The Goat Pen

sardis wrote:Obama has increased the debt $9 Trillion over 7 years. Didn't notice any alarm from you about that.

bluetick wrote:The Donald will renegotiate the U.S. debt with our creditors, getting them to accept dimes on the dollars. He's worked those kinds of deals many times. Granted, the outcomes weren't always tremendous...but he didn't have nukes in his back pocket back then.

Were I British, I'd probably have voted to Remain. But it's not hard to understand being pissed off at being subject to unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels. Nor is it hard to imagine the post-Brexit backlash confirming every suspicion you might have about the people who run the EU.

Imagine having pundits and professors suggest you should have your voting rights curtailed because you voted Leave. Now imagine these same people are calling voters like you "children," and castigating you for being insufficiently appreciative of, say, the joys of submitting to a European Supreme Court that claims primacy over the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights.

The overall message in every case is the same: Let us handle things.

But whatever, let's assume that the Brexit voters, like Trump voters, are wrong, ignorant, dangerous and unjustified.

Even stipulating to that, the reaction to both Brexit and Trump reveals a problem potentially more serious than either Brexit or the Trump campaign. It's become perilously fashionable all over the Western world to reach for non-democratic solutions whenever society drifts in a direction people don't like. Here in America the problem is snowballing on both the right and the left.

Whether it's Andrew Sullivan calling for Republican insiders to rig the nomination process to derail Trump's candidacy, or Democratic Party lifers like Peter Orszag arguing that Republican intransigence in Congress means we should turn more power over to "depoliticized commissions," the instinct to act by diktat surfaces quite a lot these days.

aTm wrote:

bluetick wrote:The Donald will renegotiate the U.S. debt with our creditors, getting them to accept dimes on the dollars. He's worked those kinds of deals many times. Granted, the outcomes weren't always tremendous...but he didn't have nukes in his back pocket back then.

So he's gonna threaten to nuke US banks, government pensions, and mutual funds who hold treasuries, if they dont agree to renegotiate? Bold move Cotton.

hedge wrote:"Thankfully, the chances of that happening in our lifetimes are slim."

What are the chances you'll get slim in our lifetimes?

bluetick wrote:I grew up 10 minutes from the atomic city, Oak Ridge TN, so I was raised to love the bomb. We cheered at all the wrong parts of Dr. Strangelove.

Bklyn wrote:Taibbi... http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ne ... d-20160627

Were I British, I'd probably have voted to Remain. But it's not hard to understand being pissed off at being subject to unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels. Nor is it hard to imagine the post-Brexit backlash confirming every suspicion you might have about the people who run the EU.

Imagine having pundits and professors suggest you should have your voting rights curtailed because you voted Leave. Now imagine these same people are calling voters like you "children," and castigating you for being insufficiently appreciative of, say, the joys of submitting to a European Supreme Court that claims primacy over the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights.

The overall message in every case is the same: Let us handle things.

But whatever, let's assume that the Brexit voters, like Trump voters, are wrong, ignorant, dangerous and unjustified.

Even stipulating to that, the reaction to both Brexit and Trump reveals a problem potentially more serious than either Brexit or the Trump campaign. It's become perilously fashionable all over the Western world to reach for non-democratic solutions whenever society drifts in a direction people don't like. Here in America the problem is snowballing on both the right and the left.

Whether it's Andrew Sullivan calling for Republican insiders to rig the nomination process to derail Trump's candidacy, or Democratic Party lifers like Peter Orszag arguing that Republican intransigence in Congress means we should turn more power over to "depoliticized commissions," the instinct to act by diktat surfaces quite a lot these days.

eCat wrote:

bluetick wrote:I grew up 10 minutes from the atomic city, Oak Ridge TN, so I was raised to love the bomb. We cheered at all the wrong parts of Dr. Strangelove.

10 minutes from Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant