For once, Bob is right….CNN is losing viewers, now that it’s becoming another righty propaganda outlet under the new CEO Chris Licht to appease John Malone, a far right-leaning billionaire now on the board of Discovery who just purchased CNN, close friend of the Murdoch family, and key Warner Bros. Discovery board member who has made it well-known that he would like CNN to be more “centrist”—whatever that means, has taken a noticeable shift to the far right in recent months. Firing the most highly rated hosts, cancelling highly rated shows, simply because he didn’t like them personally and hated the fact checking of the right.
It’s reported that they only watch CNN through FOX news….so only the edited clips Fox shows with Fox commentary and editorializing.

Note, when Stelter was fired, Tucker Carlson and Daily Mail seemed to know about it a full day before even Stelter was told….because Malone couldn’t keep from bragging about it in celebration.

CNN is under attack from within by the destructive dishonest right, who is trying their utmost to kill it. Who in their right mind could believe they might attract righty viewers at the outlet they call “the Devil” “evil” “communist”..etc? No one. The changes were blatantly obviously intended to ruin and kill the network the right hates with a passion, not improve it.

Professional economist here (hence, perceived as right wing) who began studying economics due to concern about climate change (hence, perceived as left wing).

[1] The classic statement of when markets 'work' is the 'first fundamental theorem of welfare economics'.

[2] 'work' in this sense means 'leads to a Pareto-optimal outcome', which means an outcome in which no one can be made better off without making someone worse off. This is a low standard: an outcome in which I have everything is Pareto-optimal.

[3] the conditions for the welfare theorems are generally not satisfied in practice. Here, as alluded to in the ad, carbon emissions are 'externalities': if an oil company sells you gas, which you then use, both of you are better off, because you're assumed to have taken into account the effects of your exchange, and decided to proceed; other parties have not, so may be worse off.

[4] in general, failure of the welfare theorem conditions isn't enough to make the case for government intervention: the outcome may still be 'constrained' efficient - meaning that, given the inherent constraints in the problem (e.g. asymmetric information), the market outcome is Pareto efficient.

[5] again, even if it is, you may not like the particular constrained efficient outcome the market yields (e.g. I get everything).

[6] in the case of externalities, the theory is pretty well established - if we want efficient outcomes, we need to align the private and social costs. There are two basic market-based tools for doing that: quantity tools (e.g. carbon permits) and price tools (e.g. carbon taxes). Which performs better depends on the sort of market imperfections.

[7] obviously, we will never have a perfect estimate of the efficient price or quantity of carbon to emit in a given year. Equally obviously, to me at least, this is a classic case of an externality with a well developed body of theory pointing in the direction of some level of controls.

[8] in my experience: people familiar with the economic theory tend not to be 'pro-market' or 'anti-market': they tend to want to understand how the market can be used to deliver societal objectives and, when it can't, how to correct its imperfections.

Oops this turned into a semi rant. But I am legitimately open to discussion here, and am curious to get your thoughts on a few points Bob. That is, IF you're willing to actually think about them beyond the level of repeating talking points.

I find it interesting how divergent the two overall "sides" are in this country, in terms of where they focus. None of the issues brought up in this video are really on the radar of most progressives, beyond being aware some on the right are talking about them. And I'm guessing a lot of the concerns progressives discuss rarely come up in your chosen media landscape. A lot of the issues in the video are largely off of my radar, and I have to wonder how you feel they should be addressed - like, actual proposed solutions rather than just complaining about / worrying about them.

We only dedicate one day to remember our fallen soldiers

How many should there be? Arguably we have more than one already: there's Memorial Day and Veterans Day, and it seems that Sept 11th is often used for the purpose as well.

I'd argue we should spend more time acknowledging and understanding the principals behind WHY our soldiers died in the various conflicts which caused them to fall in the first place. Let's make sure our citizenry appreciates what we collectively rejected in the Revolutionary war. Why it was important that we kept the country together rather than allowing the south to split off in the mid-1800s. Why we chose to honor our diplomatic agreements and support our allies in WW1. Why we fought against the countries and governments we did in WW2. What our goals were in Korea and Vietnam, and what lessons we learned from those conflicts and from the Cold War in general. Commemorating and remembering those we've lost absolutely matters, but if we're ONLY doing that while forgetting why they fought OR ignoring what we learned then we're doing them an equal or greater disservice. Remember that America was built on the idea of forming "a more perfect union" - not a perfect one, a MORE perfect one - a work in progress. We're striving towards an ideal, not assuming we're already there. Learning from our past successes, failures, and our struggles around both outcomes is vital. If our self-analysis is no deeper than hero worship we'll never make real progress towards that theoretical perfect union.

The only mask that's gonna save us is duct tape on their mouths

Yeah, sound medical advice and evidence-based science is terrifying. Better to shut up those whose words we dislike, because we're reactionary authoritarian babymen. I truly do not understand being more afraid of reasonable safety measures than of a virus which has been shown to cause serious harm in the short and long terms. The only reason this "masks = liberal / maskless = conservative" crap came about is because politics has devolved to the level of team sports in the US, and one party has chosen "the opposite of whatever our political opponents say" as their entire governing philosophy. (And yes, ONE party - research and understand the GOP's 2020 platform if you want to argue the point.) This video even seems to reach a reasonable conclusion at the end, while coming up just short of that final logical leap to "maybe I should question what the public faces of MY side have been claiming in this Us vs Them madness." Seriously - keep going friend, you're almost there! George Washington was 100% right in wanting to avoid political parties being a force in the US, and it makes me immensely sad that his fears came true.

Big oil runs the world / the only wars to get fought are with the countries who have natural resources they want

Solid point here, no sarcasm. The US military has long been a tool of our profit-driven form of "free market" imperialism. A really great way to combat this, specifically with an eye to ending Big Oil's goddamn death grip on our foreign policy goals, would be an aggressive implementation of renewable energy projects. Remember the space race? America can be an absolute beast at clever engineering solutions when we dedicate ourselves to it. Fuck the petrostates, we have the available land and resources to absolutely kick ass in the realms of solar and wind power, and be leaders in the the post-hydrocarbon reality. We can certainly agree on that, right Bob? Left / Right nonsense fully aside, I think any reasonable American can agree on at least two points: let's stop sending heaps of cash to buy oil off of the Saudis (etc), and Fuck Cancer.

But if a white man acts too white he's white trash / he's a racist he's a bigot he's a monster

What the fuck is this horseshit? What does "acting too white" even fucking look like? Watching NASCAR on a sailboat while listening to polka? Typically when I see racism from white people it's in the form of denying that brown-hued people deal with any additional difficulties in life due to their skin tone, or denying that there have been structural obstacles for them through history, or lamenting that their white children are being burdened with a broader lens on culture or with (gasp! shock!) an accurate accounting of actual US history, including the ugly bits that we shouldn't be proud of (but MUST learn from). I'm progressive / lefty as fuck and there is no aspect of "white culture" or "acting white" which upsets me in the slightest. UNLESS one counts "denying racism exists / has ever existed" as a fundamental value of being white. Which... why would anyone want to claim that nonsense? If you want to listen to classic country music in a rusty pickup truck while driving to an evangelical church, then discuss hockey over Buds after 18 holes with the rest of your tractor pull team, then absolutely go nuts my fellow caucusoid! Just recognize and understand that your life experiences may not be the same as those of others. Further, if we care about trying to avoid unnecessary, avoidable unfairness in life (recognizing that life will never truly be fair, for anyone), then it might be reasonable for some governmental / legal / structural recognition in furtherance of that notion. There is absolutely room for legitimate policy disagreement here without being accused of racism. It's denial of others' reality which tends to garner the label of racist (sexist etc) - steer clear of denying the lived experiences of other people, allow for the possibility they may have encountered difficulties you haven't / won't, and we've room for further discussion.

Edit / final point: I voted the video back up to 0 from the -1 where I found it. Because while I disagree with a lot of the positions taken by the performer, they may have reached them through no fault of their own and with no true malice. Misinformation / disinformation is a devious shit of a motherfucker, and the rot it causes can run deep. It is painful to abandon deeply-held beliefs, on a fundamental level. If nothing else, the video gives us room to discuss some specific viewpoints held by people who think of themselves as good, but which can lead to harm.

Ahhhh…so this is really a *commercial

I think you’re right, that’s (usually) the idea, bringing joy to the neighborhood.
The issue is the assumption that a million watts of flashing lights and thousands of visitors deadlocking the neighborhood for a month each year brings joy, not rage. I think that is a mistaken assumption.

I recall one of the earlier houses like this that went viral early had years of legal battles with the neighbors because they clearly didn’t care that the neighbors hated it and were annoyed to the extreme, and just kept making it bigger despite numerous complaints.

I’m all for this in areas where everyone subjected to it (and the huge crowds it brings) first signs off giving permission….permission they can revoke…with laws/rules requiring it be taken down at the first neighborhood complaint.

How are you enjoying all the testimony corroborating the fact that the big lie was pre planned as a fraud, never had a thing to do with voter fraud but was nothing but a ploy to steal power and control by any means possible including violence, that every single claim came without a shred of evidence and wasn’t ever meant to have any, because they knew it wasn’t true before the big lie started.

Lemme guess….fake news.

Too bad most is on video with Stone and Bannon outlining the plot in October to simply claim victory, especially if Biden wins big, then claim fraud and maybe even find some (but that part isn’t a bit important to the plan). Pleading the fifth or ignoring subpoenas doesn’t mean you’re off the hook, it means your previous statements can be taken as your testimony with no rebuttal or explanations. D’oh!

Aaaaahahahaha!!!! $965 MILLION IN DAMAGES to 8 Sandy Hook families today….+ their attorney fees so over a BILLION!

“This must be what hell is like.” - Alex Jones

Jones still faces at least one more round of defamation lawsuits over his Sandy Hook denials.

About damn time that dangerous nut job is taken off the air. Hopefully this will end Infowars (the far right war against information) and keep him a pauper until he dies on skid row.

Now go suck some more frog dick, Alex.

Um….have you heard, Trump’s new lawyer that he had to (illegally) pre pay $3 million from his “Save America PAC” just to take his case, Chris Kise, has turned out to be a registered foreign agent for the government of Venezuela?
He has already demanded he have access to all documents taken from Maralago including the highest level classified top secret nuclear documents.
I guess you see no issue with actual hostile foreign governments having access to our top secret documents, a must if he’s going to defend Trump.
More anti American actions daily.
Also Trump fully embraced Qanon at his last weekend rally.

P.S.- according to a new book, Trump floated “trading” Puerto Rico for Greenland because he thought he owned the island, and saw it as a commodity, not a territory full of American citizens.

Wouldn’t his refusal to personally certify all government documents have now been returned be grounds for another round of search warrants for every Trump property, owned or rented? We know his lawyers can’t be trusted, we know he mixed them in with personal files, and we know he’s taken multiple boxes of files with him when he travels.
Really, another round of warrants is needed (and likely coming) whether he certifies or not, it’s just a way to hold him more accountable when they find more.

Lol. Such stupidity @bobknight33, as expected. No facts, no arguments to make, so let’s make infantile memes to show what serious adults we are instead….and it worked exactly as expected.

BTW- $43 billion won’t solve world hunger for a month…no amount of money can. New IRS enforcement agents make the government money, they don’t waste it. When their directive is to go after rich tax cheats, not anyone making under $400k per year but those making millions and paying zero taxes, yes, that’s an amazing idea that will benefit the country greatly and pay for itself in recovered revenue.

BTW- those empty shelf pictures are from 2000….probably the homeless in cities and lines at borders too. As for vacation, Trump spent 1 out of every 3.4 days, 428 days in total, on vacation as the economy crumbled, pandemic raged, and sedition fomented. Far more than Biden, who has taken way too many days off during the economic recovery, employment boom, and waning pandemic. D’oh!

BTW-Communist China and Vietnam eradicated an enormous lions share of that extreme poverty, well over 500 million out of poverty since 2000 between just those two, going to near 0% poverty by 2015….so much for capitalism’s saving grace, eh? Are you going to go sell the benefits of communism now? Derp.

This is why morons shouldn’t argue, they often make the exact opposite point from what they intended.


🤦‍♂️

Still think it backfired?
Republicans are #runawaying from Trump, Fox is turning on him (again). These protests for Trump, at least those I’ve seen footage of, have under 10 people each.
This is NOT helping your party, it’s just riling up the lunatics that get 100% of their news from far right propaganda outlets….propaganda outlets so unpopular they’re disappearing from the airwaves in droves because they’re totally unprofitable.



It did poke the nest of crazy anti American terrorists who have taken it as a sign they should attack the FBI with AR15s, and made hundreds or thousands of credible death threats against FBI and police agents, judges, families, young children, and many many others. America can handle a few thousand nut jobs. We did on Jan 6…and this time the orders won’t be “handle the attackers with kid gloves”.
So far, those going too far are the same people who went too far for Trump on Jan 6….a bunch of loud nutty Karens throwing tantrums that convinced themselves they represent the majority despite their meager numbers.

okay, jack...

my father use to say, "Get it from the horse's mouth, and if lies, he's a damn thin horse."

These people are so thick, and darkly biased, that they have become transparent. Easier to see through than the Fanta Flusher frequent fibs.

So useless as factual information providers, they inadvertently provide what is NOT to be taken seriously: thus becoming useful by sin then theory. Like a windsock that points in the opposite direction of the wind.

Geezus. Head so far up their butts you'd think they'd see daylight soon.

And Guy Reffitt, first Jan 6 defendant to go to trial, first found guilty, now with the longest sentence at 7 years for that “totally peaceful tour of the capitol” Trump called for on Jan 6…the nothing burger….or the violent brutal murderous and thuggish attack on America by BLM/Antifa, depending on what nonsensical position you’ve taken today.
The “L”s just keep coming.

Today we got a recording of Colorado District 4 Congressman Ken Buck pressuring an El Paso County GOP official to falsify (primary) election results in the State Senate District 10 race in 2020. “Just add this name to the ballot and give him the top line vote, with 30% of the vote.”

“ Buck: “Do you understand the order of the executive committee and the central committee that you will submit the paperwork to include Mr. Stiver and Mr. Liston on the ballot, with Mr. Liston receiving the top-line vote?”

Bremer: “I will seek legal counsel as I am being asked to sign an affidavit that states Mr. Stiver received 30% of the vote. I need to seek legal counsel to find out if I am putting myself in jeopardy of a misdemeanor for doing that. ”

Buck: “And you understand that it is the order of the central committee that you do so?”

Bremer: “I will consult with counsel. Yes sir, I understand the central committee has ordered me to sign an affidavit stating that a candidate got 30% who did not, and I will seek legal counsel and determine if I am legally able to follow that.”“

https://krdo.com/news/2020/05/08/gop-chair-in-el-paso-county-says-congressman-ken-buck-told-him-to-submit-false-election-results/

They were stopped from just discarding the primary vote by legal injunction, and they appealed saying they’ve done this so often that if they allow people to file for injunction against this illegal election fraud then the courts will be clogged for years because they’ve done this uncountable times.

Another blatant, outrageous, totally anti democracy election fraud by Republicans. Your party should be declared enemies of democracy and every registered Republican deported to a non democratic country, forfeiting 100% of the assets they’ve taken from America….or lined up in the street and shot as active traitors. The Japanese weren’t as anti American in WW2 as today’s Republicans…and you’re one of them. Your party should be renamed Ephialtes.

The 1924 model Doble Series E steam car could run for 1,500 miles (2,400 km) before its 24-gallon water tank needed to be refilled; even in freezing weather, it could be started from cold and move off within 30 seconds, and once fully warmed could be relied upon to reach speeds in excess of 90 miles per hour (140 km/h).
-taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doble_steam_car

steam was a thing. alone w/electric cars. what really was impressive was the steam driven airplane.

Most conservatives just don't have the chops for comedy.

This humor genre is somewhere in the late '80s - early '90s. Dated. Like watching 'Friends'.

Putting that aside (like a used tissue) would have been helpful to know when (the date) these comments were taken. Hard to respond to it. It'd be like Bob saying 'landslide' before the election, and him claiming 'landslide' afterward (granted wrong both times, but the context could be scarier in the second).

There is evidence that the hearings are being heard by members of Dumb Quixote's* herd. So at least they'll have some idea why liar, liar, pants on fire is being prosecuted.

Overall, it's being five full days of powerful testimony. If anyone else's trial was preceding like this, their attorney would be spending hours upon hours trying to get a plea deal &/or getting the defendant to plea.

If this was a murder trial, their lawyer would be saying "plead guilty! throw yourself on the mercy of the court! at this point the best we can hope for is to have your body buried in secrecy - so your grave doesn't get violated!"**

may not get the deluded to become undeluded but the bells of truth are ringing and bringing a lot to church. while the rest are whistling through the graveyard.

JUDGEMENT: use crazy don's 🚽 file system for this vid.

*windmills, ya' see
**cited line from https://youtu.be/RCRqjJXHfQs