The Goat Pen

We talked about this here before, right?

US government "You should build security backdoors into your technology for law enforcement"

Also US government ... https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-offici ... 56?mod=mhp

"In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Kennedy railed against the evils of “Paw Patrol’s” peppy team of first responder hounds, declaring them the real villains of the show because they don’t respect their local leaders."

The indictment of Marvel and DC comics is just around the corner. Who'll be the Batman of Batman??

"“I’ll start with the depiction of the state. Mayor Humdinger and Mayor Goodway—kind of the representatives of the state or the government—are portrayed negatively,” Kennedy railed. “Mayor Humdinger is portrayed as unethical or corrupt. Mayor Goodway as hysterical, bumbling, incompetent.”"

This doesn't sound good for Barney Fife...

Apple has done a good job of presenting to the public their defiance on this

I don't believe it for a second

I miss the good old days when ‘tick would update us on how the stock market was doing.

hedge wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 9:58 am Trump is going to pardon Stone (and everybody else) irregardless. If he doesn't win the election, he'll do it before he leaves office. If he does win, he'll do it sooner than that...

Just like I didn't (and still don't) think Trump ever wanted to be president and was just running for the free publicity he'd get, I wouldn't be surprised if he's thinking "fuck this shit, I'm the most famous man in the world now, far more famous than I even used to be, fuck all this question and answer bullshit, let me get back into private life and parlay this shit into billions." Now, I know he's an attention whore and I know he's probably worried about potential prosecutions that (evidently) cannot be brought against him while he's in office, but you know he has to be thinking about how much he can caaiiiish in on his massive fame right now. I mean, that's basically all he's ever done, and now he's increased that calling card by orders of magnitude. You thought Clinton and Obama parlayed their presidential fame into riches, you ain't seen nothing compared to what Trump's gonna do...

I agree with that

and honestly I hope the democrats keep the house, because a lame duck Trump is going to blow up the deficit, probably start a war and take out someone like Duerte in the phillipines over some slight.

but he'd still be a better president by far than any Democrat running (maybe not Tulsi Gabbard)

aTm wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 9:56 am Apparently, you're not safe from capitalist propaganda even in Canada

https://www.dailywire.com/news/leftist- ... propaganda

Also, reading that led me down a rabbit hole, where I learned (even from theoretically more mainstream sources) that not only are there people who think Paw Patrol is "divisive" and "polarizing" but also that it and Thomas the Tank Engine are "fascist"

https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/22/health/t ... index.html

"because a lame duck Trump is going to blow up the deficit"

Going to??? He done did that...

"but he'd still be a better president by far than any Democrat running"

I feel like any democrat running would be better by far than Trump. Hell, at this point I'd vote for Greta Thunberg/Al Sharpton over Trump/Bannon...

sardis wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 11:32 am I miss the good old days when ‘tick would update us on how the stock market was doing.

It was the best of times, sardis. Teapartiers left the market in droves when the black man took over the WH. Those of us that stayed got heavily rewarded.

Speaking of, I was sitting in a San Juan jazz restaurant last week, enjoying my meal and listening to Carli Munoz play the piano (it was his place btw), and suddenly everything went dark. Another rolling blackout, we were told. But the old guy kept on playing...he couldn't even see the keys. Later came the candles...but the darkness was pretty cool. As long as you know it's only temporary... ...

Tell that to Ray Charles...

hedge wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 12:50 pm "but he'd still be a better president by far than any Democrat running"

I feel like any democrat running would be better by far than Trump. Hell, at this point I'd vote for Greta Thunberg/Al Sharpton over Trump/Bannon...

how has your life become worse in the last 3 years under Trump?

My life hasn't changed in 50 years man, so I'm kinda not using "how was my life during his presidency" as a barometer of how effective any given president was...

hedge wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 2:16 pm My life hasn't changed in 50 years man, so I'm kinda not using "how was my life during his presidency" as a barometer of how effective any given president was...

many people do

Maybe one of the Bernie liberal misfits here at TGP could answer this.....

And anyway, it's not my life I'm worried about. I'm not some global warming hysteric but I do care about the environment and I do care (even more so) about our public lands. When your choices for Sec. of the Interior are guys with longstanding ties to the oil industry, both of whom rolled back all sorts of basic environmental and public lands (and waters) protections, and opened up an unprecedented amount of public lands (and offshore sites) to oil interests, that matters to me.

The Pruitt guy he tagged as head the EPA was a disaster as well. My brother was an EPA attorney in DC for several years, he was aghast at that choice. To say nothing of appointing Rick Perry, the guy who couldn't even name the Dept. of Energy as one of the federal departments that he would close down, as (you guessed it) Secretary of Energy (to say nothing about his involvement as one of the 3 amigos in the Ukraine fiasco, but that's a trifle I'm not even talking about here).

Trump has surrounded himself with the most venal, incompetent people who seem to not only not care about the departments they are ostensibly in charge of, but actually have outright disdain for the mission those departments are supposed to be overseeing. And that's just four. Every decent appointment he's made he's been dissatisfied with and eventually fired (or driven off). It's more than a pattern with this guy, it's just who he is.

I like a president who hires good people and lets them do their jobs, not somebody who clearly has ulterior motives that are not in line with the what I think should be the goals and the vision for those particular departments and hires people who will exploit those departments for purposes completely antithetical to their supposed purpose. But hey, as long as the stock market is up, who cares, right?

eCat wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 2:23 pm

hedge wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 2:16 pm My life hasn't changed in 50 years man, so I'm kinda not using "how was my life during his presidency" as a barometer of how effective any given president was...

many people do

Was your life really that much worse under Clinton or Obama than it is now?

crotch, Bernie is an independent and a socialist running in the dem primary. I have no clue what he's accomplished after 30 years in the Senate, other than managing to get re-elected that many times. If he ever accounts for that 29 trillion dollar hole in the middle of his grandiose budget plan I might pay more attention.

hedge wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 3:04 pm

eCat wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 2:23 pm

hedge wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 2:16 pm My life hasn't changed in 50 years man, so I'm kinda not using "how was my life during his presidency" as a barometer of how effective any given president was...

many people do

Was your life really that much worse under Clinton or Obama than it is now?

Clinton? no, but I was also 27'ish and making entry level money, so its really not comparable today.

Obama ? absolutely - his health care legislation added $5400 a year in deductibles to health care that wouldn't have existed otherwise. yes, I would have paid more in health care each year, but right off the bat, Obama wiped out 2 -3 years of pay raises for me to implement a poorly designed pet project for the benefit of about 11 million Americans.

He created a distribution of wealth that was not necessary just to get "landmark" legislation out under his watch.

I also remember people losing their minds under Reagan appointing James Watt as head of the EPA.

" But hey, as long as the stock market is up, who cares, right?"

half of all Americans working age have access to a 401K with about 90% participation rate.
then consider pension plans that invest in the stock market to cover gaps in contributions, 67% of unionized workers are covered by a pension and 13% of non unionized workers are - so roughly 70% of the American work force has their retirement livelihood tied to the performance of the stock market

so yea, that sentiment is correct.

I'm not trying to act like somebody who doesn't care about my personal bank account, but it really is about more than just money to me. I hope both of us die with money to spare and I suspect we will, so I'm just not that worried about how much is in the account when I'm gone. If there's still some there when I'm gone, that means there was enough while I was still here. In the big picture, it's going to be a piddling amount anyway, so whether I had $75,000 instead of $50,000 (or $750,000 instead of $500,000 (and keep adding zeroes to those two numbers as long as you like) in my bank account when I died doesn't really matter to me. FWIW, the stock market soared under Obama, too, far greater in percentage terms than under Trump...

As far as health care, I haven't been to the doctor in years, so that hasn't really affected me. I can't believe your company doesn't subsidize your health care. I work for some country grain company and I pay about $160 a month. How can your progressive high tech outfit not match that??