xkcd

dg61

I mean, close control of printing money is...probably a good thing given the whole "risk of inflation and money supply issues".

dg61

I don't know that the actual goal is to run the NRA so much as to gain access and influence with politicans who are strongly involved with it.

dg61

More to the point, race or at least the biological conception of race as a primary dividing line is recent and originates in a historically specific matrix(the Atlantic sphere of colonization projects, and later in the general colonial project as a justification for a specific order of power). The i...

dg61

That sounds like a driving force in politics, not just in that area.

dg61

The pods do have the advantage that you won't accidentally overuse I suppose.

dg61

Non-shithead answer that they could and may give: "It's the difference between directly willing and a foreseeable consequence", real answer: because they want to punish women for sex out of wedlock and Having Lives.

dg61

Why and how would the US become a one party state? One path would be the Dems remain disorganized, pulled on one hand towards socialsim (Bernie) and on the other hand towards more central views (new people fired up by the present situation). The new people can't quite topple the old guard, but inst...

dg61

My standing theory again is more that if the US slides into authoritarianism it'll be more like the various one-party states. See for example PRI Mexico, or other state where power was transferred within a dominant party.

dg61

Anyhow I've long thought an American dictatorship wouldn't be like Hitler, it'd be more like PRIist Mexico.

dg61

Agreed. But it's important not to pretend it was "democracy===>hitler", not least because that can make quite a few things sound different.

dg61

(1) CRIMINALIZATION of unlawful presence in the United States: White supremacy writ into law. For past 228 years, simply *being in U.S.* w/o permission was a civil offense w/no consequence other than deportation. (NB: This was quickly rejected in 2005, but much more likely now) Isn't this already t...

dg61

Yea I'm thinking more "that might be a bridge too far as opposed to "let him get shoved out, tweet about Rule of Law etc, then obstruct whatever dem has won"(on the assumption that he won't leave office specifically in that circumstance, there is obviously no incentive not to shove hi...

dg61

Basically the difference is between a civil versus a criminal offense. A Civil offense is still an illegal thing, but it's not strictly speaking a crime and wouldn't e.g. affect things like sentences(and I don't think you can be imprisoned for civil offenses). An example would be violating a city no...

dg61

There's "Respect for the constitution" and there's "ability to completely blow it off without being frogmarched out of the oval office". More so than he already has I mean.

dg61

A third term, barring a very early resignation of a sitting president and their veep coming to power, is constitutionally impossible.

dg61

TBF, you could argue that by the early 30s Germany wasn't really a democracy and even before the Nazis came to power given the use of the Presidential powers to wholly circumvent the Parliament and the centralization of power by Bruening and other conservative chancellors(von Sleicher, Papen, etc) a...

dg61

Also, this is a difference I think between where you are-the US has one very specific concept of racism, while other countries have different social divisions. Within the US I don't think "Everything is Racism" is wrong(certainly almost every issue we have faced and most or all of the soci...

dg61

RE: Tommy Robinson, he was arrested specifically for violating a court order(or more accurately, breaching a suspended sentence) not to videotape during a specific trial after being previously warned for similar conduct, with the warning specifically based on concerns about a fair trial. Essentially...

dg61

As for Manning and Nixon-I can't speculate on Nixon(although she did quite well apparently) but Manning ran against a strong and well-liked incumbent in a district with a lot of government workers and people who are generally more hawkish while not really having much of a platform and putting in app...

dg61

The issue is also that the Republicans went from trying to court Hispanics* on the logic that they're socially somewhat conservative and often small business owners to essentially running on white nationalism, which meant that they have every incentive to view them as automatic democratic voters and...

dg61

Isn't that basically the French Foreign Legion, or used to be? Although now I think they vet you for any criminal past/being on the lam etc.

dg61

Right, but at that point given the usually free-market and capitalist arguments for libertarianism qua libertarianism, we might as well just go anarchist. Which is very different philosophically.

dg61

Right, but that of course winds up causing economic problems by restricting economic growth, etc-which may well be fine for people ideologically but removes quite one argument for libertarianism.

dg61

Hm. I think you could look at the gilded age US for a failed libertarian government(failed in the sense that a more active and interventionist government became necessary to all obviously), and for a successful one...Switzerland maybe, but that's more devolved. Or to be amusingly snarky, the Catalan...

dg61

Also to add: I think a lot of the appeal of libertarianism is much like communism, anarchism, reactionary ideologies, etc it is clear and specific philosophically and offers a sort of grand design, even if in practice it leaves much to be desired.

dg61

I feel like the problems with libertarianism have been discussed in this thread _ad nauseam_. With that in mind, maybe we can think in terms of big L and small l libertarianism. Big L would be the strong form of libertarianism, that we should cut government to the bare minimum, while small l liberta...

dg61

FWIW the garbage culture I'm thinking of is not that of Facebook or Twitter with which I have almost zero familiarity, but more that which started on 4chan and spread through Reddit and (my most direct experience of it) Imgur and now seems to have echoes all across the internet from places as mains...

dg61

I feel like that's less a point about the internet per the internet than a point about really Twitter and Facebook. And possibly Google.

dg61

...and it's not just quantitative. If speed of transmission exceeds speed of consideration, you have a qualitative difference too. The internet enables a massive multiplayer gish gallop (MMGG?) that print media can't compete with. Jose But that's not speed of transmission, that's amount of content-...

dg61

Alternately, the intelligence of a crowd/mob/large and questionably organized group is inversely proportional its size.

dg61

What is the difference between the internet as a form of social activity and other forms of social activity? Access and Anonymity? I can't join an all female crossfit club in my city (I'm neither fit nor female) , but on the internet I can. Also, people can be WAY more evil on the internet and not ...

dg61

What is the difference between the internet as a form of social activity and other forms of social activity?

dg61

Not just invasives but agricultural pests. Considering how much of our exports are food that’s a big issue.

dg61

The census determines federal funds granted to local towns. It determines voting districts. It determines local programs to help residents. Whether I am a documented or undocumented immigrant, I still pay taxes, I'm still represented by elected officials, and I'm still a person living here. To impl...

dg61

I wonder if shifting landscaping practices away from grass(which is a massive water hog) and towards drought-sensitive plants would help.

dg61

I think the two parts fo the question are "can we relocate where we build houses to avoid creating fire issues" and "can we redesign how we build and plan our houses and developments with fire in mind". I know in hurricane-sensitive areas it's a matter of both; you want to build ...

dg61

Is it too late to mention interesting articles/websites in relation to this topic?

dg61

I feel like you have good points but some clarifications and emendations are in order: 1) Disarmament was contrary also to English practice; the English Bill of Rights stipulated that all men had the right to be armed in self-defense and legal commentaries considered this a natural right. Disarmame...

dg61

I think this is more their internal lawyers and regulations don't have them check all of them vs federal or state law. I'm guessing with the intent that if they're doing something to violate federal or state law, it's on the government to come tell them to stop? I don't know how it works but it doe...

dg61

I misunderstood what you meant when you said "met regularly". You meant "usual; normal; customary" rather than literal "met regularly." But this meaning doesn't fit any better than the clumsy phrase I inserted above, and all because of that inconvenient word "well...

Search found 266 matches