sliders1234
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User ID: 685
sliders1234
5d ago
Blocking $26 billion in aid to an extremely wealthy country that also has the wealthiest per capita diaspora community is now anti-semitism? When the country sending the money has a $1.5 trillion budget deficit?
I’m pro sending money to Ukraine because they are a poor country fighting out geopolitical enemies but I don’t understand sending money to a wealthy nation like Israel especially not when we are essentially funding both sides.
sliders1234
11d ago
I had to look up Ray Kroc because there was something I was guessing that has a good culture war angle not discussed. Foundations and donations over the long term seem to always end up in the left camp.
Ray Kroc my intuition was telling me he would not be a leftist. To no one’s surprise a small business owners political philosophy is described in Wikipedia as
“A lifelong Republican, Kroc believed firmly in self-reliance and staunchly opposed government welfare and the New Deal. Kroc donated $255,000 to Richard Nixon's reelection campaign in 1972”
I guess it was actually his widowed wife’s estate that donated $200 million to NPR, but still seems there is a conservative can create a foundation and 30 years after their death the money ends up supporting everything they were opposed to.
sliders1234
19d ago
Problem with our COVID response is it was dumb and weaponized for politics and self-satisfaction. I would say it was just politics but I also think a lot of people thought they were the “good” people for being safe. It wasn’t just a rural/urban divide.
Things like 6 boosters for 20 something’s was dumb regardless of side. And over 50 being completely anti-vaxx regardless of side was dumb. Or students masking at Stanford while riding a bike was just dumb.
There were probably some policies that made more sense in urban areas like less in-person during waves to protect hospitals but the vast majority of the issues seem to me like one side was just being dumb regardless of density of their community.
sliders1234
19d ago
I hate the political angle on this. It feels leftist to me that “if we just had more schools/spent more money” we would not have “maga/disinformation problem” instead of most of things being fundamental disagreements.
That being said America is a vast country and a lot of Americans would benefit from getting to see more of it.
One of my own personal favorite trips was touring the gulf which has many unique places around it. It helped I had friends to see. But you get going thru their everything from old south (Pensacola for me), New Orleans it’s own animal, and Houston/small Texas towns to see a whole lot of culture and many different foods.
There are no doubt similar tours to be done that can take a couple weeks and involve 18 hrs or so of driving.
sliders1234
12d ago
“do you believe elite colleges spend more or less time teaching people things than they did in the 1950s? And do you think that should actually change?“
I did read an article I believe from the Crimson by a student who said no one puts much time into class anymore and it’s all extra-curriculars. I can’t find it right now. But the average GPA at Harvard has risen to 3.8. If you are going to get an A or A- anyway then you do not have the same pressure to put in the work.
https://www.chartr.co/stories/2023-12-08-2-grade-inflation-at-harvard
So yes I think a strong argument can be made that elite colleges spend less time teaching people things and more time building up extracurricular resumes.
By the administration. Yes. The holiday was declared by some trans right activist years ago. It was a date on the calendar while Easter has its day move around.
The administration therefore couldn’t ignore a trans-holiday because too many of there people are trans religion but a lot of others are Christian religion. To celebrate trans day on a different day would disrespect trans-religion. So they were in a no-win position. The administration didn’t pick today for a trans religion holiday but it was assigned by trans religion.
Flying the trans flag during pride month at the Vatican Embassy was in my opinion far more disrespectful than what they did today which was a no-win situation for the politicians. That was truly disrespectful and obviously they would not try doing something like that in Saudi Arabia.
I can’t really describe trans/pride as anything other than a religion and since Scott describes it that way it feels like an acceptable view here. The politicians are just in a hard spot where they have two religions claiming the same day and the two religions both hate each other.
Edit: Lists of pride/trans related days some guy compiled on twitter. Significantly increasing my priors to spite. If they have this many holidays it’s a lot easier to not celebrate one of them when it’s another groups main holiday.
https://twitter.com/jarvis_best/status/1774115482255106479?s=46&t=aQ6ajj220jubjU7-o3SuWQ
sliders1234
2d ago
IMO this is incredibly uncharitable on why they sank the immigration bill. You make it sound like we crashed it for shits and giggles. The bill had core issues.
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Too much discretion. If you don’t control the Presidency and key asylum courts it doesn’t do anything.
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Biden had levers to slow immigration now. He wasn’t doing it. Why make a deal where he can claim victory and enforce it during election season and then if he wins the election it’s back to open borders.
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Formalized a lot of bad things like the asylum system
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We all know that in American politics you usually only get to do things once when legislating. If the first bill is shit you’re probably not getting a second bite at the apple.
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Trump as POTUS is better for limiting immigration than Biden with the bill. This tells you how weak the bill was.
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House passed a bill. It was always better to use the up coming elections to press the Dems for a good bill than a bill with Swiss cheese loopholes.
I opposed the bill because it was a bad bill. Its better to do a good bill with real teeth after winning the elections.
sliders1234
5d ago
You specifically cited anti-semitism of the right three times and accused Elon Musks of it but the only evidence was GOP votes against an Israel aid bill.
I have no idea what you mean be anti-semitism on the right (I can take some guesses). And then there is the ADL definition which seems like anything they don’t like is antisemitism. You did make a specific reference to Columbia protests so I have an idea what you are accusing the left of.
sliders1234
9d ago
I think this analysis has a fatal flaw in it. Sotomayor is an affirmative action appointment and hence her ability is no greater than a generic democrat. If Sotomayor was essentially Michael Jordan than all the arguments for keeping her on the bench would be in play. But she’s basically Javale McGee and a replacement level justice.
It’s definitely an interesting thought experience that it can be beneficial to keep a justice on the court but I can’t agree with the actionable part of it and basically view Sotomayor as low IQ (relatively) without the talent to be great.
sliders1234
11d ago
You are partially committing a fallacy where you expect the other side to all agree on an argument instead of having internal competing groups.
That being said the White Nationalist and the CRT/Woke probably roughly agree on who is white. While I agree it can be vague; you definitely can create your pyramids. The wokes usually have an oppression pyramid with black females at the top and someone like Elon Musks at the bottom. You just flip their pyramid. The people you want to allow to immigrate are the oppressors in the oppressor/oppressed pyramid.
sliders1234
2d ago
This does bring up a good point though. Everyone in a political coalition does not hold all the views of everyone else in a political coalition. The hypocrisy standard does not apply especially since we essentially have two political parties and it’s going to be impossible for one party to have truly “pure” beliefs where everyone agrees on everything. Instead you end up with views in opposition to each other.
Within this though you do see Dems or GOP at times needing to defend coalition party views to keep them in the coalition while at times having leadership voicing other views. And of course the other side tries to promote the views of the most wild parts of the other coalition. Parliamentary systems are probably better at having more pure views within their coalition with clearer distinctions with leadership.
That being said we are not actually at war with Hezbollah so I am not even sure the connection here. But I do see a lot of the blue tribes coalition supporting what does look like a terrorist organization to me.
Is it really a difference? Vatican Embassy versus embassy to the Vatican?
I guess one implies it’s in the Vatican but it’s still a middle finger to a Priest whose going to the Embassy to deal with something.
sliders1234
2d ago
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The 5k per day is way too much. Combined with the Presidency getting to suspend the act for I believe 60 or 90 days. Then courts would have to get involved. So you can run high to get to the trigger then ignore it for 45 days. Tell the immigrants you back to not come for a month. Run some to get to the trigger. Ignore it for 45 days. Just not enough teeth that they would ever close the border.
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It’s further formalizing that 5k a day asylum seekers are fine. We should honestly just ban asylum at the border which we can do. Make them file at an embassy and have true causes. We have virtually zero true asylum cases at the US border. They are safe in Mexico. They can email Senators/Lawyers etc for asylum cases outside the country.
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This entirely depends on the courts. Conservatives are not good at controlling those type of asylum claims. If you get liberal judges on those courts who accept not being American makes them a little poor and boom asylum claim accepted then the act does nothing. And again asylum should not be initially approved inside the country.
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Trump did NOT need to pass this bill to stop immigrant caravans. This is obvious we did NOT have these issues under Trump and no laws have been changed in the interim. Like you say above Trump closed immigration doing things that were “trivial to repeal or ignore”. Electing Trump is what we need to close the border. He’s done it before. Biden could do the same thing.
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Which brings up the big problem with the bill. It’s toothless. If the POTUS is of the wrong party then the border is open. There were no teeth in the bill to force a Democrat to close the border.
If you disagree with the “teeth” then please quote in the bill the “teeth”. How would this bill limit President AOC to 10k “asylum” seekers per year?
sliders1234
29d ago
I don’t want to touch a lot of these because they are political narratives. Personally, I think for example Trump did the best job of anyone and you highlight two of them Operation Warpspeed and the PPP loans/economic program. The first was the most important thing for saving lives and the second was a primary reason America bounced back so quickly.
On the puppet master thing it’s because they feel coordinated. America has black criminals dying from law enforcement all the time for doing black criminal stuff. In Floyd’s case it’s using counterfeit money to by fentanyl of which put himself 80-90% of the way to his death. It makes no sense to me he wasn’t just labeled an OD. Black guy dies of fentanyl OD normally wouldn’t even make a local newspaper. Instead we had spontaneous riots in every major city and a lot of small towns. It only happens in an election year. And the timing of the riots just feels like someone is organizing. It’s like a war day Ukraine where there are battles at 20 different areas of the front where it’s obvious someone made a decision to time them together.
The same thing with the legal cases for Trump it feels like someone tried to stack them for constant news coverage and with many timed to land with key events during the peak of the election. If he had one case coinciding with the election it would seem like one person doing their things but when you have multiple it feels like someone is giving Lieutenant's battle plans.
In your case you identified Karl Rove as doing politics. In this case there is no one.
sliders1234
1d ago
This might be a weird distinction but I do not think most of the protestors are antisemitic in the traditional sense (some are) but they are against Jewish traits. Being wealthy, successful, intelligent, winners in a meritocracy, puts Jews at the top of the oppressor pyramid. If Jews practiced the Jewish religion but were poor and not in power then the protestors would not care about them.
I am not sure if that is the same thing as antisemitism. There may no no functional difference since the protestors will always be against Jewish interests.
The only thing that leans me towards it actual antisemitism is because the protestors do not pay attention to any of the other wars going on in the world. Non of the protestors are going to Ukraine to protect the Ukranians despite Ukraine facing far worse than Palestine.
This quote came to mind when you asked what is white Nationalism.
A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy – A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.”
White People - are those who can keep it. Propagate self-governance. Live as free people in a functional complex society
Non-white - are the people who can not self-govern or contribute to its existence.
In the American context which uses an expanding term of whiteness it’s basically anyone who can replicate and reproduce the ideals expressed in the founding of the nation.
People saying the west told Ukraine not to take peace are doing a giant motte-and-Bailey. Personally think it is bad argumentative form to do that without including a lot of asterisks. To use a known motte-bailey without adding disclaimers. No doubt Putin did offer peace but I see no evidence it was anything less than the end of Ukranian nation/ethnicity (heavy Russian culturalization).
I feel like this should be a proper way to cite a motte-and-Bailey when using one to indicate you are only meaning the motte.
The right has an easy answer to this. The differences are entirely genetic. Low IQ, high criminality, highly prone to violence. There are no such things as “historical roots”. The problem with CRT is it then inflames racial differences and also proposes solutions that only makes things worse. For example it tries to solve genetic differences with social programs like affirmative action. Which eliminates the meritocracy but doesn’t solve the underlying differences.
Hanania also is a hardcore HBD but has stated fairly directly that you really can’t make those arguments in public. Instead he uses dog whistles now. Like arguing for the meritocracy because he views that as a winning political strategy while using his more direct logic for those positions is a failing political strategy. Arguing against affirmative action is a failure of a policy because IQ gaps can’t be fixed by going to Harvard is a losing strategy. Arguing for a meritocracy because Asians are on the wrong end of the affirmative action stick is a winning a political strategy.
sliders1234
25d ago
I think Tyson codes as lower class black and hence lower expectations apply. He’s the type that really is different. While someone like Crosby it’s obvious he’s not that. Hence he gets boosted into white adjacent. And high standards.
Someone like OJ Simpson would be more interesting if his reputation could be repaired but murder is a bit much. He codes more of the half in half out.
sliders1234
20d ago
The thing with these articles on gun violence and gun rights are they basically are talking about two completely different issues.
The overlap between gun enthusiast and gun crime are not the same people and do not have any significant policy overlap.
The US has zero interest in putting young black men in prison for gun possession. The 2nd amendment stuff doesn’t apply because even if we made guns illegal the prosecutors in cook Country don’t have the stomaches for locking them all up.
Gun restrictions in the US are about Kyle Rittenhouse types shooting AR-15 in the local forest. And self defense when the Feds decide to legalize looting in their town. Plus about 100 people dead per year from a nutty gun enthusiast going on a spree. There is overlap with the black on black crime described in the article.
sliders1234
26d ago
For Claudine Gay I feel like “politics” is a bit of a euphemism. It’s truthy but the politics in question is that on the lefts social oppression pyramid a black female sits at the top. If you say politics, Chris Rufo says DEI, and redneck Billy says because she’s a black female they all mean the same thing. And it does seem correct to say she was thrown out on politics. Turns out rich Jewish donors can go head to head with modern leftism and win politically when they feel they are being hurt. You can call it politics but you would be equally true to say she was fired for being antisemitic. All are politics and this case the Jewish vote not liking antisemitism was stronger than the lefts oppression wheel politics.
sliders1234
14d ago
Supposedly Bidens already told Israel not to do anything. This looks like a fake attack.
Taxpayers spend $2 billion.
sliders1234
15d ago
I believe the big thing for them is availability and consistency. Like a McDonalds worker with great grammar and can do algebra and make an identical Big Mac at 4 am.
Simplistically Mr Banker meets with CEO at 3 PM on Tuesday. He gets feedback from the client on what they are thinking. At 7 PM he gives updates to his analysts. At 4 am the analyst have all the materials updated. At 7 am the printers have finished documents. At 8 am the banker has the new reports in his briefcase. At 9 am the Banker again meets with CEO and closes the deal.
And everything has to look perfect because it’s a big deal. Just having the correct numbers won’t work because it looks sloppy for that size of deal so hours spent picking out just the right shade of blue for a pie chart.
That’s my understanding of the job.
sliders1234
27d ago
IMO without doing the whole debate again you are making a giant assumption the CIA purposefully tried to provoke Russia into war versus what I believe is a much simpler explanation that Ukraine just wanted to be richer. Poland is at current trajectories will be wealthier than England by 2030. From a cultural orbit for Russia it’s tough for them to keep people in their sphere of influence when they can look at their neighbors house and see it getting wealthier. If the CIA does nothing Ukraine itself would be looking for western connections.
I don’t see any shitty parenting unless there is a lot more going on. A few text messages that look bad. If a prosecutor went thru my phone they will find plenty of shitty stuff I’ve done and a lot of stuff out of context.
I had some rough times in school sometime. Kids get depressed. Bullying happens. Most just grow up. Kids need to work thru there issues and grow up. I’m fairly certain Elon Musks had shittier parents than this. Very few kids grow up a member of the Brady Bunch and my guess is the vast majority of kids have some family dysfunction.
This actually scares me this definition of “shitty parents” because it sounds a lot like helicopter parenting instead of what I think is much better of just letting kids do what they want to do. I think the latter leads to children being much better adults and key to them developing their own self-esteem. I don’t want a legal standard where a parent needs to micromanage every bad thought their kids have.
I agree with guns should be locked up and secure. Though I feel like there is a ton of hypocrisy here as I’ve never seen a black father convicted of this.
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