Negatory

I don’t think you understand. I don’t support Democrat or Republican filibusters. They’re all horseshit, and your opinion article doesn’t present any real reasons for them. And youre delusional if you think its current usage is whatsoever in line with effective governance. Also, it’s so-called “nuclear” usage in the past 40 years is new. With it especially peaking in... checks notes... the senates of the Obama presidency. The only thing it actually does is stop legislation when the house and the senate aren’t the same color. That’s when filibusters happen, and it’s not conducive to any legislative effectiveness. But I guess, overall, policies that aren’t conducive to legislative effectiveness help the Republican mantra that the government is ineffective. Mind you, republicans support policies that hamstring effectiveness because it limits scary change. Oogabooga!

You’re really grasping at straws if you think that a grown man reciting Shakespeare or reading a recipe book for 24 hours is a constitutional way to force a majority to not pass legislation. My eyes immediately glaze over when I hear that someone supports the holy filibuster. Imagine the founding fathers in the senate when this happens. A lively debate brews. A majority of 51 votes is obvious. An idiot gets up front and runs the clock out by reciting the dictionary for 18 hours. “WTF is happening?” asks Ben Franklin. “Well, we tried,” says John Adams. “No, I give up. These guys are f*cked,” ends Thomas Jefferson.

I’ll entirely agree that the whole of QAnon are not Republican voters. But the majority are.

https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/npr-misinformation-123020 https://www.wbur.org/npr/951095644/even-if-its-bonkers-poll-finds-many-believe-qanon-and-other-conspiracy-theories And that’s called statistics of a representative sample size, brother. It’s not casual and I’m not happy about it, but it is what it is. Legitimately, that many people, plus or minus a few %, are there in their belief system, whether you like it or not. Maybe THAT’s what’s wrong with political discourse in this country.

Oh, this ones easy. I think you draw the line somewhere between the 16% of Americans that think “A group of Satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media” and the 12% that think “Several mass shoutings in recent years were staged hoaxes.” So you can choose between 39-53 million people. I mean, I get why the Republican Party has a hard time disavowing these people, it’s a lot of idiots!

Agreed that leaving was symbolic, but it was still counterproductive if we don’t have actual solutions or plans to make it “fair.” The only way to “win” here is using soft power to get everyone on board. You can’t invade China to shut off their manufacturing. And, as the past 4 years have shown, you can’t really impose tariffs nearly as effectively as we would hope. This is the cost of China becoming a superpower (mainly due to how much shopping I do at Walmart).

It’s harder to argue we have some sort of moral high ground when our per capita CO2 expenditure is twice that of China’s. You can’t forget we have 330M and they have 1.4B. In that framework, what is “fair?”

I’m on board with your point about Afghanistan and vaccinations 100%. The Keystone pipeline and the Paris climate accords are both issues primarily related to global warming. Which, many believe, is an existential threat to the world. In my opinion, they are much better solutions than the republican strategy of not doing anything at all. To me, the republican strat for global warming was similar to the COVID strat: say it will go away on its own and put earplugs in. There are hundreds, probably of thousands, of graphs like these that point to our future trajectory. What’s the plan?

Wait til you find out the real reason for the plandemic: big gov needed to change out the batteries on all the birds. https://birdsarentreal.com/pages/the-history Spread this, brothers. Godspeed. #birdsarentreal

That speech is full of so many bullshit false maxims and buzzwords I want to puke. The truth is many people think the Air Force is okay, but not the best. It’s not just awesome or soul crushing for the majority of folks. Which means there is a legitimate need to consider the entire picture when deciding on service. Many people can also make significant money outside of the Air Force. And they wouldn’t have to put up with holier than thou generals saying that you shouldn’t consider any amount of money in your calculations for your future, when money determines what kind of future you and your family will have. The talk about no amount of money being worth your life is also bullshit. Most of us will not come into actual significant physical danger during our jobs. And everyone knows that. When you sign the bonus, the vast majority of folks aren’t worried about being shot down or crashing, because, truth be told, those are extremely improbable. I’ve been on multiple fighter deployments, and, truth be told, I was often more worried about missing out on time with my family than the threats. His post, when broken down, says that you should not be worried about compensation whatsoever, because the job is so much more important. His post, when broken down, is such a poor argument that it could just as easily be applied to say that flight pay shouldn’t exist. That tricare shouldn’t exist. That BAH tax status shouldn’t exist. Why should the military provide any benefits whatsoever to career military officers other than job stability? Why don’t we stop paying doctors bonuses as well? Why should anyone actually ever make more than basic needs? His post, when broken down, debases the very pragmatic fact that, while almost all of us serve with a large amount of patriotism and nationalism in our hearts, we have to also simultaneously be preparing ourselves and our families for retirement. Because serving our country realistically means we are giving up the other high-performing lives we could live. Im predicting a short sighted decision that will backfire laughably when the dynamic reverses in 2 years.

I’ve had multiple airmen pull out money from their TSP to “invest” in dogecoin. I guess, on the bright side, they’ll get a taste of reality and losses early in life.

That video convinced me you’re not wrong, unfortunately. I guess we will get to see which evil was worse. Having to choose between Biden and Trump is the closest I’ll ever come to understanding an abusive relationship (hopefully).

Your comment made me think of this tribalism cartoon from way back. Which applies to basically all facets of life.

Robinhood is allowing people to close positions, just not create new ones. Which only benefits the short sellers who want to continue to create fake sell ladders to manipulate the price lower. Check out the order book that has entirely exhausted the sell pressure from private investment firms lol: Hard to feel bad that investment bankers, which do nothing for the world, may have less boats. When short selling and greed goes too far.

Don’t get em too scared or they’ll just pack the court and add 2 more judges

Appreciate you gents taking the bait. Because the constant talk of the election being stolen - even by many on this forum - is a giant conspiracy theory that has no more substance than 9/11 hoaxers, yet over 70% of republicans entertain this particular theory. Including a disheartening amount of you all. You guys spouting "let's just say that there were no shenanigans" implies that there is a debate about the election results. There isn't. And you may not understand it now, but every time that you say shit like this you're just further undercutting faith in American democracy. All for a little bit of political power. How do you see this turning out for the future of the country? 61 out of 62 election lawsuits filed by Trump/Giuliani failed in bipartisan courts The one that passed was PA saying that voters had 3 days to provide ID, but didn't come close to changing the results whatsoever. GA was recounted twice - Biden won three times in a row. Wisconsin was recounted once. Biden won twice in a row. Election officials - bipartisan officials - across all contested states have said that there is no meaningful fraud. To the point that Georgia secretary of state, a republican, has to tell the president to STFU about his elections. And if I'm just flat out wrong here, and you can prove that there is substantial election fraud that would have affected the results, let me know. Because the way that Tucker Carlson and Rush Limbaugh and conservative media heads work is that they show real evidence that election fraud occurred 12 times across the state of GA. Then they have everyone take a poll that asks "do you think any election fraud happened?" And then 90% of people say "yes, of course there was election fraud, but-" and he cuts you off there and says that "an overwhelming majority of Americans believe there was a fraudulent election! Get out there and support the president! Jan 6!" Without representing the fact that the majority of rational people talking were going to finish their sentence: "Yes, of course there was election fraud, but it was small and limited. There was fraud probably on all sides. But a handful of people registering incorrectly - or even a handful of people maliciously doing things incorrectly - does not warrant the destruction of the democratic process." Provide proof that substantial election fraud occurred that would have changed the results or STFU saying things like "Let’s just say there were no shenanigans regarding the election itself and everything was pure, fair and balanced."

Well the shenanigans wouldn't have been needed if the republicans hadn't faked 9/11 to garner unilateral support and install fox news and the patriot act in 2001. YOU really only have yourself to blame.

Do you ever think that Trump may have gotten more negative press coverage because he’s a worse human being with worse policies? Just like how I talk more shit about my sisters abusive ex husband than her current husband? Not everyone is entitled to 50-50 good:bad press.

Is your point that meritocracy shouldn’t exist or that it doesn’t?

The blunt truth is it hurts non minorities. That’s the harm in affirmative action policies. It’s why white male pilots, for the most part, should go ahead and stop applying to be astronauts. Edit: The sinister end result is the debasing of the meritocracy.

Here's the actual scientific article because, when it comes to science, mainstream news articles are basically worthless: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.18.427166v1.full BL: It looks like it could be bad, with over 50% of natural produced antibody samples not showing immunity to this strain. They predict that folks, even if they already had COVID or got the first vaccine, will now be able to get COVID 2.0, but this is a limited evaluation. They never tested actual people that were vaccinated, and they never actually saw a secondary reinfection. They just produce evidence that points to likelihood. Time will tell. God help us.

This is all somewhat ironic, because fairness issues up until very recently were primarily based around the extremely conservative talk radio bias that has existed for decades. Rules that would force private entities to protect political speech existed before under the fairness doctrine, which was repealed during the Reagan presidency. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine#Opposition Many have attempted to revive it, but attempts have almost been unilaterally opposed by conservatives up until this point because it was politically in their favor to maintain a monopoly on things like radio messaging. Now that one private entity is showing an obvious anti-far-right bias, conservatives cry foul and say "not fair!" The hypocrisy is glaring.

Not at all. I don't agree with a lot of free speech, but I still want it protected. But there is a different between an opinion I don't agree with and an actual mistruth. Have any opinion in the world, that's fine. But I don't think lying about facts deserves a pass. And brother, what do you mean the 100% truth about the laptop? What was hidden precisely? A last minute hail mary to smear Joe Biden based off of circumstantial evidence presented by Rudy Giuliani? What you actually have to prove is that a 50 year old drug addict's dealings directly are tied to his father's finances. There has never been even an iota of proof that Joe Biden has been involved with anything related to Hunter Biden's tax problems or foreign business. Yes, there is an FBI investigation into Hunter Biden. No, there is no substance into investigating Joe Biden, like OANN and Tucker Carlson try to insinuate. You do realize that in late October 2020, FOX news even decided not to run the story based on the extreme lack of evidence. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/fox-news-passed-on-chance-to-break-hunter-biden-laptop-story-over-credibility-concerns-report This one's not a giant conspiracy against conservative voices, give me a break. Every news outlet from Antifa to Fox agreed that running a circumstantial story with no substance was not real press. Also, because we're all about maxims, how about "innocent until proven guilty?" You defending the ability for anyone to throw any political attacks they want, regardless of veracity/evidence and without accountability, is not something that I think I'm going to agree with you about.

Disagree here, I think your point is extremely overblown. You could replace “they” and “them” in your post with Twitter and Facebook. Twitter and Facebook are not the internet. Let me repeat. Twitter and Facebook are not “the internet.” Now if you’re talking about the sensible regulation of over reaching, monopolistic large tech companies, I’m all ears. But that’s not your post. Instead, you’re mad that a company has a political leaning. Newsflash: all companies do. Find a different company. The internet in its current form is a worldwide international marvel, not just an American free speech machine. And if you go on it and actually look outside Twitter and Facebook, you can find literally every group of people still has their place and their voice. I’m not keen to make the American internet into the Chinese version anytime soon. Also, they don’t control your access to information. YOU control your access to information, and, sure, the fact that a bunch of dumbasses get their news from Facebook is a huge contributing factor to the problem. But that’s not facebooks fault. That’s your great Aunt Kay being an idiot who doesn’t look at multiple sources. I don’t see Twitter or Facebook limiting the ability for Fox or MSNBC or CNN or the Washington Post to put out their own stories. I don’t see Facebook shutting down 4chan. It’s not like Twitter took Parler off the web. My rub with a lot of this is you could just as easily argue that former president Trump getting online and spouting lies and misinformation is as destructive or even more destructive to the country. Yet there’s no discussion there? Hell, I think you’d be hard pressed to argue against that. Here’s just a few of the gems of falsehood and disinformation Trump has produced and spread using Twitter and Facebook that have helped us get to where we are today: 1) President Obama isn’t born in the US and isn’t a US citizen. YGBSM. 2) “Just stay calm, it will go away” in reference to COVID. Turned out his plan isn’t working so great, maybe should have followed science/his own advisors. 3) “VOTER FRAUD IS NOT A CONSPIRACY THEORY, IT IS FACT” - thousands of bipartisan government workers have argued that there is no meaningful amount of fraud. The other side has failed to prevent any actual evidence. Yet this is the speech you are trying to protect? 4) “Republicans will always protect people with pre-existing conditions” while stripping away protections 5) “Tarrifs are making us rich” in 2018 as economic experts showed that we were and still are the people who pay the lions share of the costs 6) Single payer healthcare is a “radical left socialist” movement that Dems are using to turn America into Venezuela. When 90% of first world democratic nations have something like it. 7) “We’ve pulled off an economic turnaround of historic proportions” in 2018 when the economy was doing just fine coming out of Obama’s second term. 8: “There was no crime” in the Mueller probe, which resulted in charges brought down on nearly 50 people close to Trump. Oh, and it still has the words in there about “individual #1,” if you ever actually read it 9) “We’re building the wall as we speak” in 2018, as they were not in fact doing so 10) Hell, choose between the 30,000 false or misleading claims that the Washington post found. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4 At what point do straight lies and misinformation from the president no longer deserve coverage? At what point does lying lose its “press protections?” At what point can a sitting US presidents misinformation cause a threat to America. Because there is a point. And there is not a good political way to reign it in. And I’ll use your overblown oath example. You’re an officer who swore an oath to the constitution to defend from all enemies, including domestic. This bro tore our country apart and made enough people think that the election results were deliberately and simultaneously faked across 6 different states that he got a mob to legitimately invade the legislative branch of our government. And you think that should be protected? He’s off his rocker, and why should companies be required to host his lies? What I got out of this is, actually, those in office should have to be held accountable for anything they say. If they say things that are provably false at the time they say them, then that should be illegal. Free speech and free press doesn’t equal politicians getting to lie to our faces on every platform that exists.

I don't see how ending 230 is actually going to help. In my eyes, ending 230 protections would have one of two effects: 1) Companies are more wary of being sued, and they actually censor a lot more stuff based on their opinions of what is right and wrong 2) Companies try to maintain neutrality by allowing literally anything and everything, turning the whole internet into 4chan