did something worse than my guy so my guy's bad behavior is excused" pseudo-argument.
No. I'm just not following what is going on over on the right. Aside from Afghanistan which has been covered by uncommonone, and the Hunter Biden crime family spin saga, is there anything beyond that? Curious.
