I know….let’s cut public school funding and let some parents take more with vouchers that partially pay for private schools many can’t afford. That will solve it. Just have those neglected students pick themselves up by their bootstraps and just do better. Problem solved.

Public schools are awful, but the solution isn’t to just defund them. The solution is simple….more, and better teachers, and real standards for grade advancement. That requires more money.

I picked that from a bunch of sources that were reporting on it because (scroll down on the page) it contains the full legal documents submitted to the court.

See page 32

My favorite bits

"The plaintiffs themselves characterize the statements at issue as 'wild accusations' and 'outlandish claims'. They are repeatedly labeled 'inherently improbable' and even 'impossible.'"

“Such characterizations of the allegedly defamatory statements further support defendants’ position that reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact"

“Reasonable people understand that the ‘language of the political arena, like the language used in labor disputes … is often vituperative, abusive and inexact...political statements are inherently prone to exaggeration and hyperbole."


Yep, only an unreasonable person, someone making no sense, would believe that election fraud alleged by Sidney Powell occurred.

Tell me again about the Kraken, Bob. Any day now.

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Side note, it's impressive that the best criticism that the right can come up with is "heur de hurr hurr look he fall up stairs" and other made up nonsense. I, for one, am unhappy about the boarder.

I don't think it's his fault that kids are showing up en masse. But I wish they embraced them, said "It's dangerous in your country? You fear for your life there ? Well, lets swear you in, teach you english and make you a tax payer in the U S of A. Here's a hotdog, kid." But it seems like the right only wants him to be more cruel to them? he's in the middle, still not my first pick, but on other issues, I have no complaints at the moment.

Why don't you just snap out of it already, look at the nazi's you've been listening to and see them for what they are. Fucking liars who are talking you into voting for policy that hurts no one but yourself, all in the name of "pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps" aka "your on your own unless you're swimming in a money pit, also give us more $$$$"

My dad is nearing retirement age and is baffled by the fact that his monthly social security isn't as high as he anticipated. I told him "Go read that section of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and stop letting other people interpret it for you. It's what i was warning you about and what you are, at least partially responsible for, shooting yourself in the foot with. And go get your vaccination, because I know what they think about that, dumb-ass."

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Bob, whatever you do or think, go get a vaccine. Donald Trump fucked us good by letting this virus run rampant and Ive had too many people close to me die. Those lunatics telling you not to take precautions DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU. Go get vaccinated. Stay safe.

Wow. Kinda surprised that you posted this @C-note.

This video completely ignores all the systemic issues that create poverty. Most people don’t have passive incomes because passive incomes come from investments.

Basically this is typical, right wing, pull yourself up by your bootstraps bullshit.

@bobknight33
"socialism is not american"

i swear sometimes bob i dont know what the fuck you are talking about.

even when people put out,quite correctly i might add,that america has socialism in its economic structure.you respond like they didnt state anything.

it is like you live in this weird bubble and that any information that attempts to enter,that may possibly contradict your own personal understandings.

so when i say that you can have a socialist democracy,i am not just pulling that out of my ass:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_socialism

or that america already has socialist programs,and a majority of them YOU and your children enjoy:
https://mises.org/blog/bernie-sanders-right-us-already-socialist-country
(this is from the von mises institute.not exactly a bastion of liberal/progressive ideology.just in case you wanted to pull that tired and stupid response:well,they are a liberal website blah blah blah)

so if YOU think that socialism is SO bad and harmful and utterly un-american.let us revert to a pure capitalist society shall we?

here are the things that we will be saying goodbye to in your new capitalist america:
1.child labor laws.
thats right...your 8 yr old grandchild can now quit her fucking whining and get to fucking work.hmmmm...nothing like forced labor for the children working 14 hr shifts with no breaks,and 6 days a week.no work on sunday!
because:god.

2.minimum wage.
gone will be a basic minimum wage imposed by federal law.now we shall see the TRUE market place in action! of course,since there is surplus of available workers and there is no minimum.we can exploit the most desperate and vulnerable of our society and pay them 25 cents an hour!
take THAT china!

3.public schools.
education? only if your are part of the new american aristocracy! and what child will be going to school for an education? they are too busy working at the plant! pfffft..education.it is over-rated anyways.

4.fire and police.
now why would i spend my hard earned money in taxes, so my neighbor can be protected from fire damage and property damage? pay for your own protection fuckface! oh...you're too busy working 3 jobs,making .25 per hr? and your kids are working too? aww too bad loser.shoulda pulled yourself up by your bootstraps.

5.voting.(yep.you read that right)
i am a hard working american.who pays his taxes and owns property AND a business! and i JUST gave my employees a raise to .27 per hour! i have a RIGHT to vote! why should those non-property owning losers get a vote as well? i am obviously far more important than they are.whats next? women voting? the horror.

6.social security and medicaid.
now why would we waste time and resources providing a safety net for those losers again?how is it MY responsibility that they couldnt plan for their sunset years? i did give them a raise didnt i? fucking crybabies.and so what if they actually PAID into those programs.i feel better creating my own reality by calling those programs "entitlements",because it makes me feel morally superior to them.

7.public libraries.
there is that pesky "education" again.why should i be responsible for someone else family and their access to literature and information?what do you think i live in? a society? with neighbors? communities?this is just more government intrusion upon MY life and MY freedoms!

look man,i know i am being a cheeky shit in this comment,and i am not anti-capitalist..at all.
capitalism has brought great things for society as a whole..BUT..there is a difference between capitalism and unfettered capitalism,and what we have now is NOT capitalism.

it is socialism for the rich:
see: the bank bailout
see: corporate subsidies (welfare)
see:corporate tax breaks (welfare)
see:our current political system which has been totally over-run by corporate money.a corporate coup de'tat.
which we are all fed the bullshit line of how wonderful captialism is,but the only beneficiaries are corporations,wall street and the dept of defense.

the only people that get to engage in capitalism are the poor and middle class,because actually having to compete is for suckers and losers.

It always confuses me how, as a society, we seem to think that prison is for punishment, and rehabilitation is now 100% the job of the convict, then we act like they have not yet 'paid their debt to society' and should continue to be shunned and punished when they get out of prison. We need to look at other cultures that treat people differently, and actually look at WHY they offended in the first place, and try to remedy those issues during incarceration and make them proper, productive citizens. Our system of punish, punish more, then add some permanent punishments, all while expecting the offenders to 'pull themselves up by their bootstraps' (bootstraps that were taken from them in prison) and, while enduring punishment, better themselves is just insane. They'll never be the people we want them to be if we keep putting obstacles in their way.

The problem with white culture is.. @lantern53, @newtboy & @AllWhitePeople

White Privilege insulated you from the reality of your advantages and the true suffering of others who aren't white

Hell, white people include if poor uneducated.

(I asked a white friend.
He said that white people just see other white people as strangers.
Makes sense now I guess)

You live in this White Privilege Bubble where "everyone's equal cause this is AMERICA!"

Everyone in your bubble has bootstraps. A safety net.
Reliable job opportunites and call-backs.
No fear of being harassed and/or murdered by police.
The general unconditional trust of society



In the bubble of impoverished black culture, however.. having a chance at leaving that poverty is a pipe-dream.

I know, because I live in Atlanta.
A place notorious for lots of poor black communities.

My girlfriend was born and raised in it.

Her parents were addicted to crack.
(Funny how crack possession carries a harsher sentence than cocaine possession, considering their the exact same drug.)

She saw a dead body in the street when she was 6.
(Gang violence is present when decent jobs and summer camps aren't)

She had Police SWAT invade her home & hold a gun to her head around the same age.
(Because busting potential drug dealers is more important that entering the correct house.)

Her cousin, who was probably a prostitute since 12 or 13, is currently very happy that her new "boyfriend" doesn't beat her.
(She feels like that's a win. Hell, my girlfriend was herself convinced that she'd "grow up to be a prostitute."
You know, the norm.)

For the last 5 months, my girlfriend has lived with a 21 year old prostitute (started at 14 when homeless) and her much older "boyfriend"/pimp because that was the only "affordable" housing near her work.

(She mentioned that earlier this month, there was a new girl there some mornings who was definitely probably 13 or 14.
She literally just moved out today and happened to spot her ex-roommate working her corner near West End Mall. )

So yeah, white people assume - No, righteously assert - all black people are just a equal as white people.

Because you all think:

"I've got bootstraps & dignity & great opportunites & everlasting hope.
Stop whining and take personal responsibility."

The reality is starkly different.

Black people are reminded of that difference LITERALLY EVERYDAY.

We're remind everytime an unarmed black youth is murder, just for "looking threatening".

Even with civil rights laws, even with a brown president.

You'll never know what it's truly like to be non-white..

Because White Privilege prevents you from even having to acknowledge these issue.

Just call it all even and blame the rest on personal responsibility.

I am bitter, Lantern. Extremely bitter.

I'm bitter because I know this game is rigged..

and I don't want to play along.

This society was made for white, ruthless, greedy, ignorant people..

I'm not any of those things. I'm the opposite of those things.

That's why I'm bitter.


I'm bitter because literally no matter how successful a black
person becomes - something like president say - we're still just niggers to an enormous portion of this society.

I'm bitter because willful ignorant people like you & Bobknight will never understand what it's like to be called a nigger..

And you don't give a fuck about how that feels either.

I'm bitter because You and Bobknight gloat about that shit.

And rub your white privilege in our faces every chance you get.


I'm bitter because currently the number of unarmed black men murdered by police..

Is the same as the number of black men lynched during the Jim Crow era.

I'm bitter because everytime I turn on the news..

All CNN, FoxNews, Msnbc want to do is remind me..

"Hey, remember that time we treated people that look like you as LITERAL cattle..

Yeah, you should stop being upset about that.

Take responsibly for not having as many opportunities as us respectable, civil [white] people..

And pull yourself up by your own bootstraps instead of rioting."

@Lawdeedaw

If you're studying something like engineering, there is a high likelihood that you will retain employment that will pay off a student loan over the next 10-20 years. Even if it's not your first preference, you will be employed somewhere with a reasonable income with such technical skills.

The government can play a useful role in amortizing your income. There's really no reason to be frugal and Starbucks aside, policy that forces you to work long hours in a dead-end job while studying to make ends meet is counter-productive as it reduces your long-term income. Not being able to even enrol because you're too poor, despite how smart you may be is also hugely destructive. This is why study assistance subsidies are such good policy. Them aside, you still have to clothe, house and feed yourself anyway.

Even if you say that there will be dropouts, fails, people who complete degrees with no job demand, you simply adjust up the interest rate you charge everyone for student debt to account for that loss. Then you have a mandatory contribution from any income you make above X amount that the student has to repay after they conclude their study. This way students can't simply retain a large debt with a low interest rate forever and subsidise everyone else by paying theirs off.

Also to incentivise correct course choice, you subsidise courses with skills in short supply/in demand more than those with good job prospects and a generally high expected income.

This is pretty much what we have in Australia under the HECS system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertiary_education_fees_in_Australia#HECS

It would be great if the US had something similar (because designed well it pays for itself), but the cultural obsession much of the country seems to have with total laissez faire, 'pull yourself up by your own bootstraps', even when it's not good policy makes it impossible.

Considering right now US Treasury bond rates (government borrowing rates) are at 60 year lows, it's doubly stupid.

Fusion is the single most important thing in the world right now.

We should be researching this like there's no tomorrow, because without fusion, there really isn't much of a tomorrow. We also have a limited window in which to "bootstrap" ourselves into the fusion age; fusion takes a lot of power to research and we'll only have the cheap energy to do it for the next 50 years or so.

But while I wish him all the best with his fusion reactor, I'm kinda sceptical that someone in a shed is going to beat incredibly well funded scientists and engineers to the punch.

Besides, if someone in a shed is going to invent fusion, it will be a kiwi.

ahh the slippery slope argument.

..gay marriage will lead to bestiality!

..marijuana is a gateway drug!!

..Anything Obama-related is the first step to socialism!

I can tell you this. No one enjoys asking their employer for a raise. I think if it were up to most people, they would never ask, but that's dependent on employers providing their workers with a living wage.

This is what happens when employers refuse to raise wages to match inflation. Even I think 15 bucks seems steep, but that's what economists say will give people shelter, food and healthcare. It's frustrating that the cost of living varies wildly in the US. I live in Nebraska where the cost of living is low so I always get sticker shock when I see prices nearby in Colorado, and even then, I know it's still cheap compared to the coasts. I wish we lived in a world where the cost of living was more even. But we don't

In a perfect world, I would say let the states figure out what's a good wage in their areas...and some do, But a lot ignore it, so it's on the fed to step in.

And it's absolutely a moral argument because it comes down to whether or not you believe even the lowest paid workers are deserving of decent food, shelter and healthcare. It's ironic because most of these corporate apologists probably consider themselves pro-life, yet they don't seem to have any problem withholding that which promotes a productive and healthy life.

It's kinda hard to pull yourself up by the bootstraps when you can't afford bootstraps...or if you're too busy dealing with health issues to improve your job options.

The script makes it seem potentially better (sort of), but the bits about Bullock's character seem as though they may ruin it. Basically, in a film like the one described, I want to see a professional, someone with a lot of balls (male or female) and brains, making an impossible situation work. Just having a bumbling, panicky, under trained astronaut surviving by dumb luck luck and a "will to survive," will short change us. Trying to squeeze an "everyman" (or "everywoman") character to elicit sympathy from the audience is doing a disservice. An extremely competent woman, put in a situation where the odds are way stacked against her, yet she perseveres through cunning, grit and level-headed intelligence to survive would be much, MUCH more gratifying.

The overbearing sense of Hollywood-style American patriotism ("evil Russians blow up satellite") and selling it like she's just pulling herself up by her bootstraps to get things and survive against the odds.. bleh.

Anyways, I kind of see the Hollywood executive patting themselves on the back saying "our lead is a woman... we are so progressive," but then still making her effetively a damsel-in-distress (saved by the man), even if she does ultimately save herself.

mined coins do not stop until 2140, but the rate of mining is defined by the protocol in such a way that it drops by 50% every 210,000 cycles, so it asymptotically approaches 21Mil.

The "useful" thing that the system is calculating is actually the bookkeeping for the entire network.

Machines that mine are the accountants/auditors for the network, and the mined coins are their probabilistic payment for bootstrapping the economy.

As the mining reward drops low it becomes needful for the mining machines to generate revenue through transaction fees, which people can elect to pay to prioritize their transactions over people who don't elect to add fees to their transaction.

>> ^scannex:

Certainly didn't take you long to resort to personal attacks. Sorry I annoy you.
Congratulations, you annoy me.
1. Your connection is ridiculous. I must somehow be privileged or sexist to have this view?
2. I guess I cannot figure out your point, since I only directly dealt with #3 in your post it sure sounded like "because she cannot turn off being fat, its nothing like smoking". Your other points are you soapboxing about how you want the world to be and are not something I am likely to convince you about.
3. She needs to binge eat in front of the camera to draw the conclusion that she overeats? I completely disagree with you that SHE is in a situation where being overweight is a necessity.
A point I will concede to: It is WILDLY more expensive to healthily than to eat garbage. Being on a local TV program however makes me think she is likely able to afford healthier choices.
3b. Please feel free to provide some hard numbers on the incidence of genetic obesity
4. I redefined behavior following you redefining behavior as essentially a state one can inhibit in the presence of others. Obesity is a behavioral problem. Feel free to use meriam webster if that link is insufficient for you.
5. I didn't ignore 1, and 2 of your post I just didn't reply to it. I don't agree with you. Period. It is tangential to our argument and while valid arguments will further take it off topic.I will say that you ascribe such heightened value to everything it makes me think you are on the brink of a nervous breakdown.
6. What do I care if what she said was not reprehensible? To be blunt, she cites this as a bullying event. It isn't. That is inaccurate. Its becoming the first warcry of those with hurt feelings. My main problem with it is that doing this has the effect of DEVALUING the term, and often when that happens people become desensitized to it. Not every statement is bullying. Not everyone who hears a negative utterance was bullied.
7. One said wasn't saying Shh. One side was privately making a statment. Voicing an opinion, however dickish. Was it his place? Nope. Was it nice? Nope. Was it his right? Yes if you live in any of the 50 states it is his right. A lot of assholes do things with words, like the westboro baptist church and gay soldiers funerals. When it reaches a point of bullying things need to be done (and in the westboro case something WAS done to stop them). That's a good thing. That differentiation between systemic hatred and one guy writing an email NEEDS to be made clear.
Last to your example of Chris Christie, people are BRUTAL to that guy. He gets his share of mail I assure you. People give him shit for the exact same reason of being int he public eye as well. The sexist/privelaged thing is just wild speculation on your part that only makes an angry situation seem angrier. That says a lot about you and your mindset, too.
>> ^hpqp:

Words



It's a fair point to call me out on making presumptions about you and linking your comments to those I've been reading elsewhere; my apologies for that.

You cannot dissociate my first 2 points above from the third: you do not go telling strangers, even in a passive-aggressive way, that they are unfit to be in the public eye. For someone so quick to see personal attacks in comments about you, you seem rather impervious to those in the letter you defend (then again, 'tis true that I'm not very subtle when pissed). The real tangent, one I should probably not have given so much weight to, is whether or not obesity is something one can show/not show and induce simply by showing it (my argument remains valid, btw, it's just not so important as to repeat it all over, and your strawmen are so obvious as to no longer require pointing out).

Your point as I understand it is twofold: the letter-writer has a right to send the anchor his personal criticism and is right to do so. I only agree with the first part; he has a right to do so ((so long) as it is not harassment/threats), but she is also right to call him out for it, and point out that such behaviour is wrong, and that it participates in a culture that tolerates bullying, by letting people think it's fine to say whatever they think to whomever without questioning whether it might be hurtful or not. And nobody's saying that something like this is as bad as WBC-style bullying or systemic racist bs, just like nobody would argue that a female politician being meowed in a session by a colleague is as bad a case of sexism/misogyny as a continually harassed or beaten wife, for example. They are, however, on a spectrum with a unifying underlying belief, namely "I can and should voice my opinions/(dis)tastes about others without taking how it affects them into consideration (and society has nothing to say about it)".

The reason I projected the whole sexism/privilege thing on your comments is because they contain the same "it's harmless/no big deal" and "just poor me self-victimisation" and "what's with making a private event/exchange public?" and "you're trampling his rights!" dismissals. It was wrong of me to do so, but at least now you can understand why I did.

Speaking of projection, presumption and personal attacks, you sure are quick to jump to (and stick to) the conclusion that the anchor is overweight because she has poor lifestyle choices (the same assumptions behind the letter), which is why I (and @bmacs27) went on the tangent of "there's-more-to-obesity-than-being-a-lazy-junkfood-gobler". The assumption that an overweight person is that way because s/he choses so is insulting and ignorant in and of itself, the same way the GOP's "poor people are that way cuz they're lazy moochers who don't pull themselves up by the bootstraps" is.

As for Chris Christie, I refer to point 1) of my comment above: public denunciation all 'round!

I hope that has clarified my argument. Otherwise, I refer you to @Thumper's comments, less contentious than mine and with which I wholly agree.