The Winning Ending (November 7, 2020)

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HAHAHAHA! Thanks, I needed that. It's pretty naive of you to think it really changes anything, but I guess we'll see. I lost all hope in politics ages ago. Nothing ever changes. And never forget, orange man bad!

I wonder what'll happen the next time a republican wins the white house? Especially after Biden dies in office and Harris is left holding the bag and one of them tries to force policies on rural America that we don't want or need.

We've already seen it in Virginia. The first thing the Democrats did after assuming a majority is try to ban the most popular rifle in America. Stupid move. They've pretty much assured that they'll loose the majority in 2021. By that move alone. Why is it always modern looking guns with them? I think the problem is very few of them actually do any research into guns and find out the ones that are used crimes first? That, and I don't think they care all that much, it's just a reason to push an agenda. I'm all for several Democratic talking points, the issue is money. You can't keep increasing the tax on the rich. They'll just stop paying taxes, and keep the money tied up or offshore until things become favorable again. You can't raise the tax on the poor, they're barely making it by as it is. So what's left? The middle class? Corporate tax? More tariffs? Good luck with that. Not to mention the pansy ass sjw identity politics emo nonsense that's invaded the kids lately. Can't say I have any of the answers myself either. Maybe we need something to toughen kids up? I don't know. Maybe life has gotten too easy nowadays. Too many conveniences.

Personally I hope the right just doesn't go ape shit over what they perceive as a 'stolen' election. We're already seeing bits of it with Trump's lawsuits and people making protests... Seriously. It's sad. Some of them will probably be as bad if not worse as the orange man bad crowd.

Social media has really ruined this country.

The next decade is going to be interesting to say the least. Here's hoping we're all alive to see it. Some of us are starting to show our age. Maybe we'll see a new Wing Commander game before we kick it? At least a really good privateer or pioneer tc for RGO :D WC Saga was the best Wing Commander game to date, followed closely by wc4 and Standoff, but that's just my opinion. I'm really happy about that remake.
 
Rather than "Orange man bad" I would say that "a racist moron with the vocabulary of an 8 year old is a poor choice for the leader of one of the most powerful nations in the world".


As for guns, well I'm just glad my kids have only a twentieth of the chance of being the victims of a homicide as an American.
 
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HAHAHAHA! Thanks, I needed that. It's pretty naive of you to think it really changes anything, but I guess we'll see. I lost all hope in politics ages ago. Nothing ever changes.
If the whole of your argument is "By George, you're naive for celebrating because it won't change" - which it is, in case someone else has to tell you - you can take it somewhere else. Whataboutism is the dulled and rusted blade of a billion billion edgelord preteens who think they know better than the adults who came before them.
 
HAHAHAHA! Thanks, I needed that. It's pretty naive of you to think it really changes anything, but I guess we'll see. I lost all hope in politics ages ago. Nothing ever changes. And never forget, orange man bad!

I wonder what'll happen the next time a republican wins the white house? Especially after Biden dies in office and Harris is left holding the bag and one of them tries to force policies on rural America that we don't want or need.

We've already seen it in Virginia. The first thing the Democrats did after assuming a majority is try to ban the most popular rifle in America. Stupid move. They've pretty much assured that they'll loose the majority in 2021. By that move alone. Why is it always modern looking guns with them? I think the problem is very few of them actually do any research into guns and find out the ones that are used crimes first? That, and I don't think they care all that much, it's just a reason to push an agenda. I'm all for several Democratic talking points, the issue is money. You can't keep increasing the tax on the rich. They'll just stop paying taxes, and keep the money tied up or offshore until things become favorable again. You can't raise the tax on the poor, they're barely making it by as it is. So what's left? The middle class? Corporate tax? More tariffs? Good luck with that. Not to mention the pansy ass sjw identity politics emo nonsense that's invaded the kids lately. Can't say I have any of the answers myself either. Maybe we need something to toughen kids up? I don't know. Maybe life has gotten too easy nowadays. Too many conveniences.

Personally I hope the right just doesn't go ape shit over what they perceive as a 'stolen' election. We're already seeing bits of it with Trump's lawsuits and people making protests... Seriously. It's sad. Some of them will probably be as bad if not worse as the orange man bad crowd.

Social media has really ruined this country.

The next decade is going to be interesting to say the least. Here's hoping we're all alive to see it. Some of us are starting to show our age. Maybe we'll see a new Wing Commander game before we kick it? At least a really good privateer or pioneer tc for RGO :D WC Saga was the best Wing Commander game to date, followed closely by wc4 and Standoff, but that's just my opinion. I'm really happy about that remake.
It is not naive to hope for change.

It's only naive to not expect any pushback to change.
 
George Carlin said it best. Imagine the intelligence of the average person, then realize that half of the population is worse. Speaking at the level of an 8 year old might not be a bad idea when speaking to the public. Personally, I saw Trump for what he was. An ill informed, lazy, sad, angry internet troll. There were days I'd get up and turn on the radio and hear the left going nuts over something that jackass had said. It was funny on so many levels.

As to the whole nothing ever changes thing? Are you going to somehow get rid of politicians getting paid off by corps? Somehow stop the lobbyists that work for them? A lot of these things are inherit to the free system we have. You're not going to get rid of corruption in a free system. In any system for that matter. The strength of any nation is dependent on its economy. Said economy is a result on a myriad of factors, one of the main ones is the efficiency of the companies that lie within it's borders. As an elected official it's your duty to do the best for your constituency, your state, and your country. Sometimes but not always in that order. In a lot of cases it's in the public's best interest to side with the corps on a lot of things, but one must not overreach.

Outside of moving to a completely different economic system that's not going to change.

As for the whole racist thing? Can't really bring myself care. Everyone's a racist to some degree. Though a more accurate term would be ethnicist. As more than often than not it's one's culture and not the color of one's skin nowadays that causes feelings of resentment. What's more is that racism SELLS! It drives clicks and ad revenue, and cancel culture, and counter culture, etc. It's in many companies best interest to fan that flame as high as they think it will go. I mean, you've now got some governments discussing reparations of all things. What do you think THAT will do to the economy? I think Thomas Sowell said it best. Just about every major civilization throughout history had slavery in some form or other, America's no different. If every group had to repay every other group for bad shit their ancestors did then we'd never get anywhere and end up in a quagmire of epic proportions. As far as the actual state of racism in the us I like to go by what the homicide rates I can find are. https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u....018/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-6.xls Keep in mind that this data is nowhere near complete. Yes, blacks kill whites at twice the rate that whites kill blacks, but I figure this is a result of there being a lot more white people than there are black people.

I have several guns in my home. Most of them weren't purchased with other people in mind. America is a lot like Australia in that there are vast stretches of rural land occupied by wild animals. Several of those animals are dangerous. I've had to kill a bear, a cougar, a couple of coyote, and I don't know how many snakes over the years. Not everyone lives in paved concrete monstrosities. You know how many people I've had to injure or kill in America? None.

Yes, I have a pistol I carry on me at all times I'm legally allowed because I believe on being prepared for any eventuality. But mostly again, I mostly wear it to deal with the wildlife. As far as people are concerned my stance is this: I wasn't trained as a cop, I was trained as a marine. It'll only ever come out if there's a direct imminent threat to me and mine, and there'll be no pointing at people or using it for intimidation.

As for homicide rates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate America isn't quite as bad as most people think. As for guns being the major point of that, you're right https://www.statista.com/statistics/195325/murder-victims-in-the-us-by-weapon-used/ but it's mostly handguns doing the lifting on that one. Not the scary looking assault weapons. I don't count suicides, for obvious reasons.

A lot of what America was built on was based on a philosophy personal liberty and the rejection of tyranny (irony, I know). Look at Canada. They recently passed a law that made it illegal if you don't use someone's preferred pronoun. In the UK it's illegal to cause offense. Dankula was convicted for teaching a pug a nazi salute as a joke. And, watch the video, it was funny. He did it because it was his gf's dog and he found it annoying. His gf loved the thing so he thought he'd used it to play a prank if I remember right. It sent the pc sjws around the bend. Not to mention it's only enforced on the common folk. If you're a celebrity you can say pretty much what you want. It's even happening in America. Look at the coronavirus lockdowns. If you're a small store that sells appliances you're forced to close, but if you're a huge chain like lowes you can stay open. Music festivals? Conferences? Sporting events? Closed. 'Mostly peaceful' protests? Feel free. There's a reason some of these measures are being declared unconstitutional. These lockdowns are killing small businesses by the bucketload. I can't say I have a better alternative, but we'll be seeing repercussions of this for the next decade at least, probably longer. Hell, we're already 27 trillion in debt and climbing. Though most of that the government owes to us as they've stolen it out of our social security. All of these are actions of tyranny. Some worse than others. An armed population is a lot harder to deal with than an unarmed one, but even being armed isn't the best insulation to all forms of tyranny.

As for the whole celebration thing? Do I think people are naive for celebrating one old bag of hot air beating another old bag of hot air? Yep. All politicians are chameleon-snakes. Everyone of them will spout platitudes that they think the people want to hear. Will it change some things? I have no doubt. We'll probably see him try to push through a couple more socialist policies that we just cannot afford driving the deficit even higher. Does that make me a whiny pre-teen edgelord? :'D Sticks and stones will break by bones but words will never hurt me! So naah!
 
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George Carlin said it best. Imagine the intelligence of the average person, then realize that half of the population is worse. Speaking at the level of an 8 year old might not be a bad idea when speaking to the public. Personally, I saw Trump for what he was. An ill informed, lazy, sad, angry internet troll. There were days I'd get up and turn on the radio and hear the left going nuts over something that jackass had said. It was funny on so many levels.

An average 8 year old, meaning that half of all 8 year olds are more intelligent than him. This is one of the few circumstances where pointing out how low average intelligence is doesn't make any sense.

As to the whole nothing ever changes thing? Are you going to somehow get rid of politicians getting paid off by corps? Somehow stop the lobbyists that work for them? A lot of these things are inherit to the free system we have. You're not going to get rid of corruption in a free system. In any system for that matter. The strength of any nation is dependent on its economy. Said economy is a result on a myriad of factors, one of the main ones is the efficiency of the companies that lie within it's borders. As an elected official it's your duty to do the best for your constituency, your state, and your country. Sometimes but not always in that order. In a lot of cases it's in the public's best interest to side with the corps on a lot of things, but one must not overreach.

Outside of moving to a completely different economic system that's not going to change.

Progress is slow but it happens. Pointing to the issues and saying it'll never change is foolish. The one constant in this world is change, be it positive or negative.
Most powerful corporations have reached the point where they can not fail, and increasing their profit margin further simply kills competition and stifles their need to expand and grow. Republicans seem to believe in survival of the fittest for people but not for corporations; it's supposed to be the reverse. Should one fail another entrepreneur would rise to fill in the gap. It's not the job of governments to give the corporate sector safety nets. If you need one you aren't fit to be in business. Like oil and gas, their end is coming; propping up their zombie corpse is an assault on capitalism, not supporting it. Corporate America couldn't compete on an even playing field anymore.

As for the whole racist thing? Can't really bring myself care.

Shocker.

I have several guns in my home. Most of them weren't purchased with other people in mind. America is a lot like Australia in that there are vast stretches of rural land occupied by wild animals. Several of those animals are dangerous. I've had to kill a bear, a cougar, a couple of coyote, and I don't know how many snakes over the years. Not everyone lives in paved concrete monstrosities. You know how many people I've had to injure or kill in America? None.

We have bears, but we also have bear spray, we have pit vipers, but what the hell am I going to do with a gun against a snake?

As for homicide rates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate America isn't quite as bad as most people think. As for guns being the major point of that, you're right https://www.statista.com/statistics/195325/murder-victims-in-the-us-by-weapon-used/ but it's mostly handguns doing the lifting on that one. Not the scary looking assault weapons. I don't count suicides, for obvious reasons.

Exactly as bad, that's the page I got twenty times higher from. Which countries are you comparing against to think it's "not that bad?". No where I'd think of when someone talks about the first world has even half as many.


Look at Canada. They recently passed a law that made it illegal if you don't use someone's preferred pronoun. In the UK it's illegal to cause offense.

I'm not going to tackle most of this, you need less extreme news sources. The law you're talking about was about anti discrimination which generally applies to the workplace https://www.vice.com/en/article/qbnamx/no-the-trans-rights-bill-doesnt-criminalize-free-speech.
It's definitely not illegal to cause offense in the UK
STOP WATCHING FOX NEWS!

These lockdowns are killing small businesses by the bucketload.

Out here in Japan people wore masks since February, they bring hand santizer everywhere and it's at the entrance to every store. As such it's pretty much life as normal. When businesses needed to be closed they were closed, but with nearly 100% compliance so they were able to be very short lived.


As for the whole celebration thing? Do I think people are naive for celebrating one old bag of hot air beating another old bag of hot air? Yep. All politicians are chameleon-snakes. Everyone of them will spout platitudes that they think the people want to hear. Will it change some things? I have no doubt. We'll probably see him try to push through a couple more socialist policies that we just cannot afford driving the deficit even higher. Does that make me a whiny pre-teen edgelord? :'D Sticks and stones will break by bones but words will never hurt me! So naah!

Every republican president you've ever had has increased the national debt, and Trump is the best example of this. "Socialist" policies like access to health care don't by definition increase debt. Without the fear of a doctors bill people get checked out regularly, they catch things early on, they don't end up with chronic health conditions which render them unable to bring in an income. The entire notion is based on an inability to consider more than two variables simultaneously.
Politicians are often corrupt, because many use their political careers to further their personal financial interests, Trump did this to a far greater extent and out in the open. However it's not true of all politicians, certainly not to a comparable level. You can't make comparisons and ignore degree; there is no black and white in the world and binary comparisons are there only to intentionally force the other side of an argument into a false line of reasoning.
 
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Pointing out how low average intelligence is makes perfect sense. As the more understandable you make your speeches, the more audience you can reach. It's the reason most speeches aren't overly complex and precise.

Oh dear, you seem to think I'm pro republican. Nothing could be further from the truth. But don't think I'm pro Democrat either. I think political parties are part of the problem. They promote an us vs them mentality that is helpful to no one. Personally, I'd say I'm socially liberal but with the caveat that I support equality of opportunity of opportunity and not equality of outcome. I'd say I'm fiscally conservative. Don't confuse this with modern conservatism. You're right about America propping up some of its corps. Both the Reps and Dems are equally guilty of this. The biggest corp bailout in history happened under Bush and was overseen and supported by Obama after all.

Would I like a single payer healthcare system? Absolutely. There's a problem with achieving this though. You're not going to make it happen in America. At least not right now. There's too much money propping up the healthcare system. Among the pharmaceutical companies, the hospitals, and the medical services communities, everyone wants to get paid. Most times more than they really should. The entire system would need to be regulated in law or in fact for it to be cost effective. There's a reason that people come from other countries to America to get work done. Even from countries like the UK and Canada. Because the cost is so high, it attracts the most talent. The US already has a system in place for the poor and the elderly. Medicare and Medicaid already insure over 120 million Americans. Just look at wait times in Canada and the UK to get anything done. I have a Canadian friend I used to work with. It takes him at least a month to see someone unless it's an emergency. From what I hear, the NHS in the UK is worse. Hell, it took me three months one time go get an appointment with a specialist at the local VA hospital. This pandemic has shown that if nothing else, we need to decouple health insurance from employment. But asking the government to run it? When has the US government done anything in an efficient, cost effective manner. Especially when it comes to social programs? The only government organization that seems to do that is NASA.

I don't watch fox news outside of a few clips I come across on youtube from time to time. Some of which I agree with, some I don't. Let's face it, the majority of which I just find hilarious the mental gymnastics they have to do to try and achieve their point. The information I got on bill C-16 in Canada was from one of Jordan Peterson's interviews. Then I actually read the bill. I could see how he could make that interpretation. As for causing offense being illegal? Watch this.
it's by Rowan Atkinson. Free speech issues in the UK are a thing, and they have been for a while now. And you never heard about Mark Meechan getting hauled into court over the nazi dog video in Scotland?

As for asia doing better? I'll give you Taiwan and Japan but raise you China. Just look at that monstrosity. The Falun Gong? The Uyghurs? The Mongolians? China has to be the poster boy for the most bigoted country in the world. Murdering people for their organs? The mess in Hong Kong? Not to mention that that's where this whole thing kicked off. Do I think it was on purpose? No. Do I think it was just a coincidence that it happened right next to a BSL-4 facility. Also no. I can't say I envy you for being so close to that monster.

The reason I can't bring myself to care is that I've heard everyone under the sun being called a racist for this reason and that reason. Some have been true, and some haven't. I've just become numb to it.

Using bear spray against a bear? Nope. Not gonna happen. Bear spray doesn't always work. Large caliber bullets do. As for the snake? I've shot snakes with pistols before. Or use a shotgun. A neighbor has a .410 shotgun revolver that he swears by.
 
Pointing out how low average intelligence is makes perfect sense. As the more understandable you make your speeches, the more audience you can reach. It's the reason most speeches aren't overly complex and precise.

Nope it still makes zero sense in that context. The intelligence relative to an average 8 year old would be unaltered as those 8 year olds remain part of the species.


There's a reason that people come from other countries to America to get work done. Even from countries like the UK and Canada. Because the cost is so high, it attracts the most talent. The US already has a system in place for the poor and the elderly. Medicare and Medicaid already insure over 120 million Americans. Just look at wait times in Canada and the UK to get anything done. I have a Canadian friend I used to work with. It takes him at least a month to see someone unless it's an emergency. From what I hear, the NHS in the UK is worse.

We don't, it doesn't. The US ranks #37. I work with a lot of ex-pats from the US and not one of them speaks highly of the health care in comparison. Only people who haven't experienced another system believe this. We are #3 here, the UK and Canada are #13 and #25, and having grown up in the UK I can tell you the idea that anyone is making trips to the US for health care is an absolute fabrication.
Unfortunately the current government is pro privatization and that's where the issues arise, not in public health its self. For most of my life it was fantastic. As a child my family had private health insurance but it did me no good as there's no money in being prepared to treat something rare. I had to be treated at an NHS hospital anyway; and I owe my life to it.

As for causing offense being illegal? Watch this.
it's by Rowan Atkinson. Free speech issues in the UK are a thing, and they have been for a while now. And you never heard about Mark Meechan getting hauled into court over the nazi dog video in Scotland?

He got fined no more than some parking tickets will get you for for a viral video that featured the words "gas the jews" under a communications act. He was not randomly insulting the appearances of people down the pub.

As for asia doing better? I'll give you Taiwan and Japan but raise you China. Just look at that monstrosity. The Falun Gong? The Uyghurs? The Mongolians? China has to be the poster boy for the most bigoted country in the world. Murdering people for their organs? The mess in Hong Kong? Not to mention that that's where this whole thing kicked off. Do I think it was on purpose? No. Do I think it was just a coincidence that it happened right next to a BSL-4 facility. Also no. I can't say I envy you for being so close to that monster.

The article was about the coronavirus response, insulting every Asian country is an odd choice. Japan happens to be where I live, pick New Zealand if you like.

Using bear spray against a bear? Nope. Not gonna happen. Bear spray doesn't always work. Large caliber bullets do. As for the snake? I've shot snakes with pistols before. Or use a shotgun. A neighbor has a .410 shotgun revolver that he swears by.

"Canadian and U.S. researchers announced Wednesday that they found the spray stopped aggressive bear behaviour in 92 per cent of the cases, whether that behaviour was an attack or merely rummaging for food. Guns were effective about 67 per cent of the time."
 
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At the high end, when you have the money, healthcare can be better in America than anywhere else. That's the problem I was pointing out. They do, and it does. All you have to do is a simple cursory search to look for people coming to the US for medical treatment. People come into the US all the time from Canada when they can't get an appointment soon enough. The US system isn't better than Canada's, far from it. They each have their good and bad points. The US is much worse for a person with limited resources. You see an exodus from US to mexico for those with lower incomes, especially for dental work.

What about the person who was arrested for calling a horse gay? This helped in getting a key portion of Section 5 changed in 2014. But the fact the act was in force from 1986 until 2014 says something. The fact that Dankula was fined at all was a travesty. How many comedians have made nazi jokes in england on film?

It all has to do with where you're meeting the bear. And what kind of bear it is. I read the article you likely grabbed the quote from. it also says "Working in the bear safety arena, I even found a lot of resistance to bear spray among professionals" That was mostly against grizzlies. I can't say I disagree with it either. For the average person with little firearms and no combat training the spray will be better. But bear aren't the main issue where I am. Coyote and cougar are, though I will admit I haven't seen any for the past few years now.

I know nothing about New Zealand. Other than that nonsense with Kim Dotcom. The little I know abut Japan is from me watching anime and becoming curious. What I found out about the white collar culture and the criminal justice system there was depressing. There's a reason a lot of anime focus on high school in japan, and it's not just because anime is targeted towards kids. It isn't a bad place to live, overall, from what I can tell. It's just seems like a nation for workaholics. :D
 
At the high end, when you have the money, healthcare can be better in America than anywhere else. That's the problem I was pointing out. They do, and it does. All you have to do is a simple cursory search to look for people coming to the US for medical treatment. People come into the US all the time from Canada when they can't get an appointment soon enough. The US system isn't better than Canada's, far from it. They each have their good and bad points. The US is much worse for a person with limited resources. You see an exodus from US to mexico for those with lower incomes, especially for dental work.

As I said I think this is very much a fabrication. I've never heard of it outside of american right wing media sources; whilst I don't doubt there may be a few isolated incidents of people travelling to see a specialist I can assure you that isn't limited to travelling to the US.

What about the person who was arrested for calling a horse gay? This helped in getting a key portion of Section 5 changed in 2014. But the fact the act was in force from 1986 until 2014 says something. The fact that Dankula was fined at all was a travesty. How many comedians have made nazi jokes in england on film?

He refused to pay the fine, the fine was dismissed and the law was altered. This isn't a tale of a dystopia or a subversive government conspiracy to take away anyones rights, it was an ill thought out law that was adjusted when the consequences of the wording were highlighted.
I hope no comedians I'm fond of have made nazi jokes on film, but if they got fined £800 for it I wouldn't call that unreasonable.

It isn't a bad place to live, overall, from what I can tell. It's just seems like a nation for workaholics. :D

Compared to most countries, yes, I miss the 20-25 days of paid vacation a year from back in the UK. My American bosses however consider the holidays here to be too generous (at 0 the US is bottom of the ranking, the legally enforced paid vacation here is equal to the american average of 10-20 days depending on time with the company, but with an additional 16 public holidays).
 
*looks at the silly claim that US healthcare is the best in the world*

Health_systems_comparison_OECD_2008.png


The US, where public healthcare spending is twice as high as in other developed countries for several years lower life expectancy. The country with one of the lower life expectancy of the First World, and where life expectancy... is getting lower year after year:


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Fun fact: even if you're rich in the US, you'll live a shorter life than elsewhere, so it's not even a question of affording hospital care:


p2001cc0eg356001.jpg

The picture linked above shows life expectancy at age 50 for men and women of different countries according to their quintiles - the 20% categories from highest to lowest.

Problem with parroting FOX News propaganda is that the real world has actual sources instead.
 
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