I was there 47 years ago on the USS Midway. I've detested Iran and considered this unfinished business since. I guess I've been an "Israeli troll" since then.
#73 | Posted by rf4b

But just Imagine.
Imagine how different things would have been for you if you had been on the USS Liberty!

P.S. you still support Republicans even after Reagan sold arms to the Ayatollah. That shows you're not really clear on what's going on. But at least you acknowledge you didn't get here via a logical thought process. As you said, you were there 47 years ago, and it's still the emotions talking, 47 years later.

And rightly so, they were never supposed to verify the voting registration, simply record the ones who registered at the DMV and pass that along to the proper county/state offices.
A very weak argument for NJ to use.

#19 | Posted by lfthndthrds

I agree it's weak. Sounds like more of a State of New Jersey process error than a computer error. I think NJ is saying, the screens should have been in other languages, and the people clicked the wrong thing because their English isn't very good. But that doesn't address how they got registered to vote.

Best thing for the State would be if the vendor was supposed to be determining eligibility status. The State Department can outsource that function, as Florida famously did in 2009 to a Georgia company, to avoid discovery under Florida law.

"when I see photos of the current kitch festooning the Oval Office"

Those are absolutely amazing. Real horrorshow. The Oval Office is completely unrecognizable, as is most of the rest of the White House.
Republicans like it this way.
I will never be able to understand it.

I can explain to myself that it's racism, but I just can't put my mind in a place where racism would matter that much to me. Cutting 25% of government workers because they're blacks and women causes bigger problems than it fixes. Except it doesn't to them. They'll pay 0.5% to 1% in lost GDP to fire a bunch of black women, and make black people die by ending USAID.

It's hard to understand hating a group of people that much and not just nuking them or creating a genetic weapon or something.

I'm saying, for 1% of GDP we could actually be engineering a Final Solution right now.

But equating it to "slavery" is a tough sell
#235 | Posted by eberly

Privately owned slaves aren't equal to state leased slaves, is that what you mean? Equating is a bit of a leap, when slavery is slavery. We're entering Field Workers vs House Slaves territory, and those weren't equal either. Some got taken to France!

Slavery is legal for prisoners. Do you think nothing would change in prisons if we passed a Constitutional Amendment banning all slavery?

The only reason that's a tough sell is because of you. You don't have an appreciation for the pervasive racism in American society. You'd rather watch Frazier reruns.

"couldn't be held accountable"

He technically could have been held accountable, but the President gets an extremely wide berth for actions taken in furtherance of the Office of the President, like bringing some files home for work.

I mean seriously, what are you suggesting is an appropriate penalty here?

But hasn't the Supreme Court since legislated this from the bench? I thought a President couldn't be held accountable for this now. At least that's what Trump's lawyers argued.

How are your own politics not personal to you?

I don't see how that's possible.

The Trust Fund Kid can't explain why he doesn't want America spending $1 to make $1.50.

"the agency's goal is to obtain millions of Americans' medical records from emergency room visits"

That's not a goal.
That's a means to achieve a goal.
The goal is to identify gender crimes, and other thought crimes against the State, like not having your papers in order.

The news here is that Hunter Biden has joined Heritage Foundation!

Wait, it wasn't Hunter Biden allegedly leaving drugs in the White House this time?

One wonders how Matthew Christopher Wingate will be sentenced for possessing drugs which disqualify his possession of a firearm...

TACO Time.

Are you arguing that what he signed didn't hurt the middle class?
#52 | Posted by lfthndthrds

That was thirty years ago.
Are you arguing Trump is fixing any of this harm?
Because you should be able to tell that Trump is making it worse.

That's the same as living on a credit card.
#50 | Posted by lfthndthrds

Not at all. Unless it's a prepaid credit card or a debit card. like the Bank of America card that got my unemployment money during COVID.
What it's like is like living off Social Security checks.

"The Federal money has to come from somewhere -it sure as hell doesn't grow on trees."

Correct. It comes from taxpayers.
And then, it gets given to taxpayers in exchange for goods.
That Federal money is an economic stimulus. It creates jobs and grows the economy.

"Borrow, take money out of one pocket and put it in the other pocket. wash rinse and repeat"

Money doesn't buy money. It doesn't just go from one pocket to the other. Money buys food, and a whole lot of middlemen have to get paid along the way for that to happen.

I mean, just read any economic website you prefer. Or maybe you'd rather remain ignorant, because they'll all tell you that you're wrong. SNAP generates more money than it costs.

The only meaningful example in this economy of
"people simply take and don't give back"
Is the oligarch class.

He supported it, he signed it and it still crippled the middle class. Your delusional BS isn't getting you anywhere.
#46 | Posted by lfthndthrds

Bob Dole also ran on a campaign of supporting NAFTA.
So, uh, what's the delusion exactly?
NAFTA had bipartisan support.
So did Clinton's Welfare Reform.

You know what didn't have bipartisan support?
Big Beautiful Bill.

You know why?
Because it's bad for the economy.

You know why you don't know those things?
Yes you do.

Here's a link for the claim that SNAP generates more revenue than it costs:
There's a million links like this.
Not that you'll read this one.
You're too stubborn to want to remedy your own pitiful ignorance.

Texas may need to pay $826 million annually for SNAP due to One Big Beautiful Bill

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, helps one in 10 Texans, Feeding Texas CEO Celia Cole said during a Wednesday media briefing.

Its recipients are U.S. citizens or lawfully present residents who meet work requirements and have total assets under a certain threshold. The average Texas household gets $11 per day from SNAP and typically only on the program for a year, Cole said.

She noted that it also provides a revenue stream of nearly $7 billion to the Texas economy.

#41 | Posted by snoofy
You support a welfare state - full on UBI. Where people simply take and don't give back.
#43 | Posted by lfthndthrds

Not really.
But even if I did support that, there isn't a party selling it.

Unlike what you support, which is taking food away from hungry people because you think it will lower your taxes.
There absolutely is a party selling that.

As for the funding mechanism, if I were funding UBI, it would be something like Social Security, where everybody pays in, and everybody gets paid out, all at the same time. It wouldn't be a thing where people take and don't give back, like, I dunno, SNAP.

But even more important than that:
Your imaginary system where "people simply take and don't give back" doesn't even exist!
I posted a link last week that shows SNAP generates $1.50 in economic activity for every $1 spent.

So, cutting SNAP is actually bad for the economy. It's worse for the economy than not cutting SNAP.
But you support cutting SNAP anyway.
Why?
Because you like hurting people.

You have no idea how I was raised, nor any idea what my wife and I have contributed to charity.
#31 | Posted by lfthndthrds

And whose fault is that?

Killing the middleclass wasn't a mistake, they all knew what would happen with NAFTA. Now most of our vibrant rust belt cites and the Midwest cities are slums with no opportunity.
#27 | Posted by lfthndthrds

Just getting tired of the people who claim this is some kind of sick trick to starve children.
#26 | Posted by lfthndthrds

It's not a trick.
It's a very straightforward plan to remove millions of people including children from SNAP eligibility.

Everyone said that's what the Big Beautiful Bill was going to do.
Republicans voted for it anyway, knowing full well that's what the plan is doing.

Nobody got tricked about anything.
Especially not you.

white nationalists when they are....
1. not going anywhere
#199 | Posted by eberly

^
This is the same part of your brain talking that said Roe v. Wade was safe.

White Nationalism is on the rise.
That's why Trump won, both times.
The Republican Party is a White Nationalist party now. The vast majority of elected and top level bureaucrats are White Nationalists.

It makes sense once you figure out what you were wrong about Roe. Which apparently hasn't happened yet.

This is a thread about welfare reform.
#21 | Posted by lfthndthrds

It is?

Cool!

Explain why the "reform" of more hungry kids is an improvement for America.

"If you have some sort of scorecard, please show it."

My guess?
There's more whites than any other race.
So,all other things being equal, pandering to whites gets you the most votes.

Pandering to Whites was so effective when Trump did it, it even got him Black and Hispanic votes.

It's such a mystery, how he can to pander to people's base instincts so effectively, but can't actually do anything creative or useful...

I suppose if you are susceptible to said pandering, the pandering comes off as Charisma. Confidence. Daring to slaughter the "Establishment" Sacred Cows.

The only Trump lie that matters is that he's doing it for you. He's not doing it for you. He's not doing it for America. Once you figure that out, everything falls nicely into place.

It's so painfully simple nobody has thought it necessary to write a book explaining it -- though it has been explained in many books.

"love your neighbor as yourself."

What if you have really low self esteem?

There's plenty of people who hate themselves in this world.

Jesus's advice isn't practical for them.

This hyper-unrealistic "kittens and rainbows" approach to life's problems was one of the first things that turned me off to Christianity.

They should have opened with wanting to molest me. What inquisitive young boy wouldn't want to learn about sex from an early age? Glad I was able to dodge them intellectually.

Hasbara bots exist. Dead Internet Theory becomes more true every day.

You can take it or leave it, but only one makes you look like a Hasbara bot...

"Obviously a city boy cuz' you know Nothing about Ducks."

It's funny because we're talking about ducks that live in a city. Urban ducks. Inner city gangsta ducks that will shoot you for being White or Asian if you flash your high beams at them.