rogpodge

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  • in reply to: Glad the Justice Department has nothing better to do. . . #6008
    Avatarrogpodge
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    In this context, the Justice Department represents the client agency.  Unless there is no legal basis / arguments to make, then the Department of Justice must represent the client agency’s legal (and political) position.  There have been cases where the government abandoned a position after the administration changed, and the Court appointed counsel to represent the position.  Blame HHS (Becerra, who first floated the idea of appealing) and the CDC.

    Also, where’s the Department of Transportation in all this?  Wouldn’t this be under their jurisdiction?  Actually, I believe that this was part of the judge’s decision, but let’s be honest, Pete Buttigieg is a disaster as Secretary of Transportation.

    in reply to: Quinnipiac poll has Biden at 33% approval #6006
    Avatarrogpodge
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    https://mobile.twitter.com/Rasmussen_Poll/status/1516461120382513153

    Only 8% underwater in this tracking poll. Comeback!

    in reply to: It’s 1981 again #5986
    Avatarrogpodge
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    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/when-inflation-was-even-worse-212636275.html

    Don’t forget they changed the formula and the basket of goods. Volcker was willing to play the villain. It worked, though, after the pain.

    in reply to: American life expectancy shrinks by nearly two years #5985
    Avatarrogpodge
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    https://www.addictionpolicy.org/post/the-fentanyl-crisis-is-only-getting-worse

    This is from just about when we went into COVID lockdown.  US life expectancy reversed in 2018, and started trending down.  COVID has accelerated this trend, but the real culprit is despair (and fentanyl).  Suicide and fentanyl / opiod overdoses have increased for those under 55 by so much that it is lowering life expectancy.  There will likely be a bump up after COVID is under control.  I expect life expectancy to start trending downward again after that because 1) the diabetes / obesity wave; 2) if fentanyl / opiods continue flooding into the country, and cities keep pursuing ineffective homelessness policies, there will be more deaths; and 3) let’s keep passing neuroses and mental illness on our children.

    https://nida.nih.gov/drug-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates

    The 2021 and 2022 numbers (so far) are astounding.

    Teen numbers are really bad.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/EWoodhouse7/status/1481491026556694528

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Avatarrogpodge. Reason: Added teen statistics for 2020
    in reply to: It’s 1981 again #5979
    Avatarrogpodge
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    in reply to: It’s 1981 again #5974
    Avatarrogpodge
    Participant

    Volker did what he had to, given the circumstances. Our Fed has not over the last decade. Keeping rates artificially low helped the housing market and the stock market, but didn’t help the average American. The pressures have been building, and now that there is an exogenous shock (high oil prices again, plus supply chain from China and incompetence), it’s got no where to go but up.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/nickrmanes/status/1513847059216019457?cxt=HHwWgsC5jab4oYIqAAAA

    Smarter people than myself have figured out what to do.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/JesseLee46/status/1513874750875090957

    Neo, pointing out how bad inflation is means you are lockstep with Putin.

     

     

    in reply to: Elon Musk has an interesting idea to solve SF homelessness #5959
    Avatarrogpodge
    Participant

    Never forget that the Washington Post, showing a total lack of self-awareness, wrote an editorial saying that Elon Musk’s 10% stake in Twitter is a threat to free speech.

    They even put “free speech” in scare quotes.

    in reply to: Attorney General Garland facing January 6 pressure #5958
    Avatarrogpodge
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    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/americans-dont-agree-on-what-to-call-jan-6-attack

    Reasonable minds differ, along partisan lines.  Which tells me that the truth is somewhere in the middle, and likely not an insurrection, nor simply a riot.  Certainly the cases tried so far seem to not back the “insurrection,” narrative, and the congressional kangaroo court (based on what they’ve subpoenaed and the lack of any real GOP participation) investigation is going nowhere.  Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are mental lightweights after jobs on MSNBC after they’re no longer in power.  (Thank you to Adam Kinzinger for his service, but his Ukraine tweets, falling for hoax after hoax, show he’s unusually susceptible to propaganda).  Liz Cheney just called a rocket attack on a rail station “genocide.”  Quit throwing terms like that around for no reason.

    Muh norms?  From a party that wants to blow up the filibuster, pack the court, get rid of the Electoral College, federalize elections, use public health as a political weapon, delay the vaccine rollout for two months (killing more people) for political reasons, change all voting laws to eliminate voting standards to “protect democracy,” use the CDC to pass rent control / eviction moratoriums and OSHA to enact vaccine mandates, open our borders, and use the DOJ to silence parental rights groups?  Not to mention a rolling foreign policy disaster predicated on weakness and “optics” rather than basic competence?

    The Constitution was designed to prevent any one person or branch from aggregating too much power for a reason.  Democrats don’t believe in this principle anymore.

    Not to mention the most poisonous political dirty trick in history, exacerbating a foreign policy disaster dating back to at least 2014?  A dirty trick that weaponized the intelligence community and federal law enforcement, in conjunction with the media to launder a political lie?  That’s not a violation of norms?  That gets a pass?

    Oh, wait.  Are you talking about talking about a stolen election?

    Her lust for power, combined with using the levers of government (and a compliant media) to run a fraudulent political influence operation against the American people is okay?  That’s not anti-democratic?

    What did the Trump administration do that was ultimately found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court?  Compare that to how many Biden administration policies that have already been found unconstitutional (OSHA vaccine mandate, CDC eviction moratorium, excluding white people from relief programs by race).  You can buy into the media’s hatred of Trump as a person, but his administration did not willy-nilly violate the Constitution.  The Biden administration has shown a willingness to KNOWINGLY violate the Constitution (OSHA and the CDC?  Really?).

    So think very carefully when you regurgitate the media narrative that Trump / the GOP is a danger to democracy.  I’m not sure the “democracy” the Democrats are selling you is the same as what they’re envisioning.

    in reply to: French Election today. Bizarre oddities. #5948
    Avatarrogpodge
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    in reply to: Following Beyond Thunderdome #5939
    Avatarrogpodge
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    I would disagree re: Chinese influence.  Their economy is larger than Russia’s.  They’ve already gotten all of Hollywood chasing their dollars.  Have you heard of TikTok?  Bytedance is a CCP influence campaign.  They have invested heavily on Twitter bots and monitor Western media in a way that would astound most people.

    Avatarrogpodge
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    in reply to: Ukraine: Two Questions #5906
    Avatarrogpodge
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    [quote quote=5893]How about painting Chinese flags on some of our planes and bombing Russia?[/quote]

    I advocated, tongue in cheek, for a “small incursion” to take Vladivostok and the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands when the Russians pulled some of their Eastern troops for deployment in Ukraine. We could easily say we were returning the Kuril Islands to Japan. Using their words against them is fair play….

    in reply to: ‘Biggest fraud in a generation’ #5905
    Avatarrogpodge
    Participant

    Fiscal policy has always been prone to fraud. Large pools of other people’s money? What could go wrong?

    That being said, there were some praiseworthy private efforts during the pandemic. The 30 day Virginia fund, created by Pete Snyder, and the Barstool Fund (modeled after the Virginia Fund) both raised money and distributed money to save small businesses during the pandemic. (Full disclosure, I donated to the Barstool Fund). Americans not only want to help, but we know how to help in effective ways. Government solutions aren’t always the best ones.

    in reply to: Lindsey Graham #5904
    Avatarrogpodge
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    in reply to: Ukraine: Two Questions #5883
    Avatarrogpodge
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Viewing 15 posts - 466 through 480 (of 615 total)