POLITICS SCHMALITICS

[oblong]

It’s been humbling for me because I, like am sure every generation felt, that we learned the lessons and were better.  

[LaceyLou]

40 minutes ago, oblong said:

It’s been humbling for me because I, like am sure every generation felt, that we learned the lessons and were better.  

I do think there are times when we've tried to do better, and for a while we were making progress. 

Unfortunately, for some even the small amount of progress we made was too much for their small minds to bear. And even worse was that there were enough of them, and enough money among them, to erase them.

[chasfh]

17 hours ago, smr-nj said:

So let me see if I have this straight.
 

We’ve got people losing their damn minds over a 15 minute halftime show, when 6 million pages of child abuse, rape, and murder produces nary a “peep” out there.

What ****ing world is this? 

It's even "better" than that—the Republicans are trying to make the red hats lose their damn minds over a 15 minute halftime show to make them forget 6 million pages of child abuse, rape, and murder.

[chasfh]

3 hours ago, oblong said:

It’s been humbling for me because I, like am sure every generation felt, that we learned the lessons and were better.  

If you're talking about the Nazi thing, which I will respond to, I think a big part of why we unlearned that lesson is that all the people for whom that was living memory are gone, no longer in a position to remind us.

[Tigeraholic1]

No one is going to watch washed up Kid Rock tomorrow. N

[CMRivdogs]

I don't know. This sounds a lot like the pre MAGA GOP....

 

[chasfh]

“Pro-growth” sounds suspiciously like anti-labor, and “deregulatory” like anti-consumer. 

Edited Monday at 04:04 PM by chasfh

[LaceyLou]

Deregulatory also sounds like we're on the road back to smog alerts and rivers catching fire. 

[Tigeraholic1]

Quite the statement.

 

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

Quite the statement.

 

Everyone In Japan is and has always been a culture hawk. it's all about China.

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

I don't know. This sounds a lot like the pre MAGA GOP....

 

maybe or maybe not. GOP deregulation was always was around denial of the premise "we aren't hurting the environment or people - at least not enough to matter and anyway it's profits that make the rest of society function so bug off" 

Ezra's big thing is that we are so tied in knots we can't get things done for ordinary people in the public sector (like build transit) and that a lot of regulation like building codes have become captured by their industries, again driving up costs to consumers at very small or non-existent benefits to public safety and that we have gone overboard protecting private rights over the public interest. He's more about "we've let the perfect be the enemy of the good." Now whether taking that as a starting point gets you some place positive or not is always anyone's guess. 

There is a certain parallel to the 70's-80's Right wing critiques of welfare systems that motivated the break up of families, made work counter-productive etc. And some of those critiques were good ones and some reforms were improvements, but there were only ever a few GOP leaders who were  serious about reform as help for the poor instead of punishment of them. Jack Kemp maybe being the leader of that school back in the day.

[Edman85]

This, from the NYT Opinion Board, was good.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/opinion/regulate-legalized-marijuana.html?unlocked_article_code=1.K1A.l9ob.i9J3fa_X2ye2&smid=url-share

[Screwball]

Whoever wrote that article is an idiot.

[pfife]

11 hours ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

Quite the statement.

Michigan sure knows how to pick em

[pfife]

12 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

I don't know. This sounds a lot like the pre MAGA GOP....

 

Chew it and do it level hard pass 

[pfife]

Thats the crew some people here think are owed your vote and if you dont vote for them everything is your fault

[chasfh]

14 hours ago, Edman85 said:

This, from the NYT Opinion Board, was good.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/opinion/regulate-legalized-marijuana.html?unlocked_article_code=1.K1A.l9ob.i9J3fa_X2ye2&smid=url-share

Reading this has reminded me of a thought I had early on in this administration, as to whether they might loosen regulations and taxes on cigarette tobacco and eliminate addiction and health advisories, as well as marketing restrictions, related to it. You know, make smoking cool again, as it was when America was Great. That would be consistent with their goal increasing revenue for their benefactors, this time in Big Tobacco and Big Hospital, while inflicting maximum pain on everyday Americans.

[oblong]

I'm waiting for RFK Jr to come out and say it's the filters that make cigarettes dangerous, we need to go back to the straight tobacco only. "Clean tobacco".  Gimme my camels unfiltered baby. Smoke like men are supposed to.

 

[Edman85]

13 hours ago, Screwball said:

Whoever wrote that article is an idiot.

Thanks for the insight. May I ask why? The pendulum does appear to have swung too far in the other direction. There are some risks that were unknown before, and not nearly enough safeguards in place. Throw in the medicinal boondoggle (one of many such scams in the "wellness" industry), and there does need to be some reining in, even if people should be free to let loose as they desire.

[Screwball]

Pot is not addictive, period. I quit reading any article on pot when they say that. I don't care what some over educated dickhead sitting in a ivory tower who never smoked a doobie in his life has to say (and probably getting paid to say exactly that).

I will go with the dozens upon dozens of test dummies who I know who have smoked the herb for the last 60 years and proven it's not.

[Screwball]

I will add; on the medical benefits of pot.

In the last year my DIL was diagnosed with breast cancer. She went through 20 weeks of chemo treatments which just knock the living **** out of you. She then had a double mastectomy. Thankfully, she is now cancer free. The only thing that helped her with the pain and nausea was pot.

It was the same with one of my best buddies a few years ago after he developed prostrate cancer. He wasn't so lucky. The chemo didn't work, but the pot made him as comfortable as possible before he left us.

[slothfacekilla]

I am very happy to have legal marijuana to help with constant pain management instead of having to turn to something like opiates.  

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Screwball said:

Pot is not addictive, period

Yeah.  I think people are guilty of a lot of sloppy semantics. Human beings can and do become habituated to any behavior. Those issues can and are addressed successfully by people all the time. The dividing line between that and addiction may sometimes be somewhat hazy, but it exists.

Edited 14 hours ago by gehringer_2

[chasfh]

56 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Yeah.  I think people are guilty of a lot of sloppy semantics. Human beings can and do become habituated to any behavior. Those issues can and are addressed successfully by people all the time. The dividing line between that and addiction may sometimes be somewhat hazy, but it exists.

Right, just because something's not physically addictive doesn't mean it is not at all addictive.

[Screwball]

1 hour ago, slothfacekilla said:

I am very happy to have legal marijuana to help with constant pain management instead of having to turn to something like opiates.  

If you are old, like I am, you will hear the horror stories about health and old people (they go together). Getting hooked on opiates is not at all uncommon, and a concern for many my age. And they love to push the stuff. Cha-ching!