Femur posted:

Because our government is weak by design; due to fracturing, there is no real power. This a false dichotomy of course because a legitimate government by definition has complete control, and absolute power. We have exerted this absolute power at times of need.

Anyways, the only value in personally going through the sideshow called politics is because it is a ticket to the country club. It is a sign of legitimacy. It's for the useless scions that you know will be a black hole, so you buy him some titles and such so he is not destructive, and add to your brand and claim. Judges and politicians are welcome everywhere, tickets to a claim. ancient hinese saw this too, the civil services exam was a great boon initially

Maybe it's just my world view because Imperial China is interesting to me. US politics by is completely useless, you guys got an official rank that "whip" a choice This weakness is good and by design through.

It seems the best thing possible is to limit the damage and let luck handle the rest. Term limit and harsh and enforced estate tax is needed and is achievable in any future populist movement. I don't know long we can keep the rest of the world as 2nd class citizens. The military is 60%+ of our budget, we got death drones now. Such feats of engineering are used on goat herders, talk about building a better mousetrap .

The IRS should get the NSA's budget and clout. It's not like they get to keep it.

Rap Record Hoarder posted:

On a city/county/state level, I'd be surprised if there aren't already some office holders with gauges, neck tattoos, or facial piercings. On the national stage...I'd say maybe a decade at most. Seems like most of the uproar about that kind of stuff is quickly fading, in cities or major metro areas at least.

My Imaginary GF posted:

At first I misread your mispelling as a reference to Sinuhe. And then I got to the part about term limits: Have you ever worked in state politics in a state with term limits, and a state without? If anything, term limits are one of the most centralizing and concentrating means of enforcing partisanship.

My Imaginary GF posted:

At first I misread your mispelling as a reference to Sinuhe. And then I got to the part about term limits: Have you ever worked in state politics in a state with term limits, and a state without? If anything, term limits are one of the most centralizing and concentrating means of enforcing partisanship.

Pope Guilty posted:

Femur posted:

I've heard that, and really, I just want to make the position one that is attainable for more. giving an idealist a chance within their lifetime. Wouldn't it be great if former politicians commonly walk amongst us and tell us their experience? I believe it a numbers game, increase the possibility of connection, and accountability.

I am not that well read, so that was just my opinion. The Estate tax I believe to be fact. Taxes has to be collected, they should get all personal info. As long as it is funded heavily, and tied to metric with a little lag, and transparency, I see no problems?

Man cannot beat the immortality of numbers, and it's bullshit we gotta carry around their memory.

My Imaginary GF posted:

So what you do is this: Since corporations are not people, and only people can die, you put all your money in a Family Trust. You may pay some accounting fees, and when you structure it right, you'll just use the trust's credit card for anything and wire money directly from it to various campaigns [with the added benefit of attribution to any member of the trust, no matter its actual governing structure]. In effect, you've just limited the ability of wealth to be passed down intergenerationally between the middle class.


Former politicians do walk among us. That's why we have elections, to hold the real shitheads accountable and feel like we have buy-in. What works better is to broaden the base of individuals with buy-in, so long as the positions meet the following requirements to avoid the collosal motherfuck of a corrupt system that is Chinese politics:

1. Elected positions should pay an above-average salary, with generously defined benefits and lifetime pensions

2. No matter what, always pay the civil servants. Always, always, pay them on-time, on-schedule, direct-deposit, and never, ever, with red envelopes.

Hedera Helix posted:

She won by like five points, though...

Femur posted:

Whatever the current situation is, giving the IRS power will change the dynamic. They are like beggars now, on respect really. Tax law is not a firm thing, Things can be argued if resources were put forth.

Your situation , how are shares and ownership transferred? The records are there, you NSA level review this case. There has to be an exchange somewhere. I don't care about cost of living x100 per child or whatever. Be generous on the exception, I don't care.

The IRS is being humiliated right now for doing her job.

And I believe we are saying the same thing in increasing the base. A change like yours probably requires a bigger revolution than what I feel is attainable. Increase everyone's pay!

Femur posted:

I simply mean revolution in thinking.

Through I imagine the world economy will have collapsed before my future, so that will not matter.

The records are all there, and you just can just take it after death.

Shear Modulus posted:

Not just partisanship, but a complete inability by officeholders to build authority on the law, letting lobbyists gain authority and influence much more easily.

Shear Modulus posted:

Anecdote: Jared Polis apparently posted on the official forum for League of Legends or Dota 2 or something and says he frequently plays the game. I haven't heard of any attacks-by-association with spergy gamers though so it doesn't seem using the internet is automatically career-ending.

quote:

I can confirm that a couple who run in the same circles I run in are goons and I have sneaking suspicions about a few others. You'd never be able to tell based on the things they do IRL, both of the 2 people who are also goons and know I post on here wouldn't believe it because my post history makes me come off as a rabid black nationalist or something—which is hilariously hard to believe if you knew me IRL.

Raenir Salazar posted:

Don't we have a secret handshake or shibboleth we use to identify each other in public?

Raenir Salazar posted:

True!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgi96F6VwaM

He's a cool dude it seems to have put time aside to speak as a guest for Extra Credits about how to get your voice heard in politics.

Edit:


Don't we have a secret handshake or shibboleth we use to identify each other in public?

Aurubin posted:

My house has stairs in it. I brought protection.

My Imaginary GF posted:

Take what after death? The trust never dies; its a self-governing body which elects its own board of governance, and all of this in public records if you know where to look.

If you're saying, 'appropriate the assets after death,' that is creating a systemic incentive to destroy self-governing bodies, or even people, for their assets. Eventually that incentive cauzed a Rubicon moment and the whole house comes crashing down.

E: And no need to be too jaded, the world economy will certainly look different 'in your time,' and difference should be embraced, nurtured, and have its strengths incorporated into stakeholders of an adaptive, self-governing system.

DoubleDonut posted:

Considering Rand Paul still has a career after the Aqua Buddha thing, I think we're in the clear. Well, unless you got permabanned for threatening the President. That's probably a little more suspicious.

Brannock posted:

I honestly wonder if Internet histories is going to mean that we loosen the gently caress up about our public candidates lives, or if it'll just mean we elect even boringer people since they were the ones who managed to not do anything remotely eyebrow-raising as an idiot kid or idiot teenager.

TheRamblingSoul posted:

And then total Mormon Amish control over the US government will be complete.

GENUINE CAT HERDER posted:

From a few days and like 15 pages ago, but was catching up on the thread and browsing through the pics real quick when something caught my eye and I scrolled back up.

Was rather weirded out and dismayed at the logo on the pistol, since it's something I personally made years ago based off of an actual Spartan helmet for a project that was completely unrelated to loving cosplay border control nuts.

Simply googling "spartan helmet" brings it up as like the 8th result (based on the second result). Wasn't aware that I could make money by simply selling my 10 minutes of work as a cheap as poo poo sticker/gun decal on Amazon to gun idiots.

My loss, I guess


Edit: Actually, this gives me an idea for a solid marketing base that's based entirely on stupidity and-ORIGINAL IDEA DO NOT STEAL

Pope Guilty posted:

Sephiroth_IRA posted:

Republicans would have voted for her if she was a human or ne female.

DoubleDonut posted:

Considering Rand Paul still has a career after the Aqua Buddha thing, I think we're in the clear. Well, unless you got permabanned for threatening the President. That's probably a little more suspicious.

Sephiroth_IRA posted:

Republicans would have voted for her if she was a human or ne female.

Generic American posted:

Truly, they are the only group in America that is *completely* immune to online stupidity.

Ghost of Reagan Past posted:

I'd not heard of the whole <thing Paul did> until now and that's just so loving weird.

Brannock posted:

I honestly wonder if Internet histories is going to mean that we loosen the gently caress up about our public candidates lives, or if it'll just mean we elect even boringer people since they were the ones who managed to not do anything remotely eyebrow-raising as an idiot kid or idiot teenager.

Shear Modulus posted:

Would Aqua Buddha really derail a presidential campaign more than the "Romney bullies a long hair" story did (which didn't at all)?

Shear Modulus posted:

Would Aqua Buddha really derail a presidential campaign more than the "Romney bullies a long hair" story did (which didn't at all)?

quote:

The House Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, has concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, said Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, the second-ranking Democrat on the committee.

The panel voted Thursday to declassify the report, the result of two years of investigation by the committee. U.S. intelligence agencies will have to approve making the report public.

Thompson said the report "confirms that no one was deliberately misled, no military assets were withheld and no stand-down order (to U.S. forces) was given."

That conflicts with accusations of administration wrongdoing voiced by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County), whose House Government Oversight and Reform Committee has held hearings on the Benghazi attack.

Stevens, who grew up in Piedmont, and the other Americans died when Libyans attacked the consulate on Sept. 11, 2012. Among the Intelligence Committee's findings, according to Thompson:

-- Intelligence agencies were "warned about an increased threat environment, but did not have specific tactical warning of an attack before it happened."

-- "A mixed group of individuals, including those associated with al Qaeda, (Moammar) Khadafy loyalists and other Libyan militias, participated in the attack."

-- "There was no 'stand-down order' given to American personnel attempting to offer assistance that evening, no illegal activity or illegal arms transfers occurring by U.S. personnel in Benghazi, and no American was left behind."

-- The administration's process for developing "talking points" was "flawed, but the talking points reflected the conflicting intelligence assessments in the days immediately following the crisis."

Those talking points included assertions that those who attacked the compound were angered by an obscure anti-Muhammad video posted to YouTube in the U.S. There is disagreement to this day about whether that was the case.

made of bees posted:

I'm pretty sure most of the crazies you could get whipped up about idolatry are diehard Paulites anyway.

Magres posted:

I wonder if there's any chance this will get the Right (outside of Darrell Issa) to shut up about Benghazi.

Magres posted:

Couple days old but I didn't see anything about it while I was catching up on the thread.

Magres posted:

http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/House-panel-No-administration-wrongdoing-in-5663509.php


Couple days old but I didn't see anything about it while I was catching up on the thread. No wrongdoing found in the latest Benghazi investigation, what a shocker. I wonder if there's any chance this will get the Right (outside of Darrell Issa) to shut up about Benghazi.