Random Politics & Religion #34

Yeah, this never happens. Maybe on fox news, but nobody else tries to make this claim. Another crash and burn for nausi.

should have thought about that before the first kid

Hey those are three future Democrat voters your talking about. Gotta make the Republicans pay for those future Democrats too.

My gramps used to say, "Can't feed em, don't breed em!"

All by 17 no less !

I believe The Who wrote a song about single moms:

Maybe we need to enforce consequences for women who choose mates so poorly.

Lemme guess. Still single?

Anyway, here's what doesn't work for me. There's all this talk about the betterment of oneself and job training and continuing education and all that, which is fine and it's certainly a valid path for some (not all but I'll get to that). But programs like Obama's pitch for free community college and the Democratic socialists proposals for free college are derided for a variety of reasons when in reality they're just broader, more accessible versions of assistance programs already mentioned like the Pell program. I have trouble believing even something less grand in scale would be accepted by many conservatives.

Then there's this
, which is also inconsistent with the disapproval of widespread free/reduced cost birth control funding such as that given to planned parenthood (who obviously provide other services that aren't necessarily germane to the immediate topic).

There's also a matter of the jobs themselves. Perhaps we should stop viewing them from the historical perspective of how they were and see them for what they are now. There's undeniably a non neglibile portion of the population (insert political party joke here) that can only really be expected to perform at a, uh, McDonald's level, to put it nicely. Is this not a valid way for them to contribute what they're capable of to society while still being able to eek out a minimal living?

Even besides the dum-dums, given how many of these low skill, low education jobs are available, -someone- has to work them. I don't think all the college kids and retirees who are supposed to be manning the fry stations could fill all these positions.

Dunno why I'm being wordy today but tl;dr what tenable solutions are you guys angling for that dont involve basically throwing them into the deep end and hoping they learn to swim?

Well there is the whole supply and demand thing. The reason that wages can be so low at the aforementioned fast food places is that there appears to be no shortage of people willing to take them.

I know "raise the minimum wage lol" sounds great on paper, but balancing an economy properly is a vastly complex thing. A massive majority of both regular people and politicians don't have a clue how their proposed "fixes" would actually play out.

it's not inconsistent. I disapprove of paying for other people's everything all of the time.

More school shootings yesterday, didn't waste any time this semester.

You can't appreciate that which you haven't earned.

It's a fundamental flaw in human nature that prevents any other solution from making a positive impact.

White House blocks bill that would protect elections
Yahoo news

Perhaps because they want more help from the Russians?

Republicans Barely Hiding Their Love For Russian Voter ***
Wonkette - but not a single richard joke...

The same people who fight against measures to prevent voter fraud because it "doesn't happen" are mad about a bill dying that would have addressed voter machine tampering that doesn't happen.

Makes sense.

Finger wagging doesn't do or mean anything.

Ok but... you're going to. It's how the system operates so why not try to reduce the burden in other ways. The very point of the bernie bill was to actually get people OFF public assistance.

not you personally... >.> human beings can't have an appreciation for anything they didn't work hard to earn themselves.

not because they are bad or wrong or evil but because we can't experience or appreciate the hardships others go through. it just isn't possible

because it won't work. insanity is repeating the same actions and expecting different results. I'm sane enough to consider the possibility that I might be crazy, but not crazy enough to keep throwing gasoline on a fire and wondering why it doesn't go out.

The left doesn’t care about earning it. They are entitled to it because they are victims of the worlds most successful society.

Australian politics in getting interesting too.

Best article on it I have yet seen:

Australia Changes Prime Ministers for the Fifth Time in Eight Years
Why the country has been plagued by chaotic “leadership spills.”

it's not just people. animals that are cared for typically can't survive in the wild for the same reason. they get used to being taken care of and no longer try to do so on their own.

Oops, approval rating “remark stable” after “bad” week.

He ain’t going anywhere. Everyone knows this witch hunt is ***. Everyone except liberals that is...

Trump's aggregated approval numbers haven't just been stable, they've been eerily stable. They were jumping all over the place for his entire presidency, and then since two months ago they basically just flat-lined. I'm not sure what to make of it.

Its pretty simple.

Those who love trump still love him, those who despise him still despise him.

Those who were ambivalent, or on the fence, or had questions have shaken out by now and fallen on one side of the fence or another.

I didnt realize negative approval ratings had any impact on the results of the legitimate investigations/convictions.

That's the most obvious conclusion, yes. While what you say may be the primary reason, I've been trained to look deeper than that because it's never that simple.


In spite of being an inexact science, approval ratings play a huge role in the conversation. Why? Because this is politics. The only reason that you or anyone else in here gives the slightest crap about Manafort, Cowen, or whoever else, is because of their relationship to the president. If the approval ratings don't budge an inch for President Trump personally, then the media's politicization of said investigations and convictions in its attempt to destroy the president has failed. That's a very big deal.