I trust the opinion of Mrs Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian. She seems to understand the Republican party very well.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I trust the opinion of Mrs Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian. She seems to understand the Republican party very well.
If you think voting for a democrat is going to make things better then you have joined the party.
The system is all the way broken. Voting for the “lesser of 2 evils” is evil in itself. It is what has created the stupid, hateful, murderous system you have.
A vote against the incumbent will help to create a system with justice and concern for all people.
I am not, as a general rule, a very cheerful person, but
had me laugh so hard now I have got cramps. Thank You for the service.
And what rock did you crawl out from under?
Betty Bowers is fantastic. Her video about a “Bible Based Marriage” is the best.
joed
Just wanna say that ‘Voting for the “lesser of 2 evils” is evil in itself,’ is quite possibly the stupidest, most self-contradictory thing I’ve seen espoused in quite a while. Fuckin' eejit.
Vote for Cthulhu for when you’re tired of voting for the lesser of two evils.
“A vote against the incumbent will help to create a system with justice and concern for all people.” is just high-sulphur flatulence, since no alternative is proposed or implied. It could be proposed as well by a theocrat, monarchist, anarchist, communist, fascist, teabagger, libertarian or any random crank.
Personally, come the next UK general election, I’m voting for Voldemort. Not only that but I’m backing his plan to become dictator for life. Only by voting for the greatest evil can we be assured of ‘a system with justice and concern for all people.’
A vote against the incumbent can just result in someone even worse being elected.
Quite how having any of the Republican Presidential candidates elected as opposed to Obama would improve things escapes me. But then my brain is not fucked liked Joed’s/
yeah right. and how exactly is “a republican douchebag as the next president” going to achieve that ?
If you call it ” voting for the better candidate”, will that now make the same action virtuous?
I think joed is setting us up so he can say, “false dichotomy” and sound sooooper smart!
I’m betting libertarian. I’ve seen them insist on things like this in the past, and we all know how they prefer pleasant simplifications of ideology over the harsh complexity of reality.
Wait a second, I think Joed has a point. If you vote for the lesser of two evils you are literally voting for something evil.
Unfortunately, what seems to have escaped Joed’s notice, and I realise this is a complex point, is that when voting for the lesser of two evils YOU GET LESS FUCKING EVIL, YOU STUPID BASTARD!
Now I realise that may be subtle, but it’s an important distinction.
I’m as idealist as the next person (as long as the next person is very idealist), and even I would agree that (from an outsider’s perspective) the US Democrats have been pretty poor of late. But the question that niggles is “how do we get from where we are to where we want to be?”. Now I might have to hand in my Socialist Worker’s Party membership, but I’m not sure that a massive revolution is the only possible way forward. We can evolve towards positions I believe. I read it in a book. Perhaps if we incrementally vote for the lesser of two evils, we’ll get to a minimally evil state one day. That sounds like maths to me, is that complicated? Have I set up an intellectually superior thing by mentioning something asymptotic?
Hmmmm. Maybe I shouldn’t mock things whilst hungover. It hurts more.
Louis
Ha!
I needed that. Thank you.
The Republican Party is infested with assholes who want to destroy the environment and wipe out endangered species if it’s lucrative to do that. It’s infested with Christian idiots who want to force their fake moral values on to everyone else. Most Republicans are science deniers who want to destroy science education to defend their dead Jeebus.
However there are Republicans who are economic conservatives but they are against all of the above. Many of them are atheists. For example there are these people at http://www.theatheistconservative.com/.
I wish I could vote for Obama again. He’s brilliant and he has greatly improved the reputation of America. Unfortunately I can’t vote for someone who wants to raise taxes for filthy rich pigs. I’m poor now and hopelessly in debt, but I plan to work hard to become a rich pig myself, and I don’t want to be punished for it. Also, I noticed rich pigs do most of the hiring in this country. To pay for higher taxes they will hire less people or fire more people. How does that improve the economy?
I could not vote for a theocratic idiot like Santorum, and I don’t have a very high opinion of Romney, but considering the alternative (an out of control tax and spend government) I’m voting for Romney anyway.
Okay, Joed and Humanape: April Fool’s joke, right?
Humanape is always a joke, not just in April. Joed… is just obnoxious.
No, delusional theological (not ideological) thinkers, who have swallowed the Koch brothers bullshit.
Rich patriots should be willing to pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes. After all, they can afford higher taxes…
@1 joed
“A vote against the incumbent will help to create a system with justice and concern for all people.”
My assumption being that most commentors on this site would vote for a candidate which calls, sincerely and honestly, for justice and reason and compassion.
Is my assumption way off!?
humanape….”Unfortunately I can’t vote for someone who wants to raise taxes for filthy rich pigs. I’m poor now and hopelessly in debt, but I plan to work hard to become a rich pig myself, and I don’t want to be punished for it.”
I’ve got $1M future, unearned, “hard work”, fantasy dollars that says humanape nor 99% of those Randianesque, atheist conservatives ever make it to the rich pig club. Any takers?
Joed….Exactly where does Mrs. Betty ever advocate that anyone should vote Democrat?
joed @20
‘…a candidate who calls for…’
</pedantry>
I’d still love to see you justify voting for the party/candidate one sees as the worst of two evils, from the point of view of anyone of any political stripe.
humanape:
Oh dear, have you been reading Ayn Rand and taking it seriously?
So, you are willing to give up a healthier economy, government services, more jobs and social justice now for a statistically unlikely future when you join the 1% of people who own 40% of the country’s wealth?
I don’t know who sold you this bullshit but you should really rethink what you are willing to give up now for your statistically improbable future marginal tax rate as a “filthy rich pig”
You may also want to do some research on social mobility in America if your parents aren’t already “filthy rich pigs”
Good luck with that.
I’m largely ignorant of anything beyond high school chemistry and I hope to recreate life in my basement.
We all got dreams, man.
humanape: Ah, the old “I got mine, fuck you” philosophy. So very conducive to civilization.
Guess what. If you’re filthy rich, and you get taxed at rates similar to those seen in other countries (and in the United States until not too terribly long ago), you’ll still be filthy rich. But sure, go ahead and see that as “punishment”.
I guess that’s why they’re hiring so many people now that tax rates on the highest earners have been steadily decreasing for at least forty years.
Oh wait.
from quoderat… @#23, commenting on humanape:
‘Oh dear, have you been reading Ayn Rand and taking it seriously?’
and…
‘I don’t know who sold you this bullshit but you should really rethink what you are willing to give up now for your statistically improbable future marginal tax rate as a “filthy rich pig”
You may also want to do some research on social mobility in America if your parents aren’t already “filthy rich pigs”’
–I agree. As far as not knowing who sold him that bullshit, I think it’s a safe bet that it comes down through the past 30 years of being repeatedly sold that bullshit to the gullible masses by conservatives and the GOP courtesy of Ronnie ‘RayGun’ Reagan and his ilk.
There seems to be a disconnect in the minds of many that prevent them from thinking in anything other than the simplistic terms of ‘hard work’= great wealth. If it was only that simple that ‘hard work’ equaled great economic wealth, we’d likely have a far greater percentage of the populace that 1% (or even 2%-5%) banking substantial wealth. So the facts and logic speak for themselves.
Also, one has to consider more that JUST hard work. Wealth (in a deeper more comprehensive sense) also involves acquisition and control of natural resources, and means of converting those resources to things useful to the society. And in a growing world population, many resources are potentially dwindling.
Essentially, as I’ve heard it put before, there is only one ‘pie’ (the sum total of human and natural resources), and can be divided up in various ways. But the idea that anyone (potentially everyone?) can be ‘rich’ with hard work is irrational. With one pie, four people cannot each have a half.
I assume you are missing the little detail that there is a difference between rich, and rich pig. Here is the difference:
Rich – Make more than other people, probably have more money than they can ever spend, and get to keep most of it.
Rich pig – Keep giving themselves raises, so they now make not 10 times what everyone working for them did, but 500 times, keep increasing “worker productivity” standards, such that, since the 50s, the amount that any given person does is 50 times more, only hire new people, as a recent newspaper pegged it, “Companies hiring more workers, as they find they are unable to make the ones they have work even harder, so they don’t have to hire any.”, complain about having to pay those people living wages, increasingly pay 90% of their workers the bare legal minimum, and only management being higher, but usually at the cost of longer hours, and, at least where I work, the assumption that you don’t go home until done, even if its 14 hours work days, while often denying, or capping, raises, so they can never make what they did even 20 years ago, even if they work for the same company 50 years, complain about paying taxes, at all, even while most of them find enough loopholes that, instead of paying 35%, they pay 0-10%, if that, and finally, whine that its never, ever, been this bad, never mind that the historical “top” tax rate today is only 5 times higher than the lowest, and the ***highest*** rate was in 1944/1945, when it was 92%. In 1998, according to the chart I found (http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=213 It seems to be a bit problematic to find charts, but damn easy to find endless pages of people talking about what the “current” rate is, and how much they either like/dislike it.. So much for historical context…), it was only 28%, ***but*** that was during a huge economic boom, not in the middle of an economic crash. Prior to that, it wasn’t as low as 35%, or better, since 1931. Almost no one **until now** was whining about how they where being robbed blind by the government, because someone insisted they pay 35%, and was threatening to take away/close loopholes, most of which have only been added by corporate lobbying, over the last 20-30 years.
Oh right, and lets repeat this. They may “hire” people, but the vast number of businesses in the country are still ones with less than 20 employees, started using loans, *not by rich people*. The ones that are, have been dragging the whole economy, for decades, more and more into an anti-competitive situation, where even if you wanted to hire two people to do a job well, you couldn’t afford to pay them, because the rich pig is paying ***one*** person to do the same job, if much more poorly, at the rock bottom legal pay rate. I.e., productivity is king, and you can’t focus on quality, of product, or service, unless you hire people you can’t afford, and somehow get the very same rich pigs to pay triple what the product is worth, to make up the difference. If you try to compete with the rich pig, you quickly find that your employee wages, and the level of quality you are expecting, and need those extra people to guarantee, are bankrupting your business.
So, no, I don’t think “rich pigs” are an asset. I think “rich” are, but the number of pigs out there, like Coch, who recently got caught saying, “I only want what I deserve, which is all of it!”, when compared to the number of merely rich people, leaves the whole damn country smelling like a sewer pond. And, the fact the libertarian flat out can’t bloody comprehend that there is a difference, and that “employees” and “buyers” do not, once the situation is sufficiently stacked against them, have a whole hell of a lot of say as to whether this difference exists, or how to fix it, is one of their biggest damn problems.
The scenario they imagine is like visiting a rigged carnival, and picking which one of the prize booths get to steal their money, while complaining if the “government” tries to show up and too the booth owners that 100% of them are not *all* allowed to cheat you, 100% of the time. Just go to a different carnival, or a different booth they say, only, since they don’t allow a government to do anything about it, all the booths are cheating you, and so are **all** of the carnivals. There isn’t “somewhere else” to go.
As I am sure most of you are no longer Obama fans after his failed presidency and lies one after the other. My guess is that you are now ready for some real change. I certainly can not say for you whether that will be a vote for the republican (TBD) or a third party member but either way it will be a step in the right direction. Change promised but not received should be Obama’s slogan for 2012. Obama 2008-2012!
The amount of people who don’t realize humanape is doing satire frighten me.
A corollary to Poe’s law is that there is no way to differentiate between satire and the real thing. Also, humanape has been on it so long there is no reason to give him any benefit of a doubt.
Dano you’re full of shit. We already know you’re a regressive. Your concern is noted you liar
Island Adolescent:
It isn’t satire. The regulars here have been dealing with their loathsome ideas and opinions for a long time.
No, I intend to become rich by marginalizing the rest of you.
Oh sure, I’ll have to backstab most of you menz, patronize and then destroy you wimmin, and generally fuck over everyone in between, but I’ll be able to pull myself up by my own bootstraps using the money my father left me, the education your taxes paid for and the government provided infrastructure. I’ll live in a nice gated community where the police you pay for will keep you rabble at bay, and in a country whose borders are protected by people your taxes pay for. See how fucking brilliant I am, that I don’t need no fucking government help? Oh, and by the way, you pigfucking commie bastards keep your fucking government out of my medicare and social security! Not like you’re going to get any of that for yourself, because my boy Ryan is going to take all of that away from you!
(now that’s an april fool’s rant.)
Bwahahahahahahah !
I can’t believe people can still believe this shit.
Seriously. As long as you keep believing this, they’ll do whatever they want with you. Like a poor stupid donkey pulling a cart, convinced that it’ll get that juicy carrot. Working three minimum wage jobs with a big smile pasted on your face, religiously forbidding your mind to think “negative” thoughts, ’till they throw you out like garbage when you become sick and useless.
Newsflash : You may work yourself to death, and still remain indebted and poor. That’s what happens to the vast majority of people on earth, including in the US of A. The odds are definitely not in your favor.
It’s right there in their bible, right verbatim from their saviour’s mouth: “render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar”. In other words, pay your damn taxes. A direct verbal order from your god.
On the contrary, I am not aware of a single major policy of Obama’s presidency that is not a success of some sort. One might quibble as to how BIG a success they were, or if they could not have been BIGGER successes, but they were all, undoubtedly, successes.
What lies? Obama has pretty much fulfilled or is on the way to fulfilling all the most important of his campaign promises, and nearly all of the exceptions are so entirely due to Republican obstructionism.
You guess wrong.
No, the majority of the hiring in this country is done by those of medium wealth.
The richest are responsible for most of the firings.
Only if “right direction” and “straight off a cliff” are synonymous phrases.
Or if by “right direction” you mean the right direction for America’s enemies and rivals, or anyone who would benefit from America losing its current pre-eminent position in the world.
I like how dano honestly expects us to be so fucking stupid as not to remember that he’s not one of us
humanape has a long history of bizarre and horrific statements, including support for torture and homophobia. Not to mention horrifically racist remarks, saying “If I’m wrong who cares? The life of just one American soldier is worth more than the world’s entire population of Muslim scum.”
====
I disagree. The issue of immigration often gets overlooked in these discussions. 400,000 deportations a year, and more families torn apart and lives ruined, is not what I would call a success.
And it’s not all due to Republican obstructionism, although some of it certainly is. His failure to get comprehensive immigration reform passed certainly is due to Republican obstructionism, since responsibility for that lies with Congress. But that isn’t the whole of the problem. The increase in ICE enforcement activities and deportations is a deliberate policy of the administration, as is the rolling out of “Secure Communities” across the countries; Obama and Napolitano are personally responsible for adopting those policies.
That said, I still support Obama, because the Republicans are enormously worse, in this as in many other respects. Romney has been palling around with racist hate groups, and the Republican candidates have taken hardline stances against immigration reform. And I still vastly prefer Obama’s stances on the economy, his support for reproductive rights, his federal judicial appointments, etc., over any of the plausible alternatives.
I don’t agree with this, as a blanket statement. The issue of immigration often gets overlooked in these discussions. 400,000 deportations a year, and more families torn apart and lives ruined, is not what I would call a success.
And it’s not all due to Republican obstructionism, although some of it certainly is. His failure to get comprehensive immigration reform passed certainly is due to Republican obstructionism, since responsibility for that lies with Congress. But that isn’t the whole of the problem. The increase in ICE enforcement activities and deportations is a deliberate policy of the administration, as is the rolling out of “Secure Communities” across the countries; Obama and Napolitano are personally responsible for adopting those policies.
That said, I still support Obama, because the Republicans are enormously worse, in this as in many other respects. Romney has been palling around with racist hate groups, and the Republican candidates have taken hardline stances against immigration reform. And I still vastly prefer Obama’s stances on the economy, his support for reproductive rights, his federal judicial appointments, etc., over any of the plausible alternatives.
humanape has a long history of bizarre and horrific statements, including support for torture and homophobia. Not to mention racist remarks, saying “If I’m wrong who cares? The life of just one American soldier is worth more than the world’s entire population of Muslim scum,” and advocating violence against Muslims.
(This isn’t the first time I’ve drawn attention to this, and I note that I’ve since been described on his blog as a “liberal wimp”. I’m quite flattered.)
You would drink a large amount of beer but you’d barbecue a large number of babies.
/pedantry
For every hard working, persistent-in-the-face-of-adversity person who makes it, there are at least 99 hard working, persistent-in-the-face-of-adversity people who end up with less than they started.
Yes, it’s way off.
We prefer someone who actually works for justice, reason and compassion. The GOP is great for calling for those sorts of goals and then enacting policies that are somewhere between indifferent and counterproductive towards them.
The current Democratic party is far from an unmitigated source of good, but they have at least shown a perchant for pandering to a slightly saner set of the populace.
The concept that voting for a Republican will make the Deomcrats more liberal is incoherent on its face. The concept that splitting the Democrat vote between multiple non-viable candidates will make the country more liberal is just as silly.
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I ain’t scared.