US Politics Thread |OT| THE DARKEST TIMELINE

[helios]

RIP Iain Banks

[toku]

Last time I did acid I remember looking up american death penalty laws and up until fairly recently (last few decades?) and depending on what state you were in you could have requested how to go. Like firing squad or hanging instead of the needle. I could also be wrong and the trip was way harder than I remember.

[Himu]

The Existential Battle for the Soul of the GOP

[toku]

I'm thinking: what was so wrong with the guillotine?

Probably blood spurting from an exposed neck and head rrolling. Seems pretty straight though. Knock someone out, then guillotine. How is that not humane?

Putting them to sleep first seems so polite. This actually sounds pleasant!

[Himu]

I'm thinking: what was so wrong with the guillotine?

Probably blood spurting from an exposed neck and head rrolling. Seems pretty straight though. Knock someone out, then guillotine. How is that not humane?

Where do we cheer and is popcorn allowed?

[CatsCatsCats]

Why not just use a pneumatic rod? Efficient, reusable, humane. Works for cows. Of course it shouldn't be a public spectacle, just do it at the prison.

[Himu]

I'm scared now.

[toku]

You just took this discussion too far man. Nobody wants to think about that.

[Himu]

You've even got Toku freaked out. Look what you've done!

[Brehvolution]

You just took this discussion too far man. Nobody wants to think about that.

[toku]

I could have gone with a firing squad avatar   

[Himu]

Remind me to never click any porn link you ever post.

[toku]

Remind me to never click any porn link you ever post.

I'm actually pretty tame when it comes to porn. Even *IF* I was into some freaky shit I wouldn't post it on a public internet forum.

[Himu]

Your next avatar should be Kaori being crushed to death in a bloody horror by Tetsuo.

[CatsCatsCats]

Might have to ignore toku just as precaution for such avatars

[toku]

Might have to ignore toku just as precaution for such avatars

Don't ignore me bb, is this what you want bb? 

[CatsCatsCats]

At least now ill know I'm clicking on a digital murder scene

spoiler (click to show/hide)

2edgy4me 

[close]

[Joe Molotov]

At least now ill know I'm clicking on a digital murder scene

I used to play synthesizer for Digital Murder Scene.

[Joe Molotov]

I'd never seen this before.

[Brehvolution]

[Phoenix Dark]

(Image removed from quote.)

Melissa McCarthy sure is everywhere these days.

[Joe Molotov]

Is that comic set in Texas or Gaza?

[Brehvolution]

It could be the Sahara since these people think they rule all of earth.

[Human Snorenado]

The (seemingly) simple act of switching from a NC to a GA plan on the health insurance marketplace is driving me fucking bonkers enough to go to a tea party rally.

[benjipwns]

You're not the only one suffering under Obamacare's terror:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/07/24/video-woman-in-labor-not-allowed-to-cross-street-to-hospital-over-obamas-impending-motorcade/

Witnesses say a pregnant woman in labor was prevented by authorities from crossing a Los Angeles street to a hospital Wednesday because the road had been closed for President Barack Obama’s impending motorcade.

The unidentified woman was barred from walking the few hundred feet to the hospital for at least 30 minutes as authorities waited for the president’s motorcade to pass by, witness Carrie Clifford told TheBlaze early Thursday morning.

“I felt bad for her,” Clifford said. “It does happen when Obama comes to L.A. or I’m sure anywhere else. It paralyzes the city, it does make it complicated.”

“You can’t do the things you had set out to do because the president is in town,” she added.

This is probably the last thing California's House members wanted to see a little over three months from the most important election in American history and with all the polls headed the wrong way.

[Phoenix Dark]

Can't tell if that's a troll post. Aren't dems ahead in Cali thanks to the sound leadership of Jerry Brown


it sucks that shit gets shut down but hey, those are the rules when a president comes to town.

[Kara]

I think this our first House election with newly redrawn districts that aren't gerrymandered to heck, so it's kinda troll, kinda factual.

At the state level doe we're a one-party state for the near future thanks to Moonbeam and years of the CA GOP doing what the national GOP has been doing during the Obama presidency.

Effective state governance.

[Phoenix Dark]

Jerry Brown 2016  brehs

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Himu]

The (seemingly) simple act of switching from a NC to a GA plan on the health insurance marketplace is driving me fucking bonkers enough to go to a tea party rally.

Not looking forward to this when I'm in California. What issues are you having?

[benjipwns]

When you factor in the Border Crisis, the Obamacare Disaster, Obama's War on Israel and overall weak and demoralizing foreign policy, if they can get enough pro-family candidates there's probably a strong chance the GOP can flip the delegation. Boxer and Feinstein are probably thanking God every day that they aren't up this cycle facing off against a pro-family candidate with a strong foreign policy in favor of border control.

[chronovore]

Why not just use a pneumatic rod? Efficient, reusable, humane. Works for cows. Of course it shouldn't be a public spectacle, just do it at the prison.

It's still just a gun. I think there are ways to mess it up, according to some animal rights' activists who report on slaughterhouses.

I also suspect, to some degree, the executioners' psychology must be considered.

Then again, in appropriate cases, I'm fond of the idea of the father or son of a victim getting a chance to gain solid closure.

[Phoenix Dark]

Kashkari says California’s “U-6 unemployment rate” — which includes unemployed people seeking full-time jobs, part-time workers who want full-time jobs and people too discouraged to seek jobs — is more than 16 percent.

Running against Brown requires discerning silver linings on black clouds. Kashkari says of polls showing Brown leading 52 percent to 32 percent: Well, 100 percent of Californians know who Brown is, so 48 percent are looking for an alternative.

“If I get Jerry on a debate stage,” Kashkari says, “anything can happen.” That is true, as is this: Goldwater lost 44 states but won the future. His conservative cadre captured the GOP, which won five of the next six and seven of the next 10 presidential elections. If California becomes a purple state and Democrats can no longer assume its 20 percent of 270 electoral votes, Republicans nationwide will be indebted to the immigrants’ son who plucked up Goldwater’s banner of conservatism with a Western libertarian flavor.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-neel-kashkari-gop-candidate-in-california-has-agenda-similar-to-goldwaters/2014/07/23/65464542-11d0-11e4-8936-26932bcfd6ed_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop

[Human Snorenado]

The (seemingly) simple act of switching from a NC to a GA plan on the health insurance marketplace is driving me fucking bonkers enough to go to a tea party rally.

Not looking forward to this when I'm in California. What issues are you having?

You should be fine, because Cali runs their own exchange. I'm fucked because from what I can tell, I had TWO qualifying events happen in late May that kicked me back into the exchange- I moved to a different state and got a raise. If I had just moved and kept the same pay rate, I would have been fine I think. But, making more money means I qualify for less of a subsidy, and for whatever reason they couldn't just take my fucking word for it on my pay rate- they needed to see some documentation. Well, problem is that I work for a small company and don't get paychecks per se- I get direct deposit every couple of weeks directly into my account. So, no paper trail there. That meant my boss had to fill out a letter and sign it, which took him 3 weeks to get done, because he's kind of forgetful, then I had to send the letter into them and they had to process it, which has taken them a fucking month.

Meanwhile, I can't get a straight answer on whether or not if I sign up for a GA plan and just start paying on it now, and they process my letter and I DO qualify for a subsidy, will the subsidy kick in and apply towards future premiums? You would think that would be a simple "yes" but apparently not, so much that I am hesitant to sign up for anything and fuck myself out of a subsidy.

TL;DR version:

gubmint bureaucracy

[Himu]

Sounds like a bitch. I've had my issues with healthcare recently as well but nothing like that. I tried to get a refill on a medicine but they said my insurance felt it was "too soon" for a refill, despite running out of meds, and they couldn't allow me to get a new refill until August 15. So I had to pay 60 dollars cash without insurance for a 30 day supply.

[Kara]

Well, problem is that I work for a small company and don't get paychecks per se- I get direct deposit every couple of weeks directly into my account. So, no paper trail there. That meant my boss had to fill out a letter and sign it, which took him 3 weeks to get done, because he's kind of forgetful, then I had to send the letter into them and they had to process it, which has taken them a fucking month.

There's still a paper trail on the end of whoever processes your payroll. If it's an outside processor like Paychex they send pay period reports to the employer every pay period, and if it's done in house with something like QuickBooks you just open a report and print it. You got done dirty breh.

[Human Snorenado]

Well, problem is that I work for a small company and don't get paychecks per se- I get direct deposit every couple of weeks directly into my account. So, no paper trail there. That meant my boss had to fill out a letter and sign it, which took him 3 weeks to get done, because he's kind of forgetful, then I had to send the letter into them and they had to process it, which has taken them a fucking month.

There's still a paper trail on the end of whoever processes your payroll. If it's an outside processor like Paychex they send pay period reports to the employer every pay period, and if it's done in house with something like QuickBooks you just open a report and print it. You got done dirty breh.

I do the payroll manually- send out direct deposits every two weeks. It's all done on a spreadsheet, not even quickbooks. Trust me, we're talking stone age here. There's no real paper trail, it's just me sending myself a direct deposit every couple of weeks for the hours I've worked...

[Kara]

and I thought Hobby Lobby lived in the stone age.

Who files your 940s and 941s? Or do I even want to know?

[Human Snorenado]

and I thought Hobby Lobby lived in the stone age.

Who files your 940s and 941s? Or do I even want to know?

We have an accountant, and I have recently been saddled with running everything through quickbooks. I'm having a rough time of it currently

I could set up payroll through quickbooks, but I'm busy trying to figure out how to get our fucking paypal account to act as a revenue account and not as a bank account. (harder than it should be)

[Kara]

Are you new to QuickBooks? I'm having to bleed an intern on it of late and I'd forgotten how unintuitive () Intuit's products can be to a noob.

I use GNUCash for my own books and it's a piece of fucking shit in comparison.

[Human Snorenado]

Yeah, I took one QB class in college, and it was just basic stuff. I'm just going to spend a day or two annoying someone at tech support when I get back in town next week.

[Brehvolution]

I swear the people celebrating Halbig see themselves as the heroes in some fantasy story where in the end the evil sorcerer is defeated by his own spell, or some nonsense like that. When in reality their side is very clearly playing semantic games with the health insurance of millions of people.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/gop-halbig-punitive-damage-soviet-communism

[Great Rumbler]

The unavoidable death of the Republican party really can't come soon enough.

[benjipwns]

The OG is back:

[Phoenix Dark]

Consolidating social welfare programs seems like an interesting idea...but it's also a good way to make it easier to eliminate welfare - instead of dealing with multiple programs you just lower the budget of one big program and watch it fail. Sounds like a republican dream.

[benjipwns]

When's the last time the Republicans have lowered the budget of "one big program"?

[Phoenix Dark]

When's the last time the Republicans have lowered the budget of "one big program"?

does the state department count?
:trollbron:

[Brehvolution]

SNAP

[benjipwns]

Wow, the State Department spends six times as much as it did in 1999. Are they handling parts of Medicare?

[Mandark]

Meh.  Govt spending's been trending down as a percentage of GDP the last 4-5 years, so somebody's cutting something.

[Phoenix Dark]

Meh.  Govt spending's been trending down as a percentage of GDP the last 4-5 years, so somebody's cutting something.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

not really but I still love being able to tell outraged conservatives that Barry O has cut the deficit in half

[close]

[benjipwns]

Meh.  Govt spending's been trending down as a percentage of GDP the last 4-5 years, so somebody's cutting something.

*comment about assumptions in this*
*Mandark thoughtful response*
*benji garbage*
*Mandark response*
*benji forgets and comes back to the tab 300 turns of Civ V later*

[Mandark]

I'm pretty sure you used nominal figures in that crack about the State Department, so you don't wanna go bringing up what lurks beneath the stats.

[benjipwns]

It was all the government provided in their agency breakdown spreadsheet for some reason.

[Phoenix Dark]

Another thing I like about the Ryan plan (and also reminds me of casual conservative hypocrisy) is the use of caseworkers to help the transition/inform people of their benefits. Yet Ryan and republicans tried to dismantle a similar initiative in the ACA concerning "health navigators" who were meant to explain the law to people. Helping people take advantage of what they're qualified for has always been labeled as helping poor people take advantage of the government/tax payer. But thank god Paul Ryan is here to conservasplain it!

I'm pretty sure you used nominal figures in that crack about the State Department, so you don't wanna go bringing up what lurks beneath the stats.

this gave me Bell Curve argument flashbacks.

[benjipwns]

this gave me Bell Curve argument flashbacks.

There was an argument over the curve of Stringer Bell's penis?

[Mandark]

Well, the phrase "mixed-gender stairwells" is now part of my life.

[benjipwns]

For Benji:

Reason/Libertarians annihilated

http://pando.com/2014/07/18/homophobia-racism-and-the-kochs-san-franciscos-tech-libertarian-reboot-conference-is-a-cesspool/

We aren't supposed to call them Orientals anymore?

I didn't know Reason's entire archives weren't online, they link to a lot of old articles.

EDIT: Oh, they must be in PDF form or something, here's one of the articles mentioned:
http://cloudfront-assets.reason.com/assets/db/pages-from-reason_december-1980.pdf

EDIT2: Oh, maybe that was just uploaded as part of Welch's defense: http://reason.com/blog/2014/07/19/reason-spuriously-accused-by-conspiracy

EDIT3: Oh, the covers 1994-2000 are ugly: http://www.unz.org/Pub/Reason Looks like a shitty PC magazine from that era.

[benjipwns]

That's actually a cool link, I love revisionist history. Ames made it sound like all Holocaust Denial in the magazine at first, but that's only one of the articles.

Think it's really important to the field too, but whatevs, hobby horse alert.

Even better is the ad for the book on how to form my own corporation without lawyers for UNDER FIFTY DOLLARS.

[Steve Contra]

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/intensely-awkward-congressional-hearing

 

[Mandark]

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/intensely-awkward-congressional-hearing

 

Now THAT is a cactivity.