Political Roundtable Part XXIX

[payitforward]

To bring basketball & public truth together, has anyone posted this:

[Zonkerbl]

Ok Anacostia Library is in fact an official ballot drop off location, phew

https://www.dcboe.org/Voters/Where-to-Vote/Mail-Ballot-Drop-Sites

[dobrojim]

1) @Ruz and @Dobro, doesn't matter what you do, trump's going to contest it. there would be 0 mail-in ballots filed and he'll still contest it.

2) @AFM, boy do i have some literature for you. once, i too identified as a republican.

I'm now hearing that mail in ballots will not necessarily be held until 11/3 before being at least
"pre-processed", whatever that means. I plan to make further inquiries. Oh, and I received my ballot today
so that is a good first or second step.

I had already planned on hand delivering it.

PS @ AFM and/or 'cakes, maybe Stuart Stevens' book?

[dobrojim]

To bring basketball & public truth together, has anyone posted this:

Yes! Was that Jalen Rose?

[pancakes3]

1) @Ruz and @Dobro, doesn't matter what you do, trump's going to contest it. there would be 0 mail-in ballots filed and he'll still contest it.

2) @AFM, boy do i have some literature for you. once, i too identified as a republican.

I'm now hearing that mail in ballots will not necessarily be held until 11/3 before being at least
"pre-processed", whatever that means. I plan to make further inquiries. Oh, and I received my ballot today
so that is a good first or second step.

I had already planned on hand delivering it.

PS @ AFM and/or 'cakes, maybe Stuart Stevens' book?

my day of reckoning came a couple years ago when I read "stuffed and starved" and it was pointed out that capitalism, specifically the supply/demand curve doesn't really fit the food market because it means there's a price out there, that capitalism dictates, where certain segments of the population is priced out of that good, and if you were a libertarianly skewing republican such as I was, you had to accept that as gospel.

once that myth where capitalism was the best (most efficient) form of allocating resources, was dispelled, it led to the questioning for other goods, namely those in base of maslow's hierarchy (food, shelter, clothes) that also cannot be left to the free market.

once you buy in that certain governmental intervention is necessary to create the best society where people are able to access those basic human needs, it's a hop skip and a jump away from being full blown antifa.

but it's kind of like hitting rock bottom. it's different for everyone and everyone needs to experience it for themselves.

it's funny because you see a lot of affluent college kids nowadays being lured into the siren song of capitalism being a panacea for all of society's ills when they encounter the concept of supply/demand their freshman year of college, or reddit, or wherever, and are indoctrinated into the republican party under the promise of libertarianism, and they have to unlearn that introductory concept so as to accept that socialism is not a dirty word, which is the opposite of the aphorism of how everyone ages into republicanism once they get old/rich enough that's been controlling for the last 50 years or so.

[Pointgod]

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[payitforward]

Yes, that was Jalen Rose, btw....

[doclinkin]

it's funny because you see a lot of affluent college kids nowadays being lured into the siren song of capitalism being a panacea for all of society's ills when they encounter the concept of supply/demand their freshman year of college, or reddit, or wherever

Ayn Rand usually in some literature class.

Then the fact that they were born relatively wealthy and have not had to suffer much somehow feels like manifest destiny. And fair enough they do their homework and took test prep classes and feel like gosh darn it they worked hard to get into college and work hard in their classes and therefore they earned their right to be superior. They are successful because they deserve to be successful. And life is hard, sink or swim, social darwinism and all that. The strong survive. Instead of recognizing they are incredibly lucky to be born in this hemisphere, in this era, under this political system, with that skin color, etc etc etc. and that society itself has worked really hard to preserve and protect their ignorance and shelter them as they grow, with socialized education, and libraries, and public order, and streets, and there is an underclass supporting them by plucking chickens for them to buy, and driving all night to deliver them to supermarkets, and hauling away the bones in the garbage at the curb.

And that frankly their whole life there has been social largesse for children of the affluent, in expectations of success, in networking or connections or inheritance or parents who have had an easier life that tended to start them at least already on first or second base in life. Instead of outside the fence looking in and wishing they could only get in the game.

But yeah, The Fountainhead seemed to be the gateway to making many insufferable sophomores in the world. Smug and without empathy. Ayn Rand. Needs a warning label.

[pancakes3]

it's funny because you see a lot of affluent college kids nowadays being lured into the siren song of capitalism being a panacea for all of society's ills when they encounter the concept of supply/demand their freshman year of college, or reddit, or wherever

Ayn Rand usually in some literature class.

Then the fact that they were born relatively wealthy and have not had to suffer much somehow feels like manifest destiny. And fair enough they do their homework and took test prep classes and feel like gosh darn it they worked hard to get into college and work hard in their classes and therefore they earned their right to be superior. They are successful because they deserve to be successful. And life is hard, sink or swim, social darwinism and all that. The strong survive. Instead of recognizing they are incredibly lucky to be born in this hemisphere, in this era, under this political system, with that skin color, etc etc etc. and that society itself has worked really hard to preserve and protect their ignorance and shelter them as they grow, with socialized education, and libraries, and public order, and streets, and there is an underclass supporting them by plucking chickens for them to buy, and driving all night to deliver them to supermarkets, and hauling away the bones in the garbage at the curb.

And that frankly their whole life there has been social largesse for children of the affluent, in expectations of success, in networking or connections or inheritance or parents who have had an easier life that tended to start them at least already on first or second base in life. Instead of outside the fence looking in and wishing they could only get in the game.

But yeah, The Fountainhead seemed to be the gateway to making many insufferable sophomores in the world. Smug and without empathy. Ayn Rand. Needs a warning label.

True. Sophomore year, my advisor asked me what I did over the summer. I told him about my summer job, and that I finished the Fountainhead and was almost through Atlas Shrugged. He pretty much laughed in my face, and I didn't understand why. Oh, poor, naive, striver 19 year old pancakes...

But it gets really worrying when you have 50 year old men, grown ass men, self-proclaimed "policy wonks" who may or may not have at one time been the speaker of the house and other such men of tremendous power freely offering Rand as their favorite author and it's no longer the childish naivete of a half-formed adult trying to piece together their political identity. you realize that we're governed by idiots.

[pancakes3]

these dummies that keep reposting "well you know, RBG was actually good friends with Scalia" as justification for turning the court further right miss their own dumb point being the court needs to be balanced.

[Zonkerbl]

That's weird. I read Ayn Rand's Fountainhead and thought it was an interesting little story about the history of modernism in architecture. It didn't turn me into a sociopathic ahole. Think there may be more going on there than just having read the wrong book.

[Ruzious]

I don't think any of us - including me - appreciate the disaster that's coming. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/an-election-between-donald-trump-and-democracy-bernie-sanders-sounds-alarm-on-president-refusing-defeat-if-he-loses/ar-BB19nph4?li=BBnbfcL

[Ruzious]

That's weird. I read Ayn Rand's Fountainhead and thought it was an interesting little story about the history of modernism in architecture. It didn't turn me into a sociopathic ahole. Think there may be more going on there than just having read the wrong book.

Nah, it was all about a horrible relationship between 2 very flawed and irritating people.

[Pointgod]

I don't think any of us - including me - appreciate the disaster that's coming. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/an-election-between-donald-trump-and-democracy-bernie-sanders-sounds-alarm-on-president-refusing-defeat-if-he-loses/ar-BB19nph4?li=BBnbfcL

Lots of people were warning against this in 2016. The alarm bells were being raised, but certain people wanted to pout or refuse to take these warnings seriously.

[dobrojim]

I don't think any of us - including me - appreciate the disaster that's coming. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/an-election-between-donald-trump-and-democracy-bernie-sanders-sounds-alarm-on-president-refusing-defeat-if-he-loses/ar-BB19nph4?li=BBnbfcL

Many are and have been aware this was a possibility. The question is how best
to avoid or stop it. An overwhelming repudiation at the polls would be a good
first step for sure.

I'm glad Bernie put this out. Hopefully the Bernie Bros will take it to heart.

[montestewart]

That's weird. I read Ayn Rand's Fountainhead and thought it was an interesting little story about the history of modernism in architecture. It didn't turn me into a sociopathic ahole. Think there may be more going on there than just having read the wrong book.

My mother was an Objectivist, owned what I'm guessing was all of Rand's writings (along with those of fellow travelers/acolytes), including obscure newsletters and even lectures recorded on albums and reel-to-reel tapes. She saw Rand and other Objectivists speak, and went to a weekly Objectivist meeting.

I had never read any of those things, they looked so dense and dull. Finally, out of curiosity, I picked Anthem, which looked like the shortest. So corny, so simplistic, such bland writing, and all that pap in a dystopian story? Interest in Rand's philosophy was propped up by the popularity of her fiction, and that's her fiction? That was all I needed to know. I was never assigned anything by her in college, and I can watch the movie versions (which are probably better) if I have further curiosity.

Mom abandoned all that during the Reagan administration. Her final word on the subject--not that I asked much--was that there were too many contradictions in Rand's beliefs to make them the actual foundation for a society, or something like that. Mom was smarter than me, and I'm not sure I followed her explanation, but I think watching the Republican party partially incorporate her philosophy and couple it with prude evangelical puritanism and Southern-style bigotry was kind of a shock of recognition for her.

But I still got those Ayn Rand records (Live in Las Vegas, Solid Gold Hits, An Ayn Rand Christmas), and someday some right wingers will pay me a lot for them, along with my "Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine" double album and my "Billy Graham Live at the Tent Rally" (or whatever it's called, Billy Graham looking like Johnny Cash).

[Pointgod]

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[dckingsfan]

Read on Twitter

Lines up with this...
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/national/

But this is the more meaningful one...
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/

Trump 23/100 to win.

And then Trump 100/100 to try to disrupt democracy.

[Ruzious]

Read on Twitter

That's hilarious. I looked up pyrrhic victory in the dictionary, and there's a picture of the ol Tucker.

[montestewart]

Read on Twitter

That's hilarious. I looked up pyrrhic victory in the dictionary, and there's a picture of the ol Tucker.

Maybe a new “reasonable viewer” standard is called for, because I don’t think TV news viewers question much on their chosen channel. Or maybe a more novel legal argument: a conspiracy wherein the willfully libelous media outlet supplies the willfully ignorant viewers with stock libel/slander for further dissemination.