I did. And I'm happy with the way things are going generally. At least, regarding Joe Biden.


Big picture: there's a lot of terrible things happening in the world. My own half-assed-survey based on personal experience: most people don't follow passing laws and what the executive branch really does with any kind of seriousness. They may self-proclaim they "like reading the news" But most people who say things like that are content with a surface understanding of what's happening.

I mean, you know inflation is up AROUND THE ENTIRE PLANET right? https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/06/15/in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world-inflation-is-high-and-getting-higher/


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Besides Israel, other countries with very large increases in inflation between 2020 and 2022 include Italy, which saw a nearly twentyfold increase in the first quarter of 2022 compared with two years earlier (from 0.29% to 5.67%); Switzerland, which went from ‑0.13% in the first quarter of 2020 to 2.06% in the same period of this year; and Greece, a country that knows something about economic turbulence. Following the Greek economy’s near-meltdown in the mid-2010s, the country experienced several years of low inflation – including more than one bout of deflation, the last starting during the first spring and summer of the pandemic. Since then, however, prices have rocketed upward: The annual inflation rate in Greece reached 7.44% in this year’s first quarter – nearly 21 times what it was two years earlier (0.36%).

Annual U.S. inflation in the first quarter of this year averaged just below 8.0% – the 13th-highest rate among the 44 countries examined. The first-quarter inflation rate in the U.S. was almost four times its level in 2020’s first quarter.

Regardless of the absolute level of inflation in each country, most show variations on the same basic pattern: relatively low levels before the COVID-19 pandemic struck in the first quarter of 2020; flat or falling rates for the rest of that year and into 2021, as many governments sharply curtailed most economic activity; and rising rates starting in mid- to late 2021, as the world struggled to get back to something approaching normal.

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The pattern of rising and falling inflation happened because that flu that "will just go away like a miracle" ended up affecting the whole world's economy in a somewhat predictable pattern when it comes to inflation. Maybe the people who only casually glance at the news when they are flipping channels don't know better, but come on - you know that inflation rates in the United States are not specifically Joe Biden's fault right?


You still think they are? OKAY - HOW? Exactly. Point to legislation passed or not passed and the timeline of inflation in the United States.

Something like "Here you can see inflation beginning to spike, and it's the result of XXXXXXXXX that Joe Biden did, here's exactly how what he did affects inflation in this way."


Who wants to bet $20 that I'll get some response like that? What should the odds be set at if I am 100% certain all I'll get is just some snarky bullshit from an old bullfrog.

Lol. Did I do that?

@HerbWatson said:
You've clearly got a lot to unload, I hope 2020 is a better year for you. You've got issues pal,

I'm sorry you feel my explanation is an attempt to argue. At least I didn't directly attribute those issues to you or otherwise personally insult you except for the fast and loose with facts bit, which I stand by....you can't say the same.

Maybe be correct instead of hyperbolic and exaggerating, and not disrespectfully snarky and passive aggressive when challenged and you'll have more pleasant discussions.

The miniscule amount of milk I drink means water use isn't my concern....but it is in a general big picture sense, especially if we all switch to non dairy milk as you suggested.

Have a Festive Festivus and a better 2020. Bye.

If you have the option of burning rainforest to build a sad farm (they are poor, temporary farms created from rainforests), then you already have the clean air and orangutan habitat. Sell it as carbon offsets to existing polluters until a better system is created, don't destroy it permanently to make far less money for a short time. Duh.
Again, this bullshit idea that thoughtful conservation is antithetical to economic gains is pure, utter bullshit. Not destroying and polluting is almost always better economically if you force polluters to pay for cleanup, or if you look at the big picture. Burn the Amazon or starve aren't our only choices.

Nice big picturing...I am sure the donald got bored because there weren't enough pictures when someone showed him it.

I'm with @Chairman_woo . YES, Hillary was the "lesser of two evils" option.

Maher and the rest are upset because they think that "lesser of two evils" is an overly simplistic take on the actual degree to which either of them would have actually been evil. Fair enough, sorta. Piers Morgan is essentially just arguing semantics while the big picture just sails over everyone's heads.

Trump is a buffoon. A bull in a china shop. YES, he's doing blatantly evil/stupid things. Subtlety is not his forte. When he does bad things, we're going to find out about them.

Hillary is a vastly more savvy politician. Machiavellian, one might say. I think there's a very real argument to be made that her track record of (barely) weaseling out of very questionable actions and generally getting away with stuff that has sunk lots of other politicians suggests that it might be reasonable to be quite afraid of what Hillary has done / could do that we wouldn't find out about.


I'm not pleased with either one of them being the President. But honestly, I think that it will likely be easier to overcome and repair the damage done by "big dumb animal" Trump than it would have been to track down and discover all the cunning little traps, pitfalls, and closed-door deals that a President Hillary could have got done.

To be fair some of those programs should be eliminated. In the big picture these table scrap spending issues.

Homeless need food and shelter more than I need PBS or GOV funded arts programs.

Americans need to work longer before opting for social security.

Our defense spending does need to be cut.

Our national debt does need to be lowered.

WE need not to be fighting if /when defenses cutting / social security adjustments issues come up.

Death panels and throwing grandma off the cliff scare tactics need to stop.

Your video, the big picture-nader on how democrats lost their identity, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This achievement has earned you your "Pop Star" Level 42 Badge!

I fully agree, but I note that plant based doesn't necessarily mean absence of salt, sugar, or fat, although I admit many people think of it that way. Removing those three things, IMO, makes far more difference than what you put them on (with obvious exceptions). Salty, sugary, fatty plant based foods can be FAR worse than healthy lean meats.
It's not a cut and dry comparison, details matter, sometimes as much as the big picture.

I was thinking of what's probably called second wave, or what I think was being called 'the modern feminist movement' back then, but I'm pretty sure even that started in the early/mid 60's, well before I was involved, or even breathing....so yes, it was tongue in cheek.
I was a kid in the 70's, not a political organizer, but I did see Joan Baez twice before I was 10 at two of the dozens of woman's rights events I attended as a kid/teenager, so I say I get credit for being 'part of the movement'...especially since I continued to support, and sometimes actively work towards their goals, and consider them when voting to this day.

I understand I often fail at communication, please let me try again. My point was that when the name of a movement is so focused on one small (or in the case of feminism, large) segment of humanity, it can turn off many that agree completely with the motive.

EDIT: I do take your point, though, about end goals/primary targets. It may be an impossibility, but it would be nice to find names that can invoke both without being exclusionary. It would help people like me that get hung up on minutia and detail not be distracted by imperfect labels, and keep ammunition out of their opponent's guns.

Yes, I understand the reason the movement is 'black lives matter', and agree that they are the MOST oppressed, so deserving of the most attention. I don't claim to have a perfect solution that would both be all inclusive AND focus on the most oppressed.
With "you matter", I was thinking that is a way to say that the issues that matter to 'you' also matter, that your being oppressed and receiving unfair treatment matter, that your opinion matters, and that your life matters, no matter who 'you' are, black, white, woman, man, and all people in-between. Yes, even the Koch Bro's matter, just not more than anyone else.

Of course, you and others are free to focus on any issue, or any specific part of any issue you please, or not. I usually prefer a big picture approach for me, because it's all too easy for me to get myopic and dwell on (often meaningless) detail if I over focus, one of many character flaws. I think both mindsets have their merits and their drawbacks, and I think it's a good thing to have people in both camps.

You could easily build a PC that's better than a PS4 for the money. If you factor in the cost of the games over the lifetime of the machine, it becomes even cheaper.

And while you can't rent games, you have access to GOG, steam and hundreds of indie games. If you want to play the original Doom or X-wing, you can. Good luck playing any games that aren't from the latest generation on console... oh no, wait, you can probably get them on PC too.
And if all you want is a games machine, install steam, run big picture mode and leave the PC under the TV. Boom! Instant console but better.

^ Agreed. On the one hand, the candidates need a big-picture individualism, stoicism, and acceptance that they're leaving all the people they love behind -- they need the ability to "disconnect" from that human companionship-- yet they also have to somehow get along with 3 strangers. To say nothing of the ability to not totally flip out when a chestburster pops out of one of them during dinner.

SO he's a racist, when considering the insidious big-picture, the bigger picture is, 'Who gives a fuck?!' So's your mother....

Honestly, I feel that he presented many points that were put quite well. While the articles you linked are interesting, they don't really give us enough data to actually know what's going on. All they tell us is that these two things happened, and they may or may not have been caused by deeper, systemic issues. Two articles isn't enough to form a big picture (no matter how you or I might feel about it personally).

What it boils down to is this; the chief benefit of legalizing prostitution is that it gives us a chance to protect the workers and possibly take a bite out of crime in the process. However, legalization is not the end, as criminal abuse of the workers can and will happen if the law isn't properly enforced.

It is perfectly possible, and perhaps even plausible, that trafficking continues to flourish even in countries where prostitution has been legalized, but is that an issue of weak legislation and enforcement, or is it simply an issue that is inherent to prostitution?

I dunno. I can kinda get behind her idea.

Yeah, at first glance it seems ridiculous, but you're not looking at the big picture!

If Muslims aren't allowed to write about Christianity, then Christians aren't allowed to write about science. It gets even better:

- creationists cannot write about evolution
- homeopaths cannot write about medicine
- republicans cannot write about government
- and psychics cannot write about fucking anything

Yeah, where's our advanced space travel tech and energy efficient vehicles. Oh right, our noob leaders want to make money, drive cool cars, travel to places frequently where the rest of us cannot afford, and fuck hot women. Got it.

We all get dicked. Big pictures of dicks to the masses!