Prelude to the Apocalypse

[supergrafx77]

Good news for people looking to buy a GPU to use as an actual GPU, though. How are those chipsets meant for raytracing coming along? Any upcoming games or 3d (true 3d, not sterovision) movies coming soon that use it? Seems like it's about the time for another big benchmark game like Crysis was back in the day.

[Mischief Maker]

Maybe it's my perverted mind, but the more and more I watch that girl flicking her cooling fans to get them spinning, the dirtier and dirtier it looks.

[CIT]

Maybe it's my perverted mind, but the more and more I watch that girl flicking her cooling fans to get them spinning, the dirtier and dirtier it looks.

You mean because flicking another part on her body will make her head spin and heat her up instead?

We all had that thought, don't worry.

[Mischief Maker]

FUCK YEAH!

Bernie's Running.

[Rob]

Finally. Maybe now we can get #JusticeForJussie and others like Jussie. This is America.

[emphatic]

Finally. Maybe now we can get #JusticeForJussie and others like Jussie. This is America.

http://i65.tinypic.com/2utpytz.jpg

Don't you mean, "This is MAGA country"?

[Zen]

Fake Noose?!

Maybe Bernie can socialise the blame. Make it all our faults. Sorted!

The hilarity spike with this whole thing was so high, that now I'm jonesing.
So I am holding out hope, that the accomplice Nigerian Bodybuilder-brothers, actually are Trump supporters.

[FinalBaton]

Yeah I saw that "attack" where it was found that this Jussie guy actually paid these two men to attack him(and told them to buy MAGA hats on their way to the beating) wtf?

[Mischief Maker]

Ohh! You got 'em Rob! The comms guy who runs Bernie's twitter responded to a news article about an alleged hate crime by posting that hate crimes are bad! The idiot didn't first ingest the spice melange so he could see into the future and learn of additional allegations that would later cast doubt on the story as originally reported. Bernie is destroyed!!!

If Bernie and his comms staff had the stable and logical mind of a republican, they would only take reasonable actions. Like dumping their retirement into Iraqi dinars based off some mumblings from Trump about world currency equality.

[Rob]

The details of this story were so preposterous that it demanded caution, but the media and 2020 Dem hopefuls ran with it at full speed as soon as it broke. What they don't get to do now is pretend that they didn't do that. The reckless amplification of a story like this one can result in retaliatory attacks and contributes to a demonizing narrative that is simply false. Whites terrorizing blacks is not an accurate story of crime in America. The accurate story of crime in America would not win progressive liberal votes. Reminder of an actual hate crime that took place in Chicago that was not accompanied by outraged comms guy tweets about "surging hostility" for one group by another. Sad part for Bernie is that he's never going to get the black vote no matter how many hate hoaxes he puts his signature to or how often people are reminded of his ancient activism.

[Mischief Maker]

That's right, Rob, you speak for the Black Community!

[CIT]

but the media and 2020 Dem hopefuls ran with it at full speed as soon as it broke.

What a joke, you hypocrite:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central ... d_1989.jpg

[Rob]

What a joke, you hypocrite:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central ... d_1989.jpg

Are you stupid?

[Mischief Maker]

Bernie has a record breaking opening day of fundraising followed by a stream of terrified tweets from GOTUS.

The progressive wave is coming, to wash away all the scum!

[BryanM]

The anointed one is still going to be a challenge. Too many democrats will take their orders from the TV and do what they're told.

Maybe the anti-Goldwater, maybe the anti-Reagan. It'll be pretty clear which it is in 7 months.

It is pretty funny that Harris's dad has already denounced her not even a month into this thing, though.

[Mischief Maker]

It is pretty funny that Harris's dad has already denounced her not even a month into this thing, though.

Well that resentment she was taking out on poor families whose kids play hooky had to come from somewhere.

Too bad she didn't also take it out on Steve Mnuchin when she had the chance.

Also, FEEL THE BERN!

[bottino]

So, Trump wants to build the wall to keep us dirty latinos out of his country (and to divert the public and media attention out of real societal problems), but wants full open borders on Venezuela, in order to let his buddy, war criminal and death squad lover Elliot Abrams help install a pliant government to Washington and it's corporations interests and to take away the venezuelan oil?

Nah, I must be imagining things. I'm sure that they're just concerned about the people there and want only to restore democracy and peace, like the US has done so many times throughout the history of Latin America.

[Specineff]

So why doesn't he just go and present an invoice for the costs of the wall to president Lopez Obrador already? That surely will work better than having to wrestle with congress for the needed funds. I mean, that's all he has to do, right? Write an invoice and it will automagically make the money teleport from the Bank of Mexico to Fort Knox. Right?

[BryanM]

"The wall" is like Obama and universal medicare. If it was something They really wanted, They would have passed it (or at least pretend to have fought for it) when They had complete control of congress.

On the material dimension it's similar to spending our money on refurbishing roads and bridges - to the Capitalist owners of society, useless. That's money that could be spent on capital acquisitions abroad (also called "colonialism"). From a strategic standpoint, you can't want something that you already have. It has to be this carrot that's always dangled in front of the elephant.

Idiot masses don't understand kayfabe.

If Sanders is the nominee, expect a ton of propaganda about how beefing up our border security and some walls really aren't that bad an idea. And not a word about giving a hungry kid in school a free ham sandwich.

We've got an extra $40 billion a year to add to the colonialism budget, however. Bipartisan agreement there. In 20 years, we'll have quadrupled it, and maybe collapse stunningly like the USSR did.

[Steamflogger Boss]

"The wall" is like Obama and universal medicare. If it was something They really wanted, They would have passed it (or at least pretend to have fought for it) when They had complete control of congress.

I don't always agree with BryanM but yeah, exactly this.

[BryanM]

Liz has an official facts FAQ on her website. So you can know all the facts.

[FinalBaton]

What is you democrat fans opinion on Andrew Yang? He seems like a pretty sensible guy to me so far :

-UBI replaces welfare as something that won't cut your benefit if you manage to get a raise at work/better paying job, so it gives you more incentives to strive for a good living and work your ass off

-Proposes more emphasis on Trade and Skill education. Let's face it college and uni is not the be all end all, tons of people with degrees at that level don't work in their field, and a lot that do don't get a super good salary anyway. Never mind that this will prevent a lot of crushing student debt. Oh and automation/AI will closes lot of basic accounting and legal jobs too, so it's not like that's something that only affect manufacturing : it will affect college and uni jobs too.

-Wants school to reduce fee by 2.5x. Fees have increased by that much over the last 10 years, but the quality of education has not. Says school would absolutely be fine and able to operate with that cut and the quality of education wouldn't suffer, and I absolutely believe that. Notice that he's not advocating free school like Bernie : he realises that schools still need some money to operate. SO students pay, but the cost is gonna come way down

-Propose an assortment of out-clauses/arrangements for people to get rid their student loans. As said in first point, the idea is to form more people in trade schools and put them in fields where there is actually demand for workers. But in the meantime, for people who studied college and uni and are fucked by their loans, this will still help them remove the burden of debt (which is crippling America economically since people can't even give a shot to entrepreneuriat when they're so in debt, and can't ever live decently for that matter). And we all know that the banks have gotten that money back on your student loan already even if you haven't repaid much of it yet, so it's not like you'd be robbing them...

What do you guys think about him? I think his platform at least has some merit, he seems pretty much like a Classical Liberal (not Liberal, but Classical Liberal. big difference...), which is close to where I stand I guess. Seems like one of the more interesting Democrat candidate-with-some-traction I've heard in years. I like that he doesn't bring up the spectre of racism as a treat. I also like his approach with student loans : helps to cut them way way down, while also avoiding the big tax hike that would come with "free education". Seems responsible to me. Now I haven't seem his plan for environment, which is THE most important thing to me in modern politics(way more important then the spectre of racism/race wars)


*I know he won't have a shot as president for 2020 but I still like to discuss candidats*

[BulletMagnet]

-Wants school to reduce fee by 2.5x. Fees have increased by that much over the last 10 years, but the quality of education has not. Says school would absolutely be fine and able to operate with that cut and the quality of education wouldn't suffer, and I absolutely believe that.

If he's going to do this he'll have to be very specific about where and how the fee cuts are going to be absorbed, because if it's up to the colleges they'll just go even further in their frenzy to replace full-time professors with disposable adjuncts working for poverty wages, and jack up the prices for books and other "non-fee" expenses. Guaranteed it won't come out of the pockets of administrators, vendors and others where the extra money has actually been going unless it's explicitly forced to...though that sort of thing tends to go against the grain of "classical liberalism" to begin with, so color me skeptical from the get-go.

[Mischief Maker]

Here's a superior kind of means-testing: Provide social welfare universally, raise the top tax brackets.

That way the undeserving rich, whose spawn for some reason choose free public college over the prestige of an expensive private alternative, make up for the public benefit they've received by paying it back in taxes.

And the deserving poor don't risk missing out on necessary benefits, like measles vaccines, because they didn't navigate the convoluted bureaucratic obstacle course of means-testing properly.

Beware of the sneaky Democrats who try fool you by passing off means tested programs as "Medicare for all." Medicare for all, for it to work, must be Medicare FOR ALL!

[FinalBaton]

If he's going to do this he'll have to be very specific about where and how the fee cuts are going to be absorbed

That's a fair point, I too would like to get his details on that. Would be wort digging a bit to find out

Here's a superior kind of means-testing: Provide social welfare universally, raise the top tax brackets.

what do you mean more specifically by social welfare? bigger welfare checks? or more social programs(and can you name a couple)? or both?

Here in Canada/Quebec we're pretty close to what you're describing ;

-"free" healthcare (but it takes really long to get treated. like, really long. and they are understaffed and burned out, and it's not super comfortable facilities either. Overall I'm still grateful that we have it though)

-very decent amount of social programs. there's welfare(althought it's a very tiny check, I think it might be a lower amount than the U.S. And Employment Insurance that provides some revenue for seasonal workers and laidoff employees (55% of salary with 2 first weeks with nothing though, so still a pretty rough life for those on it). Funds for startups of small businesses is very good at least, if you have a good pitch and there's demand in the market you're after and you're creating at least a couple jobs and show some professionalism, you WILL get funding that will cover allmost all of your costs for startup(and the vast majority of these funds are non-reimbursable. it is a government program). Other than that, a good amount of smaller social programs round this out.

-tax brackets : it's kinda like you describe it, but not really. upper-middle class gets hit really hard, when that treatment should be really reserved for people higher up on the bracket than that IMO (I'm refering to "higher-middle class" as having a comfortable living and "middle class" as just getting by/just above the poverty line). People with very low income pay basically the lowest fee (5 to 25%), middle class pay somewhere between 25% and 45% and higher-middle class pay between 45% and 50%(which is the plateau). we are often cited as the most taxed place in all of North America in many categories. So the lower class and lower tier of middle class gets a (well-needed)relief, but high-middle class(which is no super luxurious lifestyle mind you)get hits really hard, as hard as doctors or someone who'se well off with real estate investment. which I think isn't really fair. Corporations, that's another ball game entirely

-school fees : it is a lot lower here than the US. but still no pocket change for Uni (although yeah $2000 a semester, like what Université Laval and Université McGill charges, is still pretty affordable)

So yeah, with some tweaks we'd be kinda close to what you describe. You should move here
btw I find it interesting how my perspective is different than yours : I'm standing on the other side of the fence, where you want to be(although you seem to want to go quite deeper in social programs than I. but I certainly wouldn't want to go any deeper into them, than I am now. No thanks... Except for more ressources in healthcare. Please help those poor nurses! They are burnt the fuck out!!)

(Actually, there are way too many white collars working in hospitals here. Like, thrice as much as needed. So some of the resouces needed to help the nurses could be gotten through better managing, without injecting additional money, just by cutting white collar jobs and using the money saved to hire more nurses. I know it'd mean some people loose their job(although on the flipside there'd be more medical staff hired) but... man, everybody's suffering from that nurse understaffing. See, that's an example of the tweaks I'd like to be done over here).

[BryanM]

What is you democrat fans opinion on Andrew Yang?

Honestly know very little about him since he hasn't been prominent in the political arena. Sanders had been waving his hands for decades and got kickstarted in 2010 with his long speech against prolonging the Bush income tax cuts for yacht owners - it takes some time to build a reputation and a name.

But I can still talk about topics, sure.

-UBI replaces welfare as something that won't cut your benefit if you manage to get a raise at work/better paying job, so it gives you more incentives to strive for a good living and work your ass off

Basic income is a complicated topic. When ghouls like Bill Gates or Elon Musk talk about it, they always mean "implement it sometime after I'm dead" and at a small starvation level stipend - not enough to have a steak and a salad once a week.

Many more advanced genuine advocates of the idea propose something like Communist Alaska's oil dividend program, except on a broader number of resources. That in itself would still be a political target, like how we all know Rob is having $3.40 stolen out of his wallet every single day by Republicans screwing over the program.

There is probably still something to the "they'll just jack up prices!" argument, since indeed, rents are always raised as high as possible to steal the average person's paycheck in its entirety.

The idea always polls well until they put it on an actual referendum and the powers that be lobby against it. As it is, it would be great for the people on the bottom of society, neutral to those in the middle, and a loss of a ton of power to those on the tippity top of it.

For it to begin to gain some traction, I think it'll take the automated driving thing to replace a few million jobs before it starts to catch on for those normies living down on earth. When it arrives, I would go so far to call it the milestone to fully reaching the "socialist" phase of development on the tech tree.

What it'll look like and how bad/good it'll be will depend on how the political fight falls out and what kind of environment we have left to work with. I assume getting paperclipped or being forced into death shows is a bit more likely than the more desirable outcomes.

Now I haven't seem his plan for environment, which is THE most important thing to me in modern politics

Heh, Feinstein was just confronted about this by some kids:

"Granny, why are you killing us?"
"Because you little shits didn't vote for me!"

God the Democrats are terrible.

yacht owners

I would have thought "The Dauntless" would be a splendid name back when I was 13. Poetry by Virgil and all that.

At my current venerated age of a baked potato, I'd just name it something stupid like "Fail Boat" or "A Nice Boat (Is Fine Too)".

"free" healthcare (but it takes really long to get treated. like, really long.

It's like that here, too. If it's not the emergency room, it's going on a calender and god help you if you forget it.

Unless you're talking literally years. Months for an appointment here aren't unusual.

but I certainly wouldn't want to go any deeper into them, than I am now. No thanks...

But what about a dental plan? Lisa needs braces!

[Steamflogger Boss]

Here's a superior kind of means-testing: Provide social welfare universally, raise the top tax brackets.

That way the undeserving rich, whose spawn for some reason choose free public college over the prestige of an expensive private alternative, make up for the public benefit they've received by paying it back in taxes.

And the deserving poor don't risk missing out on necessary benefits, like measles vaccines, because they didn't navigate the convoluted bureaucratic obstacle course of means-testing properly.

Quaint ideas.

[FinalBaton]

But what about a dental plan? Lisa needs braces!

honestly I'm fine with how it's handled here(we're already skinned alive with the taxes we pay, I really don't want to pay any more). it's not covered by the (very affordable)Provincial Govt' health care (although it is to 10 year olds and under), but pretty much all workplaces offer an insurance plan that's decently priced since they pay halfsies or up to 75%(I compared with an individual insurance package bought outside the workplace and it is indeed a lot cheaper), as an incentive to attract workers (there's a severe labour shortage here, so that probs help).

So let the businesses pay some of it.

[Obscura]

There is probably still something to the "they'll just jack up prices!" argument, since indeed, rents are always raised as high as possible to steal the average person's paycheck in its entirety.

It's amazing how little leftists understand of "supply and demand".

[Steamflogger Boss]

There is probably still something to the "they'll just jack up prices!" argument, since indeed, rents are always raised as high as possible to steal the average person's paycheck in its entirety.

It's amazing how little leftists understand of "supply and demand".

Humans don't HAVE to fuck other humans over.