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  • Originally posted by astralis View Post
    This is the response of the State Auditor:

    “Take the Bible. Zachariah and Elizabeth for instance. Zachariah was extremely old to marry Elizabeth and they became the parents of John the Baptist,” Ziegler said choosing his words carefully before invoking Christ. “Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.”

    “There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here,” Ziegler concluded. “Maybe just a little bit unusual.”
    So, the Bible says groping a 14 year old is fine. Of course, even if it isn't, Moore isn't a Democrat, so that still makes it OK.
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    Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C

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    • Originally posted by astralis View Post
      GVChamp is channeling his inner Reihan Salam, or is it the other way around? :-)

      http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a..._jobs_act.html



      your New School Socialist looks to Scandinavia as its guide while (mostly) understanding that US economic composition, culture, etc would likely result in something closer to Canada...even if all their wishes were granted. the structural deficits/debt don't particularly worry me; it can be stabilized (albeit at a high but not ruinous level) with a fairly modest set of revenue increase and cuts, strung out over the long-term. i mean, none of this is exactly like 1970s wage/price control, everyone-will-have-a-guaranteed-job territory we're talking about here.
      I dunno, from what I hear, the kids are totally on board with 1970s wage/price control and everyone will have a guaranteed job with a livable wage. Like, they aren't saying that we need to help out the people more that happen to work at Wal-Mart, they think Wal-Mart should be paying cashiers middle class wages, because they are a big company. That's even before getting into the minimum racial and gender quotas they would probably support!

      Canada has massively cut their government/GDP ratio over the last 20 years, so I expect the US to exceed Canadian levels within, like, 15 years, just with the healthcare trends. Other European nations are also moving towards smaller government and have for the last 20 years. It's more likely that the era of big government in the US is over and the US will become some sort of bastardized capitalist-social welfare nightmare with vastly underperforming government services at all levels, with probably the highest income taxes in the world. The relevant limit is the inability to impose a national sales tax, but who knows, the GOP might punt on that in 10 years time.


      Wealth taxes are practically guaranteed. They have been used in the past by other Western nations when they have been in dire financial straits. The US won't be different.

      I agree with the Slate article, but there's no way the GOP will be able to pass a better tax plan. Their donors want heavy tax cuts for the top 1%. *shrug*
      "The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood"-Otto Von Bismarck

      Comment


      • Originally posted by Bigfella View Post
        This is the response of the State Auditor:



        So, the Bible says groping a 14 year old is fine. Of course, even if it isn't, Moore isn't a Democrat, so that still makes it OK.
        From past episodes this just seems to confirm that some of the most religious are also the most perverted... ^^^and there you go the religious excuse.

        I assume the Democrat gets skinned alive because they are not religious and not because they are a Democrat...

        Edit: By religious I mean someone like my grandmother who always went to church every Sunday and every religious hoilday. Someone who I could drop off at Church and then leave without her lecturing me about being a good Catholic ever. On the other hand we have Moore, and it is usually men, who preach fire and brimstone from their pulpit and see no good in people who don't share all their beliefs down the line. Those are the ones I would never trust with my wife, daughter or checking account.
        Last edited by tbm3fan; 10 Nov 17,, 20:36.

        Comment


        • Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post
          From past episodes this just seems to confirm that some of the most religious are also the most perverted... ^^^and there you go the religious excuse.

          I assume the Democrat gets skinned alive because they are not religious and not because they are a Democrat...
          There's more:

          William Blocker, the chair of Alabama's Covington County Republican Party, reportedly told Dale that he thought Democrats persuaded the women in the report to lie about Moore. Dale said that when he pointed out that Corfman was a Trump supporter, Blocker said that was the "typical background" of someone Democrats would use for such a gambit.

          "If they said she was a Hillary supporter, then she'd be more dismissed by the local voters here in the state of Alabama," Blocker said, according to Dale. "You'd have to paint her as a Trump supporter to be of any credibility."
          Any victim of sexual assault whose attacker was a republican politician better not say out loud she's a democrat or she will automatically lose all credibility.

          Comment


          • Running the numbers: first cut

            If we compare the CBO budget forecast to the OMB's version, but use the same (CBO) GDP forecasts – to get past the apples vs. oranges thing – The Trumpet proposes taking an extra 0.6 percentage points of GDP out of the economy each year over the next five years (2018-22).

            Government revenue, 2018-22 % of GDP per annum:
            CBO _ _ 18.0%
            OMB _ _ 18.6%

            Then, over the subsequent five years (2023-27), The Trumpet wants to take an additional 1.5 percentage points of GDP out of the economy.

            Government revenue, 2023-27 % of GDP per annum:
            CBO _ _ 18.3%
            OMB _ _ 19.8%

            (By the way, if we use the OMB GDP forecast for both CBO and OMB, the results would have to be exactly the same.)


            On the other side of the balance sheet, the one where The Trumpet is investing like mad to Make America Great Again, here's what falls out:

            Government outlay, 2018-22 % of GDP per annum:
            CBO _ _ 21.6%
            OMB _ _ 20.9%

            Government revenue, 2023-27 % of GDP per annum:

            CBO _ _ 23.1%
            OMB _ _ 20.5%

            https://www.cbo.gov/about/products/b...conomic-data#2
            https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget
            Trust me?
            I'm an economist!

            Comment


            • Originally posted by astralis View Post
              So what when there is a serial molester - by his own admission - in the White House? Ladies are not property, even when married the property of their husbands, I am not a wimmin feminist type but respect me and I will respect you - a Gentleman never treats a Lady so, only a thug or a pervert.

              Never had this sort of experience myself but my pal who I was traveling with in Egypt had a similar experience one time when we had take a taxi to get to a bank (Sinai). We got this taxi and I went into the bank to change some money then got back in the taxi and he took us onto where we wanted to go. Nothing seemed odd to me when I got back in the taxi and my friend did not say anything until we got out, nor did I see until then that she was literally shaking - she had sat in the front and I in the back. Apparently while I was in the bank he had exposed himself and started masturbating. I do not care what religion you are but there is no way that is decent behaviour.
              Last edited by snapper; 10 Nov 17,, 21:07.

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              • 'Putin's niece'; https://www.thedailybeast.com/putins...DB&via=FB_Page

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                • it looks like we're moving in a direction where they'll soon just pick a newly graduated College Republican to become a judge, to maximize the utility of the lifetime appointment.

                  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/11/u...ge-senate.html

                  Trump Nominee for Federal Judgeship Has Never Tried a Case
                  By VIVIAN WANG
                  NOV. 11, 2017


                  Brett Talley, a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department, has been approved for a lifetime federal district judgeship by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Credit Liberty Day Institute, via YouTube
                  A 36-year-old lawyer who has never tried a case and who was unanimously deemed “not qualified” by the American Bar Association has been approved for a lifetime federal district judgeship by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

                  The lawyer, Brett Talley, is the fourth judicial nominee under President Trump to receive a “not qualified” rating from the bar association and the second to receive the rating unanimously. Since 1989, the association has unanimously rated only two other judicial nominees as not qualified.

                  The Senate committee’s vote on Thursday to approve Mr. Talley, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 2007 and is a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department, fell along party lines; Republican members outnumber Democrats on the committee 11 to nine. Mr. Talley will now face a full vote in the Senate. If confirmed, he would serve as a trial judge in his home state of Alabama.

                  Mr. Talley’s nomination is just one of the latest examples of Mr. Trump’s efforts to reshape the nation’s courts, packing them with young, deeply conservative judges.

                  Mr. Talley’s lack of experience drew searing questions from Democratic members of the committee. Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the minority whip, asked Mr. Talley in a written questionnaire, “Do you think it is advisable to put people with literally no trial experience on the federal district court bench?”

                  Mr. Talley demurred. “It would be inappropriate for me as a nominee to comment on the advisability of any nomination,” he wrote.

                  Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa with Republican colleagues last month. Credit J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press
                  Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking member of the committee, asked if Mr. Talley had ever argued a motion in Federal District Court, given that he had never tried a case. He had not.

                  Ms. Feinstein also pointed to Mr. Talley’s prolific social media presence before his nomination. He once referred to Hillary Clinton as “Hillary Rotten Clinton” on his public Twitter account, which is now private.

                  In 2013, he wrote on his blog that armed revolution was an important defense against tyrannical government. Ms. Feinstein asked in her written questions when Mr. Talley believed it would become appropriate for American citizens to participate in an armed uprising against the government.

                  He replied that he did not believe any situation in American history — with the “possible exception” of slavery — had called for armed rebellion.

                  At the committee vote on Thursday, Ms. Feinstein took greatest issue with Mr. Talley’s professed views on gun control. In 2013, about a month after a gunman killed 20 children at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., Mr. Talley on his blog pledged his total support to the National Rifle Association, “financially, politically and intellectually.”

                  Ms. Feinstein said she had asked Mr. Talley whether, if confirmed, he would commit to recusing himself in cases involving weapons. He refused.

                  “I find this unacceptable,” she said.

                  Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the chairman of the committee, defended Mr. Talley’s qualifications. “Mr. Talley has a wide breadth of various legal experience that has helped to expose him to different aspects of federal law and the issues that would come before him,” he said in a statement.

                  Mr. Grassley also cast doubt on the importance of the bar association’s rating. “Senators can decide for themselves if the A.B.A.’s metric of what makes a nominee qualified is proper in these cases,” he said.

                  Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, in 2012 had praised the bar association’s practice of evaluating judicial nominees as an important way to distinguish between people who merely had political connections and people who belonged on the bench.

                  Mr. Grassley also noted that other judicial nominees rated “not qualified” had been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, at times unanimously.

                  Other judicial nominees have faced scrutiny for their lack of trial experience. In 2010, Jeff Sessions, then a senator from Alabama, asked Nancy Freudenthal, who had been nominated to Wyoming District Court by President Barack Obama, about her having never tried a case before a jury. Ms. Freudenthal was eventually approved by the Senate, 96 to 1.

                  Additionally, the comparative rarity of “not qualified” ratings for judicial nominees under previous administrations may have been due, at least in part, to a difference in procedure. Every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower, with the exception of George W. Bush, screened potential nominees with the American Bar Association before publicly announcing them — a tradition the Trump administration has decided to shun.

                  But that change alone does not account for the number of unqualified nominees under Mr. Trump, said Kristine Lucius, executive vice president for policy of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of civil rights and labor groups.

                  “It is unprecedented to have this many, this quickly, in this short a time,” she said. Of Mr. Talley, she added, “When you think of how much power a district court nominee has over life and death decisions every day, it’s really irresponsible to put someone on with that little experience.”

                  The Senate committee on Thursday also approved four other nominees for federal judgeships, including Holly Lou Teeter, who also received a “not qualified” rating.
                  There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

                  Comment


                  • Originally posted by GVChamp View Post

                    Canada has massively cut their government/GDP ratio over the last 20 years, so I expect the US to exceed Canadian levels within, like, 15 years, just with the healthcare trends. Other European nations are also moving towards smaller government and have for the last 20 years. It's more likely that the era of big government in the US is over and the US will become some sort of bastardized capitalist-social welfare nightmare with vastly underperforming government services at all levels, with probably the highest income taxes in the world. The relevant limit is the inability to impose a national sales tax, but who knows, the GOP might punt on that in 10 years time.
                    By the CBO's measure, US federal government spending in 2010s (including projections to 2019) is nearly identical to that of the 1980s: 21% of GDP.

                    The OECD table of general government expenditure as a percent of GDP, 1999-2018, shows five out of 32 economies reducing spending in 2009-18 vs. 1999-2008.
                    Just over 15%.
                    The budget cutters are Germany, Hungary, Israel, Poland and Sweden. Their average spend fell from 47.8% to 45.6%.

                    The rest saw their spending rise from 41.9% to 45.4%, with a couple holding stable to within a tenth of a percentage point.

                    The US went from 36.3% to 39.8%, and from 8th lowest to 7th lowest among the 32. So much for the fiction of the US being over-taxed.
                    Trust me?
                    I'm an economist!

                    Comment


                    • Always depends on what you call "taxes". If we entirely strip out social security since the models just aren't comparable and combined state and federal budgets to come to government expenditure?

                      - The US would end up at 15.1% of GDP.
                      - Germany would end up at 15.3% of GDP.

                      In other words, "government" is actually spending about the same. Main difference is in the US doing so at a deficit (i.e. it's under-taxed for the same functionality) vs Germany at its black zero. Further difference is that the US pours 3.5 times as much into defence to the detriment of other collective functions, but lets regard that as simply a difference in priorities.

                      If we play around a bit with OECD figures - on their website - to suit our case we further find out:

                      - The US spends 14.2% on collective social security - and 6.1% on individual social security.
                      - Germany spends 15.7% on collective social security - and 12.8% on individual social security.

                      Gee. I'm moderately sure no one is surprised?

                      Comment


                      • Seven neighbors back the FBI’s assessment of the Rand Paul attack by deranged leftist.
                        http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ra...rticle/2640090

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                        • Deranged now. Kind of like good, better and best. I can't wait for the next level.

                          Yet, without a psychological evaluation he was just a guy who had a problem with his neighbor. Deranged would describe the Texas shooter.

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post
                            Deranged now. Kind of like good, better and best. I can't wait for the next level.

                            Yet, without a psychological evaluation he was just a guy who had a problem with his neighbor. Deranged would describe the Texas shooter.
                            Oh’ only one level of deranged? The Senator Paul’s batterer may have been a four while the Bozo in TX went to Eleven in derangement syndrome.

                            Comment


                            • Originally posted by astralis View Post
                              it looks like we're moving in a direction where they'll soon just pick a newly graduated College Republican to become a judge, to maximize the utility of the lifetime appointment.

                              https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/11/u...ge-senate.html

                              Trump Nominee for Federal Judgeship Has Never Tried a Case
                              Step right up to the bar and pick something from our Cronie menu. A ambassadorship, a judgeship, a secretary, or an administrator to name a few.

                              Can't say Alabama doesn't deserve him.

                              Comment


                              • Originally posted by surfgun View Post
                                Oh’ only one level of deranged? The Senator Paul’s batterer may have been a four while the Bozo in TX went to Eleven in derangement syndrome.
                                Yes, deranged is only one level. You have to figure out where disturbed, insane, psychotic, unstable, schizoid, paranoid and malevolent fit in the order.

                                By the way Trump is in that list somewhere. Which door is he behind?

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