A View From the Left

[ceeboo]

We are in quite a pickle right now in our attempts to separate out fact from opinion. Our entire media apparatus complicates the situation exponentially. They present opinion as news and news as opinion. Yikes!

Exactly!

We are all in the same unnerving predicament. It's damned crazy!

[Kishkumen]

Exactly!

We are all in the same unnerving predicament. It's Fu-king crazy!

Agreed!

[hauslern]

First they came for the RINOs and I did not speak out because I am not a RINO.
Then they came for the Democrats and I did not speak out because I am not a registered Democrat.
Then they came for the immigrants and Mexicans and I did not speak out because I am not an immigrant.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

[Kishkumen]

We’ll see where it goes, Noel. I am not optimistic to say the least.

[Binger]

First they came for the RINOs and I did not speak out because I am not a RINO.
Then they came for the Democrats and I did not speak out because I am not a registered Democrat.
Then they came for the immigrants and Mexicans and I did not speak out because I am not an immigrant.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Who? The left?

[hauslern]

If I was Michael Steele I would be worried.

[Gadianton]

Totally understand if you've got to step away. Another option is to limit yourself to checking in once every couple days or something and just do one post.

I agree with your stuff on markets. Sure, markets are great, but you can't just assume barriers to markets are all government when there's out-of-control market power or monopoly power that corporations wield. You know you've got a problem when you're forced to sign a non-compete at a McDonalds. I've seen all kinds of ways corporations screw employees by NDAs; everyone gets a slightly different story and set of incentives. I'd say, sure, unions are bad IF you get rid of the myriad of ways companies wield market power over employees. In all econ texts based on Samuelson from back in the day I've seen, it seems assumed in macro that market power and union power balance each other out, well, there's no balance anymore and the great thing is right-wing politicians and pundits have sold their own struggling base on the doctrines to keep them down. This observation goes for large companies, I think small companies probably do get stifled with regulation or unrealistic expectations in regards to employee benefits. Small companies also don't have the same options for screwing employees.

The answer wasn’t hard. He, and most of the folks he associated with, were big fans of the Rush Limbaugh show. I tuned in and discovered that every false or exaggerated stereotype that my brother in law had mentioned was front and center in the show.

Yeah, seems like that's where it started. My mom was a Limbaugh fan. I think I've mentioned this before, but she was the most Mormon person I've ever known, so much so that the very appearance of a coffee maker was shocking to her, and by extension me as I grew up. I just had this horrible feeling at my friend's house and we'd go into their kitchen and I'd see that coffee maker. But she "got a kick out of Rush." And she'd say about Rush that he "smokes those cigars" but she'd say it with a smile, giving him a free pass on it. I can't ever remember another instance where she rationalized a sin as "cutesy".

I don't think I listened to him much but I agreed with what I'd hear.

The other weird thing I've mentioned before is back then, my parents had lots of "last days" materials and I was totally into it. There were the standard books but also some rogue know-your-religions recordings they had. The narrative was that the earth groaned over the iniquity of men, that meant sin but it also meant the way Babylon pillages and pollutes the earth. The great pollutions of the last days and all that. Well, as a senior, my seminary teacher made a shocking revelation that the D&C teaches the earths resources are inexhaustible and the worries about pollutions are the fabrications of men or something like that. I'm like, wtf? How could the prophecies ever come true if it was literally impossible to ruin the earth?
This teacher also went into a tailspin when he taught the law of consecration and I told him it was communism. Crazy how Exxon and Rush re-wrote prophecy for most of Christianity. A lot of that know-your-religion stuff; the speakers were taking materials from end-times Christian sources that weren't Mormon.

[canpakes]

…
And anyone who thinks that they are not all looking out for each other before considering the welfare of journeyman not in one of the 15 largest cities is completely gorked.

So why do you think that there is still a uniparty when one party is the Trump party? What sense would it make for you to vote for Trump, if he controls much of what must be part of this uniparty? I apologize in advance for not keeping up with this conspiracy theory.

Also, what kind of effective policies do you think Trump will enact that will not continue to benefit the super wealthy? His trillion-dollar tax cut?

Exactly this. There’s never been a candidate with as much at stake in preserving a perceived uniparty as Trump, because there has never been a candidate so fully dependent upon the perceived uniparty to finance his business and wealth.

His own OGE filing tells that story.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents ... dated-8923

Maybe one could claim that anyone who thinks that Trump isn’t looking out for the interests of the perceived uniparty over considering the welfare of journeyman not in one of the 15 largest cities, is ‘completely gorked’.

[Vēritās]

A host on FOX News, whose social media accounts describes him as a super father of four children, just went on live air and said "Kamala Harris is the original Hawk'Tuah girl."

Because a successful black woman can only be successful for one reason.

[Dr. Shades]

A host on FOX News, whose social media accounts describes him as a super father of four children, just went on live air and said "Kamala Harris is the original Hawk'Tuah girl."

Because a successful black woman can only be successful for one reason.

I find it bizarre that these sexual harassment-esque attacks are being levied against Kamala Harris, when clearly Donald Trump is the candidate with morality issues.

What makes them even more bizarre is when we recall that such attacks weren't levied against Hillary Clinton when she ran, so there's some dynamic at work other than juvenile sexism.

Any theories?