So I guess 2016 claimed its biggest victim yet - America

http://tuvalu.santafe.edu/~snaidu/papers/union_sub3.pdf

As union busting and membership decreased, income inequality increased.

I’ll add Sharon Jones in the black female genius musician category, both for composition and performance, but I also think we’ll have to wait a few hundred years to know if she has the staying power and ongoing acclaim of Mozart. That’s not a slight to the amazing Ms Jones, may she rest in peace, just an acknowledgment that Mozart’s been acclaimed for a really long time, so anyone being compared would simlarly have to be so acclaimed for a really long time as well.

I wanted to talk about one of the statistics just referenced in this thread since I have really enjoyed discussing economics lately elsewhere, but first I have to say, this forum thread title was so melodramatic that I wasn’t even fazed by the reference to Trump’s America being “Nazi Germany” a few posts in. Jpinard I believe posted this topic years ago, and he still seems to be here trumpeting doomsday. I admire the persistence even if I disagree with it.

(I am somewhat surprised there’s no discussion of South Korea, and even CNN, saying Trump deserves a Nobel for the impending Korea denuclearization – with all the posts/threads here about how Trump was going to cause World War III with Korea, you’d think that would be a bigger discussion point! https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/27/politics/donald-trump-korea/index.html)

Anyway, I wanted to comment because I specifically take issue with the statistic dropped in this most recent post I just read. The “union busting down, income inequality up” chart is not, in itself, very meaningful at all. Most union members are middle class (the very lower classes can’t get into union jobs, and the very upper classes do not need union jobs). The progressive group (Center for American Progress) that commissioned the study underlying that chart showed that many in the middle class have simply moved to higher paying jobs – which is a good thing. This would, however, reduce the size of the middle class, leading to more “inequality” but a better outcome for society.

Regardless, correlation is not causation. Here is a study showing that wages fall at newly unionized companies – a result that surprised the author, and that delves into causation: https://economics.byu.edu/frandsen/Documents/unioneffects.pdf

There are a lot of trump threads, and one of them at least has discussed this, with those commenting on it saying sure, why not? Notwithstanding the fact what Moon said is a little more nuanced:

“President Trump can take the Nobel prize. The only thing we need is peace,” according to the South’s presidential office.

But we’ve been down this road before:
image

Lastly, awarding a peace prize to someone who threatens nuclear war seems a little silly to me, but then we had a press corps up in arms over a comedian, proving that we all live in the stupidest time line.

As you are new to the forums, let me say welcome! The ‘dear leader’ thread had another title before the election, which you couldn’t know about. At that time, it was titled ‘Stupid things Donald Trump Says’ or something very similar. The day of the election, it was chaged to the current title. You can understand both the humor and fear that would have prompted such a thing, I assume, given that your first four posts in the 50 minutes you have been here seem to at least have respect for facts and logic.

This is a community that has been around a while, and the people who post regularly are well known, including the ones who drop by with a payload of lies from Fox and Friends and then don’t respond to reasoned discussion. Like Malathor, who you made a comment about in another thread. He doesn’t merit a discussion or a reasoned reply, because he doesn’t engage in debate or reasoned replies, and has grave difficulties discerning facts from lies. This is a pattern that has been repeated enough that now, we try to just not reply at all and hope he stays away.

Thanks very much for your nice words!

I did not understand why people thought the press secretary’s appearance was mocked. That was a bizarre instance of the media agreeing on something that simple never happened.

Oh I see. For sure – I remember when Obama was elected, some of my relatives were convinced sharia law would soon take over, even though they are very educated people. I just thing hyperbole is a bad place to start a discussion.

Either you are entirely missing the point or you are intentionally being insulting. No one has argued that Kanye is the next Mozart. That is a bad faith comparison. It’s like saying Tony Gwynn doesn’t belong in the HoF because he’s no Babe Ruth. It was brought up by someone as a slight against his talent, not a comparison by a supporter.

Honestly, it’s basically just the Hitler thing in reverse:

You think Trump is really bad? Now that Hitler was a bad guy. Trump is just an average politician.

Hitler was more terrible but Trump is also terrible.

I can’t believe that you think Trump is as bad as Hitler.

When people compare Trump to Hitler, they’re comparing Trump to 1930s Hitler. When he only demonized the Jews (Muslims, immigrants) but hadn’t yet started rounding them up into camps.

Trump is absolutely as bad as 1930s Hitler.

Fuck’s sake. I admit that I’m being a combative asshole, because it’s P&R and that’s how I do from time to time because anyone who isn’t fucking livid about the state of the country right now isn’t paying attention. So first off, I apologize for my tone getting out of hand at times.

But for what it’s worth, I’m just as offended by your charged language that implies that I’m the oppressor trying to keep the brave oppressed minorities down by telling them I dislike their style of argumentation on an internet forum. So you got some back there.


Stopped in for a quick civics lesson at Shoal River Middle School. #OpenGaetz Day Crestview is going great!

Looks like he got his voter lesson.

I thought this was the Kanye thread

You’re spending so much time telling me that I don’t know what I am talking about and that I don’t have a right to say it that you’re not even reading what I am writing. Instead of auto putting up your walls and making assumptions about who you I think is an oppressor or racist, perhaps you can actually read what i wrote, look at Lantz’s article and actually listen to this point of view.

And almost every discussion with you these days ends with you telling me what you think my intentions are and how you think I should change. Maybe you can examine why you feel the need to keep doing that. But i am not going anywhere, so just deal with it.

Gaetz is a total piece of shit. The guy got picked up for DUI, refused a breathalizer which is supposed to result in an automatic suspension of your license… but nope. Not for him. No consequences at all.

I got all excited there for a moment thinking you meant techno music. :)

I always viewed this as a thread for posting stuff about signs that you think mean America is headed in the wrong direction on certain topics. As such, it’s a pretty broad topic. But even though I didn’t miss any posts (I don’t think), I’m still confused as to why Kanye is being discussed in this thread. I guess because his being a Trump supporter is an indication that the country is headed in the wrong direction? I suppose that computes, a little bit.

A (very) prominent black man says “Slavery was a choice.” It fits into the ‘Rise of the Alt-Right’ narrative.

You just don’t understand Dragon Energy.

Does that make Kanye more or less powerful than Charlie Sheen, who is a warlock with tiger’s blood?