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Author Topic:   Do the Right Thing Tomorrow, Yanks
Percy
Member
Posts: 22392
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.3


(4)
Message 47 of 203 (678250)
11-06-2012 9:40 AM


The Right Thing
I want to live in a country where as many people as possible are healthy, educated and productive. I think I know which candidate is more likely to move us in this direction, and I just voted for him this morning.
--Percy

Replies to this message:
 Message 48 by Larni, posted 11-06-2012 9:47 AM Percy has seen this message but not replied
 Message 77 by xongsmith, posted 11-07-2012 5:43 AM Percy has replied

  
Percy
Member
Posts: 22392
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.3


(4)
Message 85 of 203 (678351)
11-07-2012 8:46 AM
Reply to: Message 74 by Coyote
11-07-2012 3:58 AM


Re: On the election...
Coyote quoting Heinlein writes:
"For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invaderthe barbarians enter Rome."
The exact opposite has happened and is still happening. The top 1% have used their money to influence government so that they pay proportionally less in taxes now than ever before in the history of the nation. In an era where public schools go hungry for funds, where the poor suffer or die for lack of health care, where middle class couples require two wage earners to almost afford a house, where our infrastructure of roads and bridges rusts and erodes for lack of attention, Romney was poised to reduce the tax obligation of the rich yet again.
There is both an evil and a cleverness in this greed that somehow garners so many of the votes of the poor and disenfranchised. These are the practices of those who hide in walled enclaves away from the poverty and mayhem of their own creation. Heinlein's words should be reformulated thus:
"For when the plebs discover that they can be tricked out of their own bread without limit then there shall be rebellion, and the plunderers in their castles shall find their barricaded doors and their usurped government to be no match for the ravages of the mob."
--Percy
Edited by Percy, : Grammar.

This message is a reply to:
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Percy
Member
Posts: 22392
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.3


(11)
Message 88 of 203 (678360)
11-07-2012 9:30 AM
Reply to: Message 77 by xongsmith
11-07-2012 5:43 AM


Re: The Right Thing
Repeating something I said in another thread, I thought Romney was a good governor in Massachusetts. He tried to institute universal healthcare. But he became so enamored of the presidential office that he sacrificed his integrity and said (and probably believed) whatever was necessary to get elected. Like Caesar he succumbed to ambition.
Look at this absurd electoral map:
The red states have something very much in common. Here's a very interesting table I just put together. I started with a table of education rankings by state for math and science. States rated highly for education tended to vote Democratic in the presidential election. In fact, the top 8 states all went Democratic, while 10 of the last 12 states voted Republican:
RankStateScoreElection Result
1Massachusetts4.82D
2Minnesota4.06D
3New Jersey4.04D
4New Hampshire4.01D
5New York3.94D
6Virginia3.73D
7Maryland3.57D
8Connecticut3.28D
9Indiana3.28R
10Maine3.24D
11Florida3.13?
12Illinois3.08D
13South Dakota3.08R
14Wisconsin3.06D
15Colorado3.04D
16Kansas3.00R
17Kentucky3.00R
18Vermont2.93D
19Georgia2.88R
20Washington2.86D
21Utah2.85R
22Pennsylvania2.80D
23Tennessee2.67R
24Ohio2.64D
25Delaware2.60D
26Michigan2.60D
27Oregon2.58D
28Wyoming2.58R
29Montana2.53R
30Idaho2.47R
31Texas2.45R
32North Dakota2.40R
33Missouri2.39R
34California2.38D
35Rhode Island2.38D
36North Carolina2.34R
37Hawaii2.29D
38Iowa2.25D
39Alaska2.20R
40South Carolina2.20R
41Arkansas2.14R
42Oklahoma2.01R
43Nebraska1.97R
44Nevada1.93D
45Arizona1.91R
46New Mexico1.72D
47Alabama1.60R
48Louisiana1.59R
49West Virginia1.58R
50Mississippi1.11R
This evidence indicates a strong inverse correlation between the quality of education and vulnerability to being hornswoggled into voting against their own best interests.
--Percy
Edited by Percy, : Nevada was R, should have been D, fixed now.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 77 by xongsmith, posted 11-07-2012 5:43 AM xongsmith has seen this message but not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 94 by Dr Adequate, posted 11-07-2012 4:18 PM Percy has seen this message but not replied

  
Percy
Member
Posts: 22392
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 101 of 203 (678428)
11-07-2012 9:06 PM


Republicans Reconsidering?
An occasional topic of conversation with colleagues over the past couple years has been that it would be poetic justice if the Republicans paid at the polls for their refusal to work cooperatively, instead playing games of budget chicken and holding vital legislation hostage to their uncompromising demands. The legislation forming the looming financial cliff is but one example, their refusal to raise the debt ceiling last year threatening to shut down government is another. Our feeling was that only a landslide at the polls would convince Republicans that they had taken the wrong course.
Even if Florida eventually falls Obama's way I don't consider the outcome of the presidential election a landslide. When back in 1980 Reagan beat Carter 489 to 49, now that was a landslide, here's the map:
In contrast, yesterday's electoral outcome was no landslide:
And the popular vote, 50% to 49%, was extremely close, so it seemed to me that the next four years would bring yet more governmental stalemate. But that the Republicans lost ground in both the House and Senate was yet another factor, and so apparently some Republicans are beginning to take the hint. A couple articles in today's papers indicate that in at least some quarters Republicans are considering that perhaps a more moderate course could work better for them. I won't go into details, but here are links to a couple articles:
The Republicans apparently do sense that their stands on women's issues and on taxes on the rich have to be moderated, and they realize that the blame for the legislative stalemate is falling mostly on their shoulders. But they feel stymied by what they view as a necessary appeasement of the Christian far-right. And they know that white males are their foundation and that that base is diminishing as the Hispanic population becomes an increasing proportion of our population. They have no solutions at this time, but at least they're aware of these and other important issues.
24 years ago George Will wrote this of the Democrats:
"How many times does the electorate have to hit the Democrate Party across the bridge of the nose with a crowbar before the party gets the point? Remarkable beast, that party. Its nose breaks crowbars."
Throughout the Obama administration the Republican Party has seemed similarly irrationally stubborn, but hopefully they now get the point, for only when they do will the stalemate in Washington finally come to an end.
--Percy
Edited by Percy, : Fix link.

  
Percy
Member
Posts: 22392
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 105 of 203 (678437)
11-07-2012 10:44 PM
Reply to: Message 104 by Dr Adequate
11-07-2012 10:41 PM


Re: Nate Silver Is A Witch
Dr Adequate writes:
It means that we'll be able to abolish the whole tedious and expensive business of elections and just ask Nate Silver to tell us who the winner is.
Well, it seems kind of drastic, but if it means no more political ads or robo calls, then okay.
--Percy

This message is a reply to:
 Message 104 by Dr Adequate, posted 11-07-2012 10:41 PM Dr Adequate has not replied

  
Percy
Member
Posts: 22392
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 122 of 203 (678644)
11-09-2012 4:26 PM
Reply to: Message 120 by Dr Adequate
11-09-2012 4:00 PM


Re: Nate Silver Is A Witch
The question on Fox News to Karl Rove was telling: "Is this just math you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better?"
--Percy

This message is a reply to:
 Message 120 by Dr Adequate, posted 11-09-2012 4:00 PM Dr Adequate has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 123 by Rahvin, posted 11-09-2012 4:49 PM Percy has seen this message but not replied
 Message 124 by hooah212002, posted 11-09-2012 4:49 PM Percy has seen this message but not replied

  
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