What I do know is that politicians will find few initiatives in Congress with so much overwhelming bipartisan support. Usually those policies are rather progressive like Medicare expansion, socialized public college education, reduction of foreign wars, etc. And yet politicians like Senator Feinstein always find reasons not to implement them despite belonging to a party that lost 1,000 seats – federal and state level – between 2009 and 2018.

These things are remarkably popular, when they are divorced from specific proposals and from specific politicians/parties. The ideas behind the GND are very popular, but if you refer to it as the GND that popularity drops fast on all sides. It’s one of the things folks like Feinstein have to deal with. The GND will not pass this Senate, no matter how popular it is. Just because we really need to do these things does not mean it’s possible to do these things. Maybe in two years, if we are extremely lucky.

This isn’t a defense of Feinstein per se, but just like we need people and politicians pulling us towards the right path, we need folks who are focused on practicalities of what’s actually possible given the strange and dysfunctional nature of US politics.

New game thread. 😉

http://knickerblogger.net/game-thread-new-york-knicks-vs-san-antonio-spurs/

The OIL!

US interests want to make sure US companies are getting a piece of the action in Venezuela instead of China or especially Russia. For that they have to install a US friendly leader to replace Maduro.

We still compete economically and politically with China and especially Russia. IMO, we’d be way better off working with them and creating stronger economic and business ties with them, but that’s another story. Instead, we allow the press, war mongers, and oil barons to turn them into feared boogie men so we can justify higher military spending, more wars, and more interference as having a moral motive when we just want the oil and money and don’t give a shit about the people.

To be clear, I think the people of Venezuela would be way better off if they rejected anything and everything even close to socialism, but it’s not our place to decide what’s best for other people.

IMO, the neocons with the president’s ear right now (and several other presidents before him) are among the worst human beings earth has ever produced.

So… ignore the stats, go on gut?

I hate to say it, but in business and economics trying to model human behavior doesn’t work very well either. That’s why most economists are lousy investors and typically don’t do a very good job of making predictions. They have high IQs and advanced degrees, but use broken models.

Going on gut isn’t the solution.

Understanding how the world actually works and how other people think helps.

Years ago a certain insurance company I was invested in was “cherry picking” customers in a certain state because it was very focused on profits. Well intentioned politicians decided to change the laws to make cherry picking like that illegal. They fully expected to help their constituency and make for a better insurance market. I laughed my ass off because I knew what would happen. I was right. The company simply left the state. They decided it was better to not do any business in that state than to lose money there. That left the former customers with worse insurance at a higher price and the state with even bigger bills for risky customers.

It’s not enough to want to help people and make the world a better place. You have to understand how people with different values and goals think and behave in the real world or you might make the world a worse place by accident. No easy solutions

YES! This the imperial “we know best” America. Its fucking disgusting

It really is. Consider the hypocrisy of a country where the mainstream media has launched a two year probe into Russian collusion during its 2016 presidential election now working with Colombia to forcefully install an unknown, unelected puppet as Venezuela’s new head of government. It would be as if the Russians worked with Mexico to appoint Jill Stein as U.S. President. The only reason no one is in uproar about it here in the U.S. is because of imperial condescension to our own backyard.

I am no particular fan of Maduro’s policies but I find the entire ordeal to be one of the most naked instances of U.S. imperial intervention in the Latin America since the 2004 Haitian coup. The London Bank is actually freezing Venezuela’s international account with 1.2 billion dollars of its government’s own money while Bolton talks about sending millions of humanitarian aid. Total joke. All of it is a pretext to send in weapons to opposition forces within the country to overthrow the government.

YES! This the imperial “we know best” America. Its fucking disgusting

Venezuela, anyone?

I am no particular fan of Maduro’s policies but I find the entire ordeal to be one of the most naked instances of U.S. imperial intervention in the Latin America since the 2004 Haitian coup. The London Bank is actually freezing Venezuela’s international account with 1.2 billion dollars of its government’s own money while Bolton talks about sending millions of humanitarian aid. Total joke. All of it is a pretext to send in weapons to opposition forces within the country to overthrow the government.

Yeah, “Diane Feinstein is a decrepit old wench”, “fuck amazon”, and “Republicans are fat, diabetic mouth breathers” were some really thoughtful posts. Totally up to the level of discourse we usually sustain here.

If that was your interpretation of my posts you’re not engaging with my arguments. And if you’re just strawmanning my argument then you’re being intellectually dishonest. Neither option is a sign of good faith discourse.