Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

Jedi mind trick, the Bank still owns the whole situation...

 

I didn't know that interest rates were down to 2013 levels! That's a great graph.

If only home prices were at 2013 levels, too. @zerodeefex inspired me to look at Boulder real estate but it's within swinging distance of Bay Area prices now!

 

The same background, but maybe you will notice who is censoring whom now? Government cannot do shit to mega-corps.
And can you loose your job because Trump does not like you? Unlikely unless you work for a government agency, and even that would be difficult
Can you loose your job, does not matter where you work if Jack Dorsey does not like you? Or some of his minions, or even someone who is "clever" enough to use his minions against you? You will be gone is 60 seconds.

 

So your logic is that since corporations are "bad", we should accept a dictatorial government? How does this make sense? And why do you think a bad government somehow makes up for shitty corporations? Wouldn't it be smarter to not accept either?

And while we're at it, why do you only comment on corporations that tend to lean left? Btw, Zuckerberg, Thiel and, a bunch of other Silicon Valley bigshots are well known to donate to the Trump campaign. Are the corporations that support Reps and the president really good unlike the left leaning ones?

 

I remember when Trump was running back in 2016. His protectionism and trade talk was a serious turn off for me. I'm not convinced that protectionism works, and I think tariffs in general is just an indirect tax on the consumers. This will make people LOL but I do buy some French cheeses and French wines. Guess what? Those items went up due to tariffs. French did tariffs on US companies, US did the same on their exports. Crap like this not only hurts consumers, but small businesses believe it or not.

I just dunno what is the best direction here. We know China is having a field day with us, but the trade deficit is getting worse. I also don't like all the monies that are flowing to the farm companies who are hurting over the tariffs. I wear so much food waste and other wasteful spending comes from the government getting their hands into farming too much. Just look at government cheese.

Maybe Trunp is going crazy, who knows. Locally I still know plenty of people who will still vote for him with huge smiles since "he speaks to them" and "must defeat the libs at all cost." Mostly it is based more on feelings and not too much about the policy. Honestly I think the national GOP secretly don't like him but don't have a choice but to deal with him due to strong voting block who really like Trump more than the other down-ticket GOP members and also the major juridical wins (which honestly this is the only part I like Trump for, but everything else is no-go in voting for his party).

Like @purr1n I been fucked less by the GOP if I have to be honest. However, each year they continue to f**k the issues that I care about more and more. FL GOP were a bunch of pussies after the Parkland shooting with their gun restrictions bill. They only did it due to polling not on their side, but in the process they made parts of the bill pretty age discriminatory (raising the gun buying age from 18 to 21). Of course they are being sued right now over this, and I think FL GOP will lose here. When you do policy based on feelings is when you get some of the worse results IMO.

I'll be very curious what will be the direction of the national GOP will go after Trump is done, either by losing next month or in four years.

 

The left's assertion of authoritarianism by Trump, the GOP, or insert_unliked_deplorable_person/group/belief_here, really does not stand scrutiny. If you are that easily manipulated by politicians, media talking heads, and Hollywood actors IMO you probably deserve to live quivering in fear. The right's assertion of a nascent totalitarianism by a post-Classical Liberal (so an illiberal) left has much more demonstrable support, such as purr1n's example above. Google, Facebook, Yelp, and the in all likelihood corporation you work for are all 'woke' and have enforcement mechanisms (of varying degrees of effectiveness) to make sure you say and do what they believe is acceptable, and if you don't your canceled.

Some on the right believe this nascent social credit system is a grave threat to our freedom, and they have plenty of ex-pat soviet/eastern European's amongst them warning us that western european/NA society is starting down a totalitarian road. However IMO they under weigh the effect of our "diversity" and "multi-culturalism" - they assume we are more hegemonous than we are. We may be too unorganized for even a technically advanced social credit system to end up in a Chinese and/or eastern European situation. Still they are on to something important.

@YMO, Big Agriculture has an insurmountable advantage in our political system with equal weight senators (all states only get two) and the number agricultural states. This is a "swamp" Trump has no influence over whatsover.

Edit: if you kids are asking you what they should be when they grow up, tell them a farmer. Farming is the only career that has kept up with inflation since 1970's. I can't find the good graph, but here is one that is telling:

 

Trump can't influence Agriculture, but he needs to do what he can to make sure those in the industry will vote for him. As much as I hate the government giveaway to that industry (which been happening for decades), I really can't blame him for doing it. People love legal bribery if it benefits them!

I know some FL farmers who left the industry. They left because they are getting squeezed out by the Big Agriculture companies (which make sense, they have more resources and $$$). To play in the game, you must pay to play. This means giving money to Florida Farm Bureau, and also give money to the FL GOP because they will do your bidding in the capital. You better make enough money to cover those special fees on top of the cost in running the farm (labor, materials, bringing stuff to market, etc.).

Only do farming for money if you are willing to join a major agriculture firm or are willing to deal with a Co-Op (because you better join or else you have a big risk of failing as a farmer), at least this is how it is in FL (can't speak to the other states). If you want independent, you are going to find out quick that you are going to be losing your shirt sooner or later.

 

So farmers, gun manufacturers, the defense industry, the oil companies, banks, and other generally right leaning groups are not guilty of the above? They’re all about your “freedom” rather than about their profits? So therefore they don’t try to influence or control you? Wow! Have you ever seen fox news? Or listened to any right leaning politician? Or looked at legislation passed by conservatives?

Please check out Citizens United.

 

I bet the Amish are doing just fine. New ways (combines, GMO seeds and petroleum based fertilizers) do not prevent the old ways from working. They also value land ownership above all else.

 

Since you brought up Citizen United, just a reminder that there's so much Dem-leaning Super PACs this time around. After seeing the successes of the GOP-leaning Super PACs, they are caught up about it.

The answer is both sides are guilty. Also MSNBC is just as bad as Fox News, and Mother Jones is just as bad as the Daily Caller.

 

This post is full of shallow cliches it is hardly worth responding, but yes "Big Oil" and the likes of Henry Repeating Arms do not have social credit systems they can impose externally. Would not surprise me however that at least some of Big Oil has them internally.

The idea that Fox News (or any other alleged non-Progressive source) is somehow evidence that the majority (like 90%) of media is not thoroughly progressive in personnel, tone, and subject matter is silly. Progressive's own all the major institutions (i.e. media, corp board rooms, universities, and much of government), even they admit that. That's why they are so hysterical over the supreme court in that another Trump appointee will mean (maybe) that they won't own it directly...

edit: Here is "Big Tire's" system at work recently:

 

Just so I understand you correctly:

Bad big businesses are liberal.
Good big business is conservative.

I'm not arguing or judging here. Just trying to understand where you're coming from.

 

I do not want corporations to be about my freedom, I want them to be about profits. I do not want them to be enablers of social surveillance and enforcers of "progressive" world view, or any other world view for that matter. And this is what Twitter Facebook etc.. were allowed to become. Not the farmers, gun manufacturers, oil producers etc..

 

This I can agree with. Who would you say has allowed them to become this way? I'm asking this question because I don't know the answer. Can someone point to legislation from either party? My guess is they're all guilty of it - corporations regardless of outward appearance pump money into both sides.

 

I take the fact that Trumpites (Trump is not even close to a conservative; Goldwater would roll over in his grave to see him called such) see me as an anarchist and progressives see me as a fascist as a sign that I am doing something right. Kind of like a man without a country.

 

Nope, the conversation in this thread is not about these simplifications at all. Conservative vs. Liberal is almost meaningless, in that there are hardly any real conservatives and liberals left. Corporations-as-actors are by and large a subset of larger cultural forces, and not the monolithic 'entities' these soundbites suggest...

 

I agree with this. But I'm still confused and trying to understand your statement that we don't need to be concerned with the current administration's authoritarian tendencies because (paraphrasing here) "liberal big business is stripping us of our freedoms". If the idea is that the current admin is not perfect but they'll make more things right than the other side, I'd like to point out that during 2017 and 2018 Reps controlled the WH and Senate and didn't do jack. I don't see a border wall, I don't see a "better alternative to ACA" (I don't even see a proposal let alone an attempt to get one through), I don't see a trade agreement with China, I don't see manufacturing coming back to the US. Where is this genius deal maker we've all been told about? What has the current admin actually accomplished that should give anyone reason to expect anything in four more years? Unless you count the fact that the country is a dumpster fire as an accomplishment.