REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

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Sunday, September 2, 2018 6:50 AM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


I second that!

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

http://www.7532020.com

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Sunday, September 2, 2018 7:39 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by JO753:
I second that!

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

http://www.7532020.com

But will you second this?

Question: Speaking of things being worse than you imagined, we got to watch you react in real time to Trump’s election on your Showtime special. How deeply shocked were you?

Stephen Colbert's Answer:

I know nothing, so I tend to believe the number-crunchers. I was shocked, and I was dismayed, but I will say this: There is nothing that has happened since Trump became president that wasn’t in my fear matrix about him. Now, all the horrors that you can see dawning on my face on that Showtime special have only been borne out. Nothing about Trump and Putin, nothing about his caging children, nothing about him saying, “There’s good people on both sides.” Nothing about his handing the reins of power over to just a rogues’ gallery of anti-regulation, pro-pollution, anti-union, anti-women officials in any way surprises me. It’s all what I thought would happen. Which is why I was truly horrified.

www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/stephen-colbert-late-show-rolling-
stone-interview-716439
/

Disheartened Trump Can’t Get ‘Fox & Friends’ to Hear What He’s Saying
It’s sad!
www.thenation.com/article/disheartened-trump-cant-get-fox-friends-to-h
ear-what-hes-saying
/

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Monday, September 3, 2018 6:31 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Just ahead of Labor Day weekend, President Donald Trump announced he would freeze the salaries of some 2 million federal workers next year. After outcry, Trump said he’d use the long weekend to “study” the matter. Thus far, he’s spent much of the long weekend on the golf course and rage tweeting about Canada, the Department of Justice, the Russia investigation, his approval ratings, and Tiger Woods.

He seems to want people to think he’s still on the fence about the pay freeze, hence the “studying” comments, but he’s already issued the order.

His announcement on the pay freeze comes just days after a federal judge invalidated key provisions in three executive orders he issued in May that made it easier for agencies to fire federal workers and placed restrictions on union activities. The New York Times reports the administration seemed to be dragging its feet in complying with the judge’s ruling, and some agencies told managers and union officials that the policies implemented in May are still in effect.

www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/2/17812408/trump-worker-pay-fre
eze-labor-day


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, September 4, 2018 9:14 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


The future for collectively bargained unions looks bleak given the president’s position as Union-Buster-In-Chief. Since taking the office, Trump has rolled back a series of pro-union Obama-era regulations.

In December, the majority-Republican National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) got rid of policies that helped smaller unions organize, protected the rights of franchise employees, and shielded workers from union-busting tactics. The Trump-appointed NLRB general counsel Peter Robb, made the agency’s pro-employer stance crystal clear in a memo to regional offices that signaled the NLRB would continue to reverse Obama-era policies.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, a conservative appointed to the Supreme Court by Trump, was the deciding vote in the recent anti-worker Court decision, Janus v. AFSCME. The holding of Janus is that workers in a unionized shop who choose not to pay union dues can still receive the benefits and protections a union offers because the agency fees workers are required to pay are form of speech protected by the First Amendment. The decision creates a “free-rider” problem that could severely depress union membership. After all, why pay dues if you can get something for nothing?

https://thinkprogress.org/the-sorry-state-of-labor-in-2018/
Unions give workers bargaining power to fight for better wages and working conditions. As multiple studies have shown, the hollowing out of workers’ wages is tied to the decline of collectively bargained union contracts. In one long-term study by Princeton University, researchers found that unions have consistently “provided workers with a 10- to 20-percent wage boost over their non-union counterparts over the past eight decades.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, September 4, 2018 9:48 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I'd cry for unions if they weren't such an exclusive club that nobody else benefits from.

What I don't understand is why the teacher's union hasn't been shut down yet. These are professional people with college degrees who aren't risking life and limb in mines and around dangerous equipment all day long. Kids get dumber every year but they maintain their wages, wage increases and jobs while the rest of the work force has remained stagnant and even regressed since GWB took office.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, September 4, 2018 11:11 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I'd cry for unions if they weren't such an exclusive club that nobody else benefits from.

What I don't understand is why the teacher's union hasn't been shut down yet. These are professional people with college degrees who aren't risking life and limb in mines and around dangerous equipment all day long. Kids get dumber every year but they maintain their wages, wage increases and jobs while the rest of the work force has remained stagnant and even regressed since GWB took office.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

There are couple of things that only a Republican would believe: 1) That it is the fault of the teachers that your children are getting dumber. The teachers' own children are doing fine. Foreign exchange students can clue you in on what is wrong. (Hint: it is not American teachers' fault): Valuing sports over knowledge is distinctly American, according to these foreign students. Nearly two-thirds of foreign-exchange students in the United States view American teenagers as placing a much higher value on athletic success than teens in their home countries do. By comparison, only 5 percent of international students say American teens place a much higher value on success in mathematics than teenagers abroad. Around 65 percent of foreign-exchange students also feel that American teens spend less time on homework than their international peers.

Still, U.S. schools need not panic about its overall performance. Out of around 70 educational systems tested by the PISA, the United States scored equal to or better than 51 nations in science and equal to or better than 55 nations in reading. Similarly, out of 42 educational systems that tested eighth-graders using the TIMSS, the United States scored equal to or better than 35 nations in both math and science.

www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/03/examining-poor-school-pe
rformance-in-the-us/520653
/

The other thing only a Republican believes: 2) "I'd cry for unions if they weren't such an exclusive club that nobody else benefits from."

It's too much trouble to explain, but how in the hell could an agreement with union auto workers in a Ford plant change how much gets paid in a non-unionized job in a non-auto industry in another state that forbids unionizing? Foreign companies place factories in states controlled by Republicans because they don't want to pay union level wages; it is one large corporation versus one employee. Who loses? Always the one employee.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, September 4, 2018 12:55 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I'd cry for unions if they weren't such an exclusive club that nobody else benefits from.

What I don't understand is why the teacher's union hasn't been shut down yet. These are professional people with college degrees who aren't risking life and limb in mines and around dangerous equipment all day long. Kids get dumber every year but they maintain their wages, wage increases and jobs while the rest of the work force has remained stagnant and even regressed since GWB took office.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

There are couple of things that only a Republican would believe: 1) That it is the fault of the teachers that your children are getting dumber. The teachers' own children are doing fine. Foreign exchange students can clue you in on what is wrong. (Hint: it is not American teachers' fault): Valuing sports over knowledge is distinctly American, according to these foreign students. Nearly two-thirds of foreign-exchange students in the United States view American teenagers as placing a much higher value on athletic success than teens in their home countries do. By comparison, only 5 percent of international students say American teens place a much higher value on success in mathematics than teenagers abroad. Around 65 percent of foreign-exchange students also feel that American teens spend less time on homework than their international peers.

Still, U.S. schools need not panic about its overall performance. Out of around 70 educational systems tested by the PISA, the United States scored equal to or better than 51 nations in science and equal to or better than 55 nations in reading. Similarly, out of 42 educational systems that tested eighth-graders using the TIMSS, the United States scored equal to or better than 35 nations in both math and science.

www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/03/examining-poor-school-pe
rformance-in-the-us/520653
/

The other thing only a Republican believes: 2) "I'd cry for unions if they weren't such an exclusive club that nobody else benefits from."

It's too much trouble to explain, but how in the hell could an agreement with union auto workers in a Ford plant change how much gets paid in a non-unionized job in a non-auto industry in another state that forbids unionizing? Foreign companies place factories in states controlled by Republicans because they don't want to pay union level wages; it is one large corporation versus one employee. Who loses? Always the one employee.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



There's so much wrong with everything in this reply that it's not even worth going into a debate with you about it.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, September 4, 2018 2:08 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

There's so much wrong with everything in this reply that it's not even worth going into a debate with you about it.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

If, big IF, I take you at your word about how many problems you have caused yourself, and how poorly you are doing in the world, has it ever crossed your mind that your strong opinions are wrong? Maybe you did shitty in school and you blame the teacher. You didn't say that, but it could be why you are angry at teachers. Maybe the real truth is you were a shitty student? And why are you blaming unions? I have seen how unions negotiate with their employers. I've seen how individuals negotiate, without a union. The individual always does worse than a union. If you want to keep on being a victim of cheapskate employers who screw their workers, keep on misunderstanding what a union does. No one can teach you (not a teacher nor a co-worker) what you do not want to learn, whether in a school or in a job.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, September 5, 2018 9:49 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


A president with this worldview cannot be trusted

Trump wants to fire Attorney General Sessions, and he has suggested he will do so directly after the midterms. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) backed the move in advance. “The president’s entitled to having an attorney general he has faith in,” he said.

In a normal presidency, that would be true. But in this presidency, an attorney general the president can have faith in is an attorney general the public cannot have faith in. After all, Trump has bluntly stated that he admires the previous attorney general for protecting a corrupt presidency, and he has raged against his own attorney general for doing too little to protect him from investigation.

These are mistakes, presumably, that Trump will not repeat with his next appointment. Which means that there is no one he could appoint to the job whom the public could trust; we’d never know the assurances made behind closed doors to win the role, and so we’d never be able to have faith in the Justice Department itself.

And it’s not just Sessions. This week, Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. We can’t know precisely why Trump chose Kavanaugh for the role, but we do know that Kavanaugh, unusually among judges, has advocated “exempting a President — while in office — from criminal prosecution and investigation, including from questioning by criminal prosecutors or defense counsel.”

This raises an obvious question: What, if anything, did Trump demand from Kavanaugh to win one of the most coveted positions in American government? Did Kavanaugh assure Trump, directly or indirectly, that he would take a dim view toward troublesome investigations into the White House’s conduct? Did he reiterate that he thinks it is too distracting for a president to face criminal prosecution while in office, and his decisions would reflect that? Does Trump, at the least, think he did?

Kavanaugh’s defenders will hear this as an outrageous slur. Kavanaugh is a decorated judge, they say, and his law review article proposing a law exempting presidents from prosecution will not affect his jurisprudence given that Congress ignored his plea. And they may be right! But who can know for sure?

That’s the problem with a president who so clearly believes that his appointments owe him a blood debt of loyalty and protection: He casts unanswerable doubt on each and every one of his nominees.

More at www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/5/17819008/donald-trump-impeach
ment-sessions-kavanaugh-woodward


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, September 6, 2018 7:19 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


You Might Call It Wealth

What aspects of the economy are under our control? According to John Maynard Keynes, if interest rates are low enough to keep investment flowing and consumer spending high enough to maintain sales, everybody can be put to work. Businessmen will never lose their confidence, and their property will never be idle. The economy, in other words, could be manipulated to yield desired outcomes: manageable growth, full employment, and the boom and bust of a business cycle smoothed out of existence.

During World War II and the three decades that followed?—?the so-called golden age of capitalism?—?American and British economics departments reworked Keynes’s observations into a formula for endless expansion. Under the right conditions, they argued, society could create as much wealth and income as it wanted. Fiddle with taxes correctly and you’ll ensure the right amount of private savings and investment. Growth could be “balanced,” each group’s share stable into the future. It was like calculating the propulsion for rocket trajectory: adjustment by economic telemetry would guarantee optimal flight. These were the tenets of growth economics, a field of academic inquiry fused with policy proposals that would come to define midcentury liberalism.

More than half a century later, Thomas Piketty’s 2013 Capital in the Twenty-First Century is the discipline’s most lauded, yet apostate, progeny. As the editors of After Piketty: The Agenda for Economics and Inequality write, Piketty has continued the tradition of growth economics?—?but in a backward way. Unlike his predecessors, Piketty doesn’t aim to provide policy tools for managing the expansion of the economy. Instead, his data and equations explain why worsening inequality is inevitable and normal. No matter what tools you use, Piketty suggests, growth may never deliver equality. Wealth always accumulates at a greater rate than that of economic growth, an argument he made famous with the formula r > g (in which r is the rate of return on capital and g is the rate of economic growth generally). Absent a world war or unplanned cataclysm, market economies as a rule bestow increasing largesse on a minuscule portion of the population while leaving most people comparatively poor. We can’t control the distribution of growth, Piketty says; we can only “counter the effects of this implacable logic” by making the post-tax distribution of wealth and income more equal.

https://nplusonemag.com/issue-32/reviews/you-might-call-it-wealth/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, September 6, 2018 12:24 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

There's so much wrong with everything in this reply that it's not even worth going into a debate with you about it.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

If, big IF, I take you at your word about how many problems you have caused yourself, and how poorly you are doing in the world, has it ever crossed your mind that your strong opinions are wrong? Maybe you did shitty in school and you blame the teacher. You didn't say that, but it could be why you are angry at teachers. Maybe the real truth is you were a shitty student? And why are you blaming unions? I have seen how unions negotiate with their employers. I've seen how individuals negotiate, without a union. The individual always does worse than a union. If you want to keep on being a victim of cheapskate employers who screw their workers, keep on misunderstanding what a union does. No one can teach you (not a teacher nor a co-worker) what you do not want to learn, whether in a school or in a job.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



I'm doing fine, Second. I guess you haven't been paying attention. I'm happier these days than I've been in many years, and that even includes the ones where I made a great buck.

Don't talk to me about knowledge or learning either, son. I'd love to play you in a game of chess one day and crush that pathetic little ego of yours.

I've made so many improvements in my life on so many fronts in the last 20 months it's stupid. All you've done is bitch and whine about everything and lace every single post of yours with personal attacks showcasing your disdain for the 99%.

What does that say about you since, if we're to believe you, there's a few billion more resources at your disposal than mine?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, September 6, 2018 4:45 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

I'm doing fine, Second. I guess you haven't been paying attention. I'm happier these days than I've been in many years, and that even includes the ones where I made a great buck.

Don't talk to me about knowledge or learning either, son. I'd love to play you in a game of chess one day and crush that pathetic little ego of yours.

I've made so many improvements in my life on so many fronts in the last 20 months it's stupid. All you've done is bitch and whine about everything and lace every single post of yours with personal attacks showcasing your disdain for the 99%.

What does that say about you since, if we're to believe you, there's a few billion more resources at your disposal than mine?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

6ix, where did your imagination get the idea of $billions? You meant $millions, right?

Try playing chess against a machine, not against me www.chess.com/play/computer
while set on level 10, Grandmaster. Come back and brag about how well you did.

Once you have lost a few games, then take note that AI is predicted to seriously disrupt jobs that require intelligence. You are safe, 6ix. Your job can’t be automated away by a computer and you work too cheaply to be replaced by an expensive robot. You have job security! Thank Trump!
www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2018/04/18/will-robots-and-ai-take-you
r-job-the-economic-and-political-consequences-of-automation
/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, September 7, 2018 11:27 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


There has never been a clearer contrast between what Republicans say and what they do than there is now. The two main topics in American public life at the moment are the Supreme Court and the basic unfitness of the president for office. Yet in the name of the former, Republican legislators aren’t acting to do anything about the latter.

Given that Republicans have only a 51-49 majority in the Senate, a mere two Republican defections could put Kavanaugh’s nomination in serious jeopardy. Trump really wants Kavanaugh on the Court, and so does the rest of the party. This gives the three Trump-skeptical Republicans (Ben Sasse, Jeff Flake, and Bob Corker) a good deal of leverage over the president: the power to withhold their vote on a top Trump and GOP priority unless something is done to reel Trump in.

They could hold up the nomination until Trump agrees to sign a bill that would prevent him from firing special counsel Robert Mueller (such a bill has already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee). They could demand a passage of a bill restraining Trump’s ability to cavalierly launch a war (Senate Democrats have written such a bill). They could pass legislation preventing the president from unilaterally withdrawing from trade deals and international organizations like NATO (there is, you guessed it, a Senate bill for that).

They could demand real Senate investigations into Trump’s conflict of interests, or force him to release his tax returns — the list goes on and on and on.

But the Sasse-Corker-Flake triumvirate hasn’t done any of that. They haven’t even hinted at doing anything. The Trump skeptics in the GOP expose their own rhetoric as profoundly hollow.

More at www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/7/17829146/trump-brett-kavanaug
h-nyt-op-ed


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, September 7, 2018 12:23 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

I'm doing fine, Second. I guess you haven't been paying attention. I'm happier these days than I've been in many years, and that even includes the ones where I made a great buck.

Don't talk to me about knowledge or learning either, son. I'd love to play you in a game of chess one day and crush that pathetic little ego of yours.

I've made so many improvements in my life on so many fronts in the last 20 months it's stupid. All you've done is bitch and whine about everything and lace every single post of yours with personal attacks showcasing your disdain for the 99%.

What does that say about you since, if we're to believe you, there's a few billion more resources at your disposal than mine?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

6ix, where did your imagination get the idea of $billions? You meant $millions, right?

Try playing chess against a machine, not against me www.chess.com/play/computer
while set on level 10, Grandmaster. Come back and brag about how well you did.

Once you have lost a few games, then take note that AI is predicted to seriously disrupt jobs that require intelligence. You are safe, 6ix. Your job can’t be automated away by a computer and you work too cheaply to be replaced by an expensive robot. You have job security! Thank Trump!
www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2018/04/18/will-robots-and-ai-take-you
r-job-the-economic-and-political-consequences-of-automation
/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



Why would I thank Trump about that?

I've already said quite a few times that the upward trajectory in my life is all mine to claim credit for, starting with going sober nearly two months after I voted for him.

Trump has nothing to do with any of it, and Hillary wouldn't have either.

On the contrary, I'm continually arguing that the Unemployment Rate and overall economy outlook numbers are bullshit. (A thought that Trump once shared before he was in the office and quickly began taking credit for any meaningless increases in either, that are themselves still based off of bullshit numbers). This is something that Hillary would have done as well. Seems to be part of the job.




But yeah... you're right. I do have a lot of job security at my wage and the type of work that I do. And as time goes on there will be less and less of the better and higher paying jobs and more jobs like these out there. I made the money I needed to live when I could, and now I'm just going to opt out of everything. I'll leave the stress for you 1%'ers. Enjoy!

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, September 8, 2018 7:04 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Obama Is Into New Things

In a series of striking passages that momentarily abandoned the subject of Trump and turned instead to quotidian policy, Obama said “Democrats aren’t just running on good old ideas like a higher minimum wage; they’re running on good new ideas like Medicare-for-all, giving workers seats on corporate boards, reversing the most egregious corporate tax cuts to make sure college students graduate.”

He argued that “people are tired of toxic corruption, and ... democracy depends on transparency and accountability, so Democrats aren’t just running on good old ideas like requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns, but on good new ideas like barring lobbyists from getting paid by foreign governments.”

Medicare-for-all is, of course, not really a new idea, and Obama has equivocally praised it since before he was president. But it reentered the political conversation precisely as a challenge to his signature domestic policy legacy, so giving it his imprimatur in this context is striking. So is his praise of codetermination, an idea championed this year by Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) that was nowhere on the agenda in 2016.

But most striking of all were his remarks about “toxic corruption,” which went beyond accusing Trump officials of violating existing laws to argue that the political rules his own administration has operated under are inadequate.

Some of this is simply intraparty bridge-building, but it more fundamentally owns up to the fact that Obama’s eight years in office simply did not fulfill the full promises of his 2008 campaign and it’s okay for Democrats to say that. Adopting a pro-change disposition, meanwhile, allows for a reframing of the critical issue of Trump and race.

More at www.vox.com/2018/9/7/17832276/obama-speech-trump-midterms

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, September 8, 2018 7:43 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
...so Democrats aren’t just running on good old ideas like requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns, but on good new ideas like barring lobbyists from getting paid by foreign governments.”



Great! That's excellent news. So I can expect that we won't have a Democratic presidential candidate who's spouse recently received a million dollar birthday present from the Prince of Qatar in 2020 then?



BTW... anybody who didn't bother to actually read more than the headline of Second's quoted article, if you scroll down to the fifth paragraph, you'll see that every word from his post is copied straight from the article, even though it isn't quoted as such. Go figure, huh?


My tell was that I'm sure he has no idea what the word "quotidian" means. Leave it to Vox to use such lofty and elitist rhetoric instead of just using the word "daily".




(LOL... the quotidian word for quotidian is daily.)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, September 8, 2018 8:32 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

(LOL... the quotidian word for quotidian is daily.)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

6ix, get a dictionary. Or is that too "elitist" for you? (You self-diagnosed why you and average Trump voters (the non-rich ones) have great difficulty maneuvering in this world. Is Maneuver too elitist? Is your general knowledge too little for success in the 21st century?)

quo·tid·i·an
kwo'tide n/

adjective: quotidian

of or occurring every day; daily.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, September 8, 2018 8:41 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

(LOL... the quotidian word for quotidian is daily.)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

6ix, get a dictionary. Or is that too "elitist" for you? (You self-diagnosed why you and average Trump voters (the non-rich ones) have great difficulty maneuvering in this world. Is Maneuver too elitist? Is your general knowledge too little for success in the 21st century?)

quo·tid·i·an
kwo'tide n/

adjective: quotidian

of or occurring every day; daily.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



LOL! Whatever you say, genius.

Quote:

quo·tid·i·an
kwo'tide?n/
adjective
adjective: quotidian

of or occurring every day; daily.
"the car sped noisily off through the quotidian traffic"
ordinary or everyday, especially when mundane.
"his story is an achingly human one, mired in quotidian details"
synonyms: daily, everyday, day-to-day, diurnal More



LOL... the quotidian (Definition 2) word for quotidian is daily (Definition 1).

There's oftentimes more than one meaning to a word in the dictionary, Second. Then again, I wouldn't expect you to know that since you rarely ever read past an article headline when it says what you want it to say.

(Care to try to match wits with me again? I'm enjoying myself.)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, September 8, 2018 10:52 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

...Every word from his post is copied straight from the article, even though it isn't quote as such. - SIX
I have asked SIX more than a few times to use the "quote" function to help us sort out HIS words from someone else's. I've seen SECOND "lead in" with a comment that has nothing to do with the article that he's kiping, or link articles that have nothing to do with the words on the page. I guess he figures that if he firehoses the board with undigested schiess, some of it will stick.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Saturday, September 8, 2018 12:28 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

I have asked SIX...


I'm sure you meant Second.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, September 8, 2018 6:28 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

I have asked SIX...SIGNY

I'm sure you meant Second. -SIX



Oh dear! :embarrassed: Yes, I meant SECOND. Sorry about that! Was in a hurry, had to meet with a contractor. A thousand apologies!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Sunday, September 9, 2018 8:06 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

I have asked SIX...SIGNY

I'm sure you meant Second. -SIX



Oh dear! :embarrassed: Yes, I meant SECOND. Sorry about that! Was in a hurry, had to meet with a contractor. A thousand apologies!

Not voting for the GOP is a vote to impeach Trump, says Trump:

“Trump has demonstrated his mastery of winning the news every day,” Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) said. “No matter what it is that’s going on in our country or the world, he wants to be the subject of the news, and he has taken at times dramatic, sometimes alarming, often unsettling steps to ensure that he is what we’re talking about, for better or worse, almost every day.”

The one-two punch of the Woodward book and anonymous Times column inspired Trump to take the extraordinary step of publicly defending his very mental capacity.

“I can’t get up and talk in front of a crowd, many times without notes, for an hour and 25 minutes and get the biggest crowds in the history of politics . . . you don’t get up and do that because you don’t know how to think or talk,” Trump told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One. “You can only do that if you’re at a very, very high level. I’m highly educated and always did well — always did well — no matter what I did.”

The night before, at a campaign rally in Billings, Mont., Trump boiled the Democratic campaign agenda down to a single word: Impeach. The president’s oversimplification placed himself at the heart of the campaign, with Trump offering up his political future as a central reason to vote Republican.

“They like to use the impeach word. ‘Impeach Trump,’ ” he said. “I say, ‘How do you impeach somebody that’s doing a great job that hasn’t done anything wrong?’ . . . If it does happen, it’s your fault, because you didn’t go out to vote.”

www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-colors-the-fall-campaign-landsca
pe-‘he’s-been-the-only-thing-that-matters’/ar-BBN3Jsu?ocid=spartanntp


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Sunday, September 9, 2018 9:03 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

I have asked SIX...SIGNY

I'm sure you meant Second. -SIX



Oh dear! :embarrassed: Yes, I meant SECOND. Sorry about that! Was in a hurry, had to meet with a contractor. A thousand apologies!



No worries. I knew what you meant.

I was really just using that as a means to bump the thread and see if Second wanted to play another game of chess, which apparently he has no interest in doing.

Can't say I blame him. ;)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, September 9, 2018 10:16 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

I was really just using that as a means to bump the thread and see if Second wanted to play another game of chess, which apparently he has no interest in doing.

Can't say I blame him. ;)

Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro put it most succinctly: “Obama lecturing us is LITERALLY how you got Trump.”

You see this on the right a lot, and I’ve come to think it the most revealing argument in conservative politics right now. It’s a truth the right refuses to follow to its obvious conclusions.

Let’s state the obvious, and state it neutrally: Republican voters responded to the eight years of Obama’s presidency by turning to Trump. The question is why.

Obama blames demographic and technological shifts that scrambled our economic, social, religious, and civic institutions. Shapiro blames an emotional reaction to the first black president.

These answers omit the information the other includes. Obama left himself out of his explanation. Shapiro left everything except Obama out. But combine them and you get something convincing: Donald Trump capitalized on fears triggered by demographic, technological, economic, social, religious, and civic change, and nothing represented or activated those fears as powerfully as Obama himself.

Political scientist Michael Tesler found that the most racially resentful Americans were the most economically pessimistic before the 2016 election and the most economically optimistic after it. Why?

The term “white fragility” is overused in politics right now, but it is relevant here: Republican voters enthusiastically supported the candidate who promised to turn back the demographic clock.

Trump, for all his flaws, ran a campaign based on clear positions and aspirations. He promised to build a wall; he said that our country was being weakened by louche**, violent, parasitic immigrants; he said Obama was an illegitimate president with a forged birth certificate; he vowed to stop Muslims from traveling to the country; and in every speech, at every turn, he promised to turn back the clock, to make America great again.

Obama is a symbol of a changing America, of white America’s loss of power. That perception wasn’t incorrect: In his 2012 reelection campaign, Obama won only 39 percent of the white vote. A few decades ago, the multiracial Obama coalition couldn’t drive American politics; by 2012, it could.

For all Shapiro’s focus on Obama’s “lecturing,” the reality is that Obama’s presidency was framed in the most threatening possible terms in 2009. Rush Limbaugh, whom Shapiro has honored as “one of the founders of the modern conservative movement,” told his millions of listeners:

“How do you get promoted in a Barack Obama administration? By hating white people, or even saying you do, or that they’re not good, or whatever. Make white people the new oppressed minority, and they are going along with it, because they’re shutting up. They’re moving to the back of the bus. They’re saying I can’t use that drinking fountain, okay. I can’t use that restroom, okay. That’s the modern day Republican Party, the equivalent of the Old South, the new oppressed minority.”

On its face, this is laughable. But Limbaugh’s audience wasn’t laughing. They were listening. And it wasn’t just politics they were reacting to. The changes that led to Obama’s presidency are everywhere in our culture. We live in an America where television programs, commercials, and movies are trying to represent a browner country; where Black Panther is a celebrated cultural event and #OscarsSoWhite is a nationally known hashtag; where Colin Kaepernick is leading Nike ads and pressing 1 for English is commonplace.

So yes, all of this led to Trump. Where Obama and Shapiro differ sharply in their explanation is in the attribution of blame. Obama blames Trump and conservative media for demagogically preying on Americans’ fears and anxieties. Shapiro blames Obama for adopting a lecturing tone that alienated a critical mass of Americans.

More at www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/7/17832104/barack-obama-donald-
trump-ben-shapiro-speech


** (For 6ix, who knows not of dictionaries: louche is defined as disreputable or sordid in a rakish or appealing way. "the louche world of the theater")

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Sunday, September 9, 2018 11:50 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:

** (For 6ix, who knows not of dictionaries: louche is defined as disreputable or sordid in a rakish or appealing way. "the louche world of the theater")



You're still on that, son?

I've already schooled you in your inability to use a dictionary properly. Why are you pretending that that didn't just happen?

How very louche of you.

(by Mirriam Webster's one and only definition of the word: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/louche, which says nothing about being rakish or appealing, btw.)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, September 10, 2018 7:38 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


The Senate is poised to confirm Judge Kavanaugh, who will decide, in the foreseeable future, whether Trump is above the law. The president’s claimed immunity from any investigation, or suit, or any legal consequences — claims Trump proffers regularly — will be decided by a justice who has already made clear in his writings and speeches that at least in principle he supports such claims. The nominee refuses to discuss this possibility, and that is his prerogative. But senators are not required by any ethical rules to pretend that this scenario may not ever happen. They are, in fact, obligated by their oaths of office to at least imagine that it will.

Judge Kavanaugh has expressed more extreme views of presidential power than any Supreme Court nominee in our history. Through his long career, his writings and speeches have shown that he does not believe the president can be forced to comply with a subpoena. He does not believe the president can be subjected to criminal or civil proceedings while in office. And he is among the most extreme proponents of the “unitary executive” — the theory that the president has total power to control the entire executive branch, which would include his ability to fire his prosecutors, obstruct justice, and more — on any level of the federal bench.

It is folly to believe that the judge’s extreme executive-power beliefs were lost on the president when Kavanaugh — who was not even under consideration for the seat filled by Justice Gorsuch — was anointed as the nominee. The president, after all, is now subject to multiple criminal investigations and civil lawsuits. It is hardly unimaginable that Donald Trump believed he could protect himself by nominating a justice who believes in extraordinarily broad presidential power. Nor does one have to reach far to imagine these issues being discussed privately with Judge Kavanaugh before he was selected. While he declined to discuss it in his hearings, one of his close friends works for the law firm that once represented Trump on these issues.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/how-brett-kavanaughs-confi
rmation-allows-corker-flake-and-sasse-to-constrain-trump.html


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, September 10, 2018 8:29 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Trump administration to take tough stance against International Criminal Court, threatening sanctions against ICC judges if they proceed with an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Americans in Afghanistan. The court’s aim is to bring to justice the perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, is to make the announcement in a midday speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative group, in Washington. It will be his first major address since joining the Trump White House.

Bolton’s draft speech says the Trump administration “will fight back” if the ICC proceeds with opening an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by U.S. service members and intelligence professionals during the war in Afghanistan.

If such an inquiry goes ahead, the Trump administration will consider banning judges and prosecutors from entering the United States, put sanctions on any funds they have in the U.S. financial system and prosecute them in American courts.

“We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us,” says Bolton’s draft text.

Because of Republicans in the Senate, the United States never ratified the Rome treaty that established the ICC in 2002. President George W. Bush was opposed to the court, but he tortured prisoners, so what else would you expect? Bush’s successor, President Barack Obama, took some steps to cooperate with ICC.

www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-icc/trump-administration-to-take-
tough-stance-against-international-criminal-court-idUSKCN1LQ076


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, September 11, 2018 6:08 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


According to Trump there is no such thing as the greenhouse gas effect, also global warming does not exist. It follows that the “Trump Administration Wants to Make It Easier to Release Methane Into Air”

The Trump administration, taking its third major step this year to roll back federal efforts to fight climate change, is preparing to make it significantly easier for energy companies to release methane into the atmosphere.

Methane, which is among the most powerful greenhouse gases, routinely leaks from oil and gas wells, and energy companies have long said that the rules requiring them to test for emissions were costly and burdensome.

The Environmental Protection Agency, perhaps as soon as this week, plans to make public a proposal to weaken an Obama-era requirement that companies monitor and repair methane leaks.

The new rules follow two regulatory rollbacks this year that, taken together, represent the foundation of the United States’ effort to rein in global warming. In July, the E.P.A. proposed weakening a rule on carbon dioxide pollution from vehicle tailpipes. And in August, the agency proposed replacing the rule on carbon dioxide pollution from coal-fired power plants with a weaker one that would allow far more global-warming emissions to flow unchecked from the nation’s smokestacks.

More at www.nytimes.com/2018/09/10/climate/methane-emissions-epa.html

Stephen Hawking feared Donald Trump's policies on global warming could endanger the planet and make global warming irreversible. He said, "Climate change is one of the great dangers we face, and it's one we can prevent if we act now. By denying the evidence for climate change, and pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, Donald Trump will cause avoidable environmental damage to our beautiful planet, endangering the natural world, for us and our children." – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking#Politics

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, September 11, 2018 11:45 AM

CAPTAINCRUNCH

... stay crunchy...


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
According to Trump there is no such thing as the greenhouse gas effect, also global warming does not exist. It follows that the “Trump Administration Wants to Make It Easier to Release Methane Into Air”

The Trump administration, taking its third major step this year to roll back federal efforts to fight climate change, is preparing to make it significantly easier for energy companies to release methane into the atmosphere.

Methane, which is among the most powerful greenhouse gases, routinely leaks from oil and gas wells, and energy companies have long said that the rules requiring them to test for emissions were costly and burdensome.

The Environmental Protection Agency, perhaps as soon as this week, plans to make public a proposal to weaken an Obama-era requirement that companies monitor and repair methane leaks.

The new rules follow two regulatory rollbacks this year that, taken together, represent the foundation of the United States’ effort to rein in global warming. In July, the E.P.A. proposed weakening a rule on carbon dioxide pollution from vehicle tailpipes. And in August, the agency proposed replacing the rule on carbon dioxide pollution from coal-fired power plants with a weaker one that would allow far more global-warming emissions to flow unchecked from the nation’s smokestacks.

More at www.nytimes.com/2018/09/10/climate/methane-emissions-epa.html

Stephen Hawking feared Donald Trump's policies on global warming could endanger the planet and make global warming irreversible. He said, "Climate change is one of the great dangers we face, and it's one we can prevent if we act now. By denying the evidence for climate change, and pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, Donald Trump will cause avoidable environmental damage to our beautiful planet, endangering the natural world, for us and our children." – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking#Politics




I can't think of a single thing he's done that's helpful for this country - in fact, I can't think of anything he's done that isn't harmful for this country.

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Wednesday, September 12, 2018 7:49 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


GOP Senator Ted Cruz rose to fame for his anti-establishment political theater in Washington. This was the senator who read Green Eggs and Ham to shut down the government over Obamacare and repeatedly trashed his own party as part of his political strategy.

When GOP political fund-raiser Mulvaney told donors that “likability” could be an issue in the race to be reelected Senator from Texas, it’s because not too long ago, Cruz had a reputation for being the worst.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) once joked that if you “killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.” Former Republican House Speaker John Boehner called him a “miserable son of a bitch.”

That persona propelled Cruz to the national stage with a presidential bid that was supposed to take the I’ll-be-an-asshole-for-America mantra all the way to the White House. Then Trump happened, and beat Cruz at his own game.

As Al Weaver detailed in the Washington Examiner earlier this summer, in the age of Trump, Cruz’s style has been much more muted. The most generous Republican observers say he’s been playing inside the state instead of on the national stage. More critical observers would say he’s unable to rival Trump’s antics.

More at www.vox.com/2018/9/12/17841716/ted-cruz-beto-orourke-senate-midterm

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, September 12, 2018 7:58 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by captaincrunch:
I can't think of a single thing he's done that's helpful for this country - in fact, I can't think of anything he's done that isn't harmful for this country.



Of course you can't.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, September 13, 2018 6:12 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


On the Tenth Anniversary of the global financial system freefall
www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/opinion/botching-the-great-recession.html

Why didn’t we get the fiscal policy we should have had? There were, I’d say, multiple villains in the story.

First, we can argue whether the Obama administration could have gotten more from Congress; that’s a debate we’ll never see resolved. What is clear, however, is that at least some key Obama figures were actively opposed to giving the economy the support it needed. “Stimulus is sugar,” snapped Tim Geithner at Christina Romer, when she argued for a bigger plan. (Romer was Obama's Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers; Geithner was Secretary of the Treasury.)

Second, Very Serious People pivoted very early from concern about the unemployed to hysteria over deficits. By 2011, unemployment was still over 9 percent, but all the Beltway crowd wanted to talk about was the menace of the debt.

Finally, Republicans blocked attempts to rescue the economy and tried to strangle government spending every step of the way. They claimed that this was because they cared about fiscal responsibility – but it was obvious to anyone paying attention (which unfortunately didn’t include almost anyone in the news media) that this was an insincere, bad-faith argument. As we’ve now seen, they don’t care at all about deficits as long as a Republican is in the White House and the deficits are the counterpart of tax cuts for the rich.

The end result was that policy moved quickly and fairly effectively to rescue banks, then turned its back on mass unemployment. There’s every reason to believe that if we have another crisis, it will happen all over again.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, September 13, 2018 9:24 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


The biggest policy mistake of the last decade

After the 2008 financial crisis, old-fashioned Keynesians offered a simple fix: Stimulate the economy. With idle capacity and unemployed workers, nations could restore economic production at essentially zero real cost. It helped the U.S. in the Great Depression and it could help the U.S. in the Great Recession too.

But during and immediately after the crisis, neoliberal and conservative forces attacked the Keynesian school of thought from multiple directions. Stimulus couldn't work because of some weird debt trigger condition, or because it would cause hyperinflation, or because unemployment was "structural," or because of a "skills gap," or because of adverse demographic trends.

Well going on 10 years later, the evidence is in: The anti-Keynesian forces have been proved conclusively mistaken on every single argument. Their refusal to pick up what amounted to a multiple-trillion-dollar bill sitting on the sidewalk is the greatest mistake of economic policy analysis since 1929.

More at http://theweek.com/articles/789956/biggest-policy-mistake-last-decade

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, September 13, 2018 9:44 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Keynesian economics is a Ponzi Scheme.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, September 14, 2018 7:17 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Keynesian economics is a Ponzi Scheme.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Did you learn that from your Republican neighbors? There are two parts to Keynesian economics and I have never known a Trump voter who understood both Parts, except for the rich Trump voters. Part 1, where America is now, the National Debt is suppose to shrink because the total economy is doing well (even if you are not doing all that well) and there is more than enough economic activity to justify an unbalanced budget, where the federal government receives more taxes than it spends. Part 2, where America was 10 years ago, the National Debt increases because the total economy is doing poorly and tax revenue drops while expenses rise.

America never gets to Part 1, except when Democrats have some control, and younger Democratic Congressmen say that if the GOP won't do it when it is in control, why should we? The older Democrats, Pelosi for one example, know why.

"Nancy Pelosi Promises That Democrats Will Handcuff The Democratic Agenda If They Retake The House:

In the first outline of the legislative agenda House Democrats would pursue if they take the majority in November, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has made the public a big promise, vowing to handcuff her party's progressive ambitions, including in the event that a Democratic president succeeds Donald Trump, by resurrecting the 'pay-go' rule that mandates all new spending is offset with budget cuts or tax increases. Along the way, she is playing into the hands of Republican strategists eager to warn voters that Democrats' top priority is raising taxes. Forcing budget offsets for every piece of legislation would make it more difficult for Democrats to pass a host of liberal agenda items, from 'Medicare for All' to tuition-free public college. It continues a trend of Democrats caring far more about deficits than Republicans, constraining the activist impulses of liberal policymakers while giving conservatives free rein to blow giant holes in the tax code."

More at https://theintercept.com/2018/09/04/nancy-pelosi-2018-midterms-democra
ts
/

Progressives Denounce Pelosi for Obsession With 'Economically Illiterate and Politically Insane' Pay-Go Rule
Instead of vowing a balanced budget, Democrats should be articulating an agenda that excites voters so that they can unleash the full power of the public purse on their behalf.

More at www.commondreams.org/news/2018/09/05/progressives-denounce-pelosi-obse
ssion-economically-illiterate-and-politically
/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, September 14, 2018 8:05 AM

CAPTAINCRUNCH

... stay crunchy...


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by captaincrunch:
I can't think of a single thing he's done that's helpful for this country - in fact, I can't think of anything he's done that isn't harmful for this country.



Of course you can't.



Yep, and you can't either - not without googling and getting some dodgy list from a Republican web site that says, "Not as bad as Hillary would have been! Not as bad as that black fella was!"

Go ahead - without searching what's he done that's been beneficial for a majority of Americans, not the 1%?

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Friday, September 14, 2018 10:47 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by captaincrunch:

Yep, and you can't either - not without googling and getting some dodgy list from a Republican web site that says, "Not as bad as Hillary would have been! Not as bad as that black fella was!"

Go ahead - without searching what's he done that's been beneficial for a majority of Americans, not the 1%?

I get a daily newsletter from Trump called “1600 Daily” where his staff can brag about achievements. They tried to be proud, but they gave up in discouragement. The White House’s website deleted the whole archive of its daily newsletters this week. https://qz.com/1388315/

They keep trying to give Trump credit for things the Federal government would do whether Trump is dead or alive or in a mental state between death and life where he is in a coma or unaware about what his departments are doing. As inattentive as Trump is, how the hell did he stay in business without going bankrupt? I want to see Trump's tax returns so I can learn how he did it. So would Mueller.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, September 14, 2018 12:44 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by captaincrunch:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by captaincrunch:
I can't think of a single thing he's done that's helpful for this country - in fact, I can't think of anything he's done that isn't harmful for this country.



Of course you can't.



Yep, and you can't either - not without googling and getting some dodgy list from a Republican web site that says, "Not as bad as Hillary would have been! Not as bad as that black fella was!"

Go ahead - without searching what's he done that's been beneficial for a majority of Americans, not the 1%?



Health insurance increase in premiums for the middle class, although still very high, were half of what they have been in years.

Immigration crackdown.

Paris accord middle finger.

NAFTA/TTIP.

Oh, right. You said one. My bad.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, September 14, 2018 1:44 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Immigration crackdown.

Too bad that crackdown has not caused a decrease in illegal aliens because that is the entire point of the crackdown. When will the numbers drop by a million? Then by two million? Four million? Eight million? Trump has not given himself a goal or a schedule or even released official numbers of illegal aliens living in the US. The official number stopped being updated in 2014. You know what? I don't think Trump has a plan, even a secret one. And when will that Texas/Mexico wall be finished? Sorry, no planned year for finishing. No government shutdown, either, although Trump said he would if he doesn't get more funding for the Wall. I bet he won't.

www.factcheck.org/2018/06/illegal-immigration-statistics/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigrant_population_of_the_Unit
ed_States


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, September 14, 2018 4:56 PM

CAPTAINCRUNCH

... stay crunchy...


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by captaincrunch:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by captaincrunch:
I can't think of a single thing he's done that's helpful for this country - in fact, I can't think of anything he's done that isn't harmful for this country.



Of course you can't.



Yep, and you can't either - not without googling and getting some dodgy list from a Republican web site that says, "Not as bad as Hillary would have been! Not as bad as that black fella was!"

Go ahead - without searching what's he done that's been beneficial for a majority of Americans, not the 1%?



Health insurance increase in premiums for the middle class, although still very high, were half of what they have been in years.

Immigration crackdown.

Paris accord middle finger.

NAFTA/TTIP.

Oh, right. You said one. My bad.




So zero then just like I said.

Health insurance increase in premiums for the middle class, although still very high, were half of what they have been in years. > mine increased the last 2 years.

Immigration crackdown. > Yeah, "f*ckin darkies" is a great policy.

Paris accord middle finger. - Explain why. I bet you we'll be trying to bet back in when we see how much fun everyone else is having. You know why Trump doesn't like these International group things? Because he's intimidated by them. He knows he's an idiot and it's even more apparent to him when he's out of the country. You can see him fumbling.

NAFTA/TTIP. Eh? Why? And don't just repeat ZeroHedge or ZeroSiggy.

"You said one. My bad." Yep so far you got zero. Like I said...

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Friday, September 14, 2018 8:49 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by captaincrunch:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by captaincrunch:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by captaincrunch:
I can't think of a single thing he's done that's helpful for this country - in fact, I can't think of anything he's done that isn't harmful for this country.



Of course you can't.



Yep, and you can't either - not without googling and getting some dodgy list from a Republican web site that says, "Not as bad as Hillary would have been! Not as bad as that black fella was!"

Go ahead - without searching what's he done that's been beneficial for a majority of Americans, not the 1%?



Health insurance increase in premiums for the middle class, although still very high, were half of what they have been in years.

Immigration crackdown.

Paris accord middle finger.

NAFTA/TTIP.

Oh, right. You said one. My bad.




So zero then just like I said.

Health insurance increase in premiums for the middle class, although still very high, were half of what they have been in years. > mine increased the last 2 years.


Yes. They did. 2 years ago it was one of the huge blows to Clinton's run as president as the increases came in everyone's mailboxes a week to 10 days before the election. Last year, as I stated, they were still high, but they were half of what they had been in the previous years on average.

Quote:

Immigration crackdown. > Yeah, "f*ckin darkies" is a great policy.


If you've got the mentality of a kindergartner and that's your takeaway from it. lol

Quote:

Paris accord middle finger. - Explain why. I bet you we'll be trying to bet back in when we see how much fun everyone else is having. You know why Trump doesn't like these International group things? Because he's intimidated by them. He knows he's an idiot and it's even more apparent to him when he's out of the country. You can see him fumbling.


I'm still having fun.

Quote:

NAFTA/TTIP. Eh? Why? And don't just repeat ZeroHedge or ZeroSiggy.


You told me not to google it. You tell me why not. You can use google if you so choose.

Quote:

"You said one. My bad." Yep so far you got zero. Like I said...


LOL... you and reaverfan are priceless. "It's not true, because!"

At least you didn't call me a Nazi or a Commie like he would have.

Thanks!

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, September 14, 2018 9:17 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


SECOND, from your links ...
Quote:

The Pew Research Center found a peak of 12.2 million in the population in 2007, decreases for 2008 and 2009, and then a “relative stability” since then.
But the last year for which data is available (at least, in your article) is 2014 or 2015. Which makes your point irrelevant. ALSO from your link
Quote:

Under the Obama administration, the yearly apprehensions on the Southwest border declined by 35 percent from calendar year 2008, the year before President Obama took office, through the end of 2016. In President Donald Trump’s first full year in office, the apprehensions declined by 43 percent, from calendar year 2016 to 2017.
So Trump achieved a higher reduction in one year than Obama did in eight?

According to other sources ...

Trump's immigration enforcement helps slow illegal border crossings by 76%
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/may/9/illegal-immigration-so
uthwest-border-down-70-pct
/

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

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Saturday, September 15, 2018 8:03 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND, from your links ...
Quote:

The Pew Research Center found a peak of 12.2 million in the population in 2007, decreases for 2008 and 2009, and then a “relative stability” since then.
But the last year for which data is available (at least, in your article) is 2014 or 2015. Which makes your point irrelevant. ALSO from your link
Quote:

Under the Obama administration, the yearly apprehensions on the Southwest border declined by 35 percent from calendar year 2008, the year before President Obama took office, through the end of 2016. In President Donald Trump’s first full year in office, the apprehensions declined by 43 percent, from calendar year 2016 to 2017.
So Trump achieved a higher reduction in one year than Obama did in eight?

According to other sources ...

Trump's immigration enforcement helps slow illegal border crossings by 76%
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/may/9/illegal-immigration-so
uthwest-border-down-70-pct
/

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

As of this week, there are 12,800 immigrant children being cared for by the Health and Human Services Department.

But there are 12.8 million illegal aliens living long-term inside America and Trump has NOT made a dent in the numbers. What is he waiting for?

I know why Trump is going after the children and their mothers as they cross the border: they don't have cars or money. They can't run fast. They are easy, very easy, to catch. On the other hand, the 12.8 million long-term resident illegal aliens are evading arrest and deportation. Trump needs to make a real plan to remove millions of them. It will be a plan that Trump needs to submit to Congress before requesting the money to make the millions of deportations possible. But Trump does not have a plan.

Trump does not even have a plan to write a plan. He is just improvising from day to day. It is exactly like the Texas/Mexico wall. Trump said he would shutdown the government if he does not get funding for his wall. And he will never get his funding until he actually does shutdown government. He will need to make a similar threat against Congress if Trump wants the money he needs to deport 12.8 million illegal aliens. The aliens aren't gonna pay for their deportation. Neither will Mexico pay for the Texas/Mexico wall, the big idea Trump had to finance the wall.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Sunday, September 16, 2018 5:58 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


America’s declining power

UN chief Antonio Guterres says the “attraction of American society” is less clear today than a few decades ago. A few years ago is more precise, but less diplomatic.

www.vox.com/world/2018/9/14/17860182/guterres-interview-america-trump-
atlantic


The United States once touted itself as a “city on a hill” — a country whose strength and influence in the world came from the power of its example. The root of that strength, ultimately, lay in the allure of American society.

Now, the head of the United Nations is warning that that allure may no longer be as compelling to the rest of the world as it once was — and that America’s power is being weakened because of it.

The “attraction of American society that was a dominant factor in international relations just a few decades ago is today less clear,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with the Atlantic’s Uri Friedman on Thursday.

Guterres didn’t mention President Donald Trump by name, but he didn’t have to. Instead, he cited America’s new, more belligerent approach to trade, its hostility to curbing climate change, and its retreat from standing up for human rights around the world. All of these changes stem from Trump’s foreign policy and his antipathy to so-called “globalism.”

But Guterres also noted that America’s dulling shine isn’t just about its own actions. Other countries — mainly China — and have started to gain influence around the world while America loses it. Which means that Trump’s policies — which purposely eschew international cooperation and engagement — come at the most inopportune time.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Sunday, September 16, 2018 6:23 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Under the Obama administration, the yearly apprehensions on the Southwest border declined by 35 percent from calendar year 2008, the year before President Obama took office, through the end of 2016. In President Donald Trump’s first full year in office, the apprehensions declined by 43 percent, from calendar year 2016 to 2017. So Trump achieved a higher reduction in one year than Obama did in eight?

According to other sources ...

Trump's immigration enforcement helps slow illegal border crossings by 76%
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/may/9/illegal-immigration-so
uthwest-border-down-70-pct
/

Trump must do more than routine enforcement along the border. To reduce the illegal alien population by 12 million in the next 6 years will require thousands of extraordinary raids every month by Trump. Those cost money. For an example:
www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Immigratio
n-raid-illuminates-a-fractured-America-13230026.php
Quote:

PARIS, Texas — When he heard the helicopter, Juan Esquivel was halfway through his 6 a.m. shift at Load Trail, a northeast Texas trailer manufacturer. Maybe someone needed a medical evacuation, he thought.

He was wrong.

Federal agents were swarming the property near the city of Paris that morning on Aug. 28. They rounded up 159 employees who they believed immigrated here illegally, including Esquivel, who is 39 and has lived in the United States for 23 years.

The event was big news in the area, where voters overwhelmingly supported President Donald Trump. Some found themselves grappling with the personal consequences of hard-line immigration policies on their neighbors. Others continued with life as usual, standing strong in their views that deportation is deserved for people who come here illegally.

It will take hundreds of raids per week, going year after year, to roundup 12 million illegals. I don't think Trump has the guts to keep pushing his agents to do it. (He was unaware of the Paris raid, but to ramp up raids to a much higher level, Trump will have to get involved.) I know he doesn't have the money, yet, from Congress.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, September 17, 2018 7:01 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Political pundits sometimes talk about “Trump derangement syndrome” — a condition, supposedly, in which his presidency has made Democrats go crazy. Except that it hasn’t.

To take just one example: Democratic leaders refuse to push for impeachment. There is strong evidence that Trump has broken the law, both by obstructing justice and by using the presidency to enrich himself. Still, they say the country should wait for Robert Mueller’s investigation to finish. I think that’s wise. Either way, it’s certainly not deranged.

Democrats have indeed moved somewhat to the left over the last few decades, on both social and economic issues. The last 15 years have nudged open-minded people to the political left: The free market isn’t delivering healthy increases in living standards for most Americans. In response, Democrats are focusing more on using the government to help people.

But think about what a truly left-wing agenda would look like: Top tax rates of 70 percent (which we had as recently as 1980) or higher. A generous “universal basic income.” The elimination of employer-provided health insurance, with a system more like Britain’s. These ideas remain limited to the margins. None is likely to happen even if Democrats sweep the elections of 2020. If you consider yourself a leftist, I understand you are probably frustrated that the Democrats won’t go further. But look at the big picture. The Democratic Party may not have moved nearly as much as you would like, but the party has moved. It has adjusted its agenda in response to soaring inequality and stagnant living standards.

For the most part, the Democratic agenda remains decidedly center-left: Raise taxes on the rich, and use the money to help the middle class and poor. Protect civil rights. Expand educational access. Regulate Wall Street, and fight climate change. Expand health insurance using the current system.

The radical agenda is the Republican agenda: Make climate change worse, unlike almost every other conservative party in the world. Aggravate inequality. Sabotage health-insurance markets. Run up the deficit. Steal a Supreme Court seat. Keep dark-skinned citizens from voting. Protect Trump’s lawlessness.

If you consider yourself a moderate — whether you lean slightly right or slightly left — your choice in this year’s midterms is clear.

The one mistake no voter should make is pretending that the two parties are just different versions of the same thing.

www.nytimes.com/2018/09/16/opinion/columnists/democrats-midterms-progr
essive-left-trump.html


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, September 18, 2018 6:22 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


In 2016, a dozen Senate Republicans — including some moderate ones, but also fussy family values types like Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ben Sasse (R-NE) — took the extraordinary step of saying they wouldn’t vote for Trump. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) even hatched a plan to fully disavow Trump after the election, denouncing not just his specific acts of misconduct but his entire politics of racial demagoguery, as part of a larger plan to rebuild the Republican Party.

But when Trump unexpectedly won the election, all these doubts vanished. Rather than hold Trump once in office to an unusually high standard of conduct, as befitting a man whose fitness for office Republicans professed to question during the campaign, they’ve consistently lowered the bar for him.

No effort has been made by congressional Republicans to hold him to his campaign-era promises to separate his official conduct from his businesses, and every effort has been expended by them to prevent Democrats from forcing any meaningful financial disclosure.

Republicans have decided, essentially uniformly, that the future of the conservative movement hinges on the political success of Donald Trump, and that requires them all to participate in an ongoing multi-faceted coverup of his bad behavior both past and present. The consequences of that decision are both predictable and toxic. Republicans can’t hold Kavanaugh or anyone else accountable — because Trump is president. When it’s not wrong for Trump, it can’t be wrong for Kavanaugh. The conservative movement is becoming a no-standards zone.

More at www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/17/17869978/kavanaugh-trump-sex
ual-assault


Truman, Harry S. 33rd President

https://xkcd.com/2046/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, September 19, 2018 7:03 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


The “lie factory,” as some called Campaigns, Inc. was founded in 1933 by Clem Whitaker and Leone Baxter, who made politics a business. No single development altered the workings of American democracy so wholly as the industry Whitaker and Baxter invented. In the 1934 California gubernatorial race, Campaigns, Inc. was hired by the author Upton Sinclair’s Republican rivals. Sinclair, having written novels in the past, was screwed by his creativity — Whitaker and Baxter printed quotes from his novels as if they were his own opinions, thus smearing his name.

Their strategies were basically: Keep it simple, don’t explain yourself, and repeat, repeat, repeat. If this sounds familiar, that’s because Whitaker and Baxter shaped the way political campaigns would be run ever after. It’s been eighty-five years since they founded their lie factory, and it inspired others, which have been doing booming business ever since. In the 1960s, Leone Baxter finally expressed her reservations about what she’d started, believing that political consulting should remain “in the hands of the most ethical, principled people. People with real concern for the world around them, for people around them, or else it will erode into the hands of people who have no regard for the world around them. It could be a very, very destructive thing.” Well, yes. Baxter apparently became aware of her conscience.

More at "America Doesn’t Have to Be Like This"
www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/09/18/america-doesnt-have-to-be-like-
this
/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, September 20, 2018 6:09 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Kudlow downplays the effect of the GOP tax cuts on budget deficits, saying the shortfalls are due to longer-term spending problems.
www.cnbc.com/2018/09/18/larry-kudlows-entitlement-reform-talk-sparks-d
emocratic-attacks.html


Republicans are gearing up for their latest round of deficit fever. Larry Kudlow, Director of the National Economic Council, previewed this Monday by saying deficits have nothing to do with tax cuts. It’s all about out-of-control spending.

We’re going to be hearing a lot more about this in the coming months, I’m sure, so I figured everyone would welcome a simple chart to help guide our way in this highly complex and technical debate. So here it is: our skyrocketing federal spending. Whatever will we do?

Net Federal Spending as a Fraction of GDP

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=lhML

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, September 20, 2018 1:00 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Trump is retweeting the persistent falsehood that the economy turned on a dime when he won the election and that all of the so-called experts who said it was impossible for the economy to grow this fast were wrong.

“We have the greatest economy ever in the history of our country. So we’re very happy with the way things are running, generally speaking. I don’t think we’ve ever had an economy like this.”
— President Trump, Sept. 19, 2018

For the record, 4% growth happened four times while Barack Obama was president, four times under George W. Bush and one time under Donald Trump.

Furthermore, almost everyone who forecasts the economy saw that the tax cut and the spending bill would be a powerful, if temporary, stimulant to growth this year and next. They predicted the growth that Trump claims no one predicted.

Facts don’t stop Trump from playing a con game. The crux of the lie is to switch the discussion from “what’s possible in the long run” to talking about “what’s do-able for a quarter or two.” And you can always juice the economy in the short run by pumping money into it — just ask John Maynard Keynes.

More, including graphs, at
www.marketwatch.com/story/dont-believe-the-hype-republicans-claims-on-
gdp-growth-are-provably-false-2018-09-19


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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