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US Federal Government Shutdown | Shutdown Shutdown, Debt Ceiling Raised

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Here's another question:

What caused the financial collapse in 2008? a.) Too much regulation of banks or b.) too little

C) Collusion between the lawmaking bodies and banks, featuring algorithms written by some of the most brilliant minds in the world to mask the smell of shit in derivative trading.

Could have regulated that shit all you want. Ultimately, a lot of money would have changed hands anyway.
 
C) Collusion between the lawmaking bodies and banks, featuring algorithms written by some of the most brilliant minds in the world to mask the smell of shit in derivative trading.

Could have regulated that shit all you want. Ultimately, a lot of money would have changed hands anyway.

In other words, it was a failure of capitalism.
 
C) Collusion between the lawmaking bodies and banks, featuring algorithms written by some of the most brilliant minds in the world to mask the smell of shit in derivative trading.

Could have regulated that shit all you want. Ultimately, a lot of money would have changed hands anyway.
So why was Canada mostly unaffected?
 
So why was Canada mostly unaffected?

Well, they do have the safest banks in the world. Based on your question to Maxim, you already knew this.

http://www.thestar.com/business/2012/04/11/canadian_banks_the_safest_in_the_world_moodys_says.html

“The combination of strong underlying credit fundamentals, a prudent regulatory environment, sound government fiscal management policies, and a more stable real estate market have all contributed to the superior standing of Canada’s banks.

Canada’s big banks suffered no failures during the financial crisis in 2008.
 
C) Collusion between the lawmaking bodies and banks, featuring algorithms written by some of the most brilliant minds in the world to mask the smell of shit in derivative trading.

Could have regulated that shit all you want. Ultimately, a lot of money would have changed hands anyway.

First part is true.
Second I don't really agree with. Had Glass Steagull still been in place, the impact might have been lessened.

"At the time, "improper banking activity," or what was considered overzealous commercial bank involvement in stock market investment, was deemed the main culprit of the financial crash."-sound familiar?


http://www.investopedia.com/articles/03/071603.asp
 
I just had one hell of a conversation with a friend-of-a-friend on Facebook, who called the ACA "a greater threat to individual freedom than any law ever enacted in this country."

When I pointed out slavery, Jim Crow, et cetera, his response?

Fucking Idiot said:
[Bertram], The laws you speak of robbed "some" people of any once of human freedom. The ACA sets the precedent that "all" Americans may be required/mandated/forced to purchase something against their will. If you cannot see the incredible danger that represents to each and every American from this time forward, I simply cannot make you see it, but that doesn't mean the danger isn't real. The scope of the precedent ACA represents in crushing human freedom is unprecedented in this country, and that is why I believe it is the most dangerous piece of legislation ever passed in the history of this country.

Fucking idiot said:
Please don't twist my words to make me something I am not. I am a champion of human freedom. I am appalled whenever our government or any government crushes the God given freedom of any human being. My point is that there is a difference in scale between "some" Americans having their freedom taken away and "all" Americans having their freedom taken away.

Holy shit. This shit was bananas. I'd post the whole thing, but it would take an awful long time to cut out all of the names.
 
I just had one hell of a conversation with a friend-of-a-friend on Facebook, who called the ACA "a greater threat to individual freedom than any law ever enacted in this country."

When I pointed out slavery, Jim Crow, et cetera, his response?





Holy shit. This shit was bananas. I'd post the whole thing, but it would take an awful long time to cut out all of the names.
What a dickbag
 
I just had one hell of a conversation with a friend-of-a-friend on Facebook, who called the ACA "a greater threat to individual freedom than any law ever enacted in this country."

When I pointed out slavery, Jim Crow, et cetera, his response?





Holy shit. This shit was bananas. I'd post the whole thing, but it would take an awful long time to cut out all of the names.
How does he feel about taxes? I mean, aren't we all 'forced' to pay taxes; where is the freedom man?!
 
I just had one hell of a conversation with a friend-of-a-friend on Facebook, who called the ACA "a greater threat to individual freedom than any law ever enacted in this country."

When I pointed out slavery, Jim Crow, et cetera, his response?





Holy shit. This shit was bananas. I'd post the whole thing, but it would take an awful long time to cut out all of the names.

Someone's been watching Fox News. A Republican said the same thing recently.

He must also forget that fact that you are required to have a drivers license to drive, required to have some form of insurance on your car, required to pay taxes...

Oh, and he invoked Godwin's law!
 
Hitler was small potatoes. At least he only rounded up and killed some citizens. And he only invaded some other countries. It's not like Obamacare, which affects everyone, or like the UN which wants to boss around every country.
 
I just had one hell of a conversation with a friend-of-a-friend on Facebook, who called the ACA "a greater threat to individual freedom than any law ever enacted in this country."

When I pointed out slavery, Jim Crow, et cetera, his response?





Holy shit. This shit was bananas. I'd post the whole thing, but it would take an awful long time to cut out all of the names.
Wow, I don't think I could have kept my cool talking to some one like that. Jim Crow and slavery wasn't so bad... It was only blacks! Besides, access to healthcare is obviously 10x worse than anything slaves had to endure... Open your eyes Bertram!

Edit: Missed the Hitler update :lol
 
I just had one hell of a conversation with a friend-of-a-friend on Facebook, who called the ACA "a greater threat to individual freedom than any law ever enacted in this country."

When I pointed out slavery, Jim Crow, et cetera, his response?





Holy shit. This shit was bananas. I'd post the whole thing, but it would take an awful long time to cut out all of the names.
I avoid engaging with these kinds of people like the plague. There's no point, they're brainwashed, and it just puts knots in my stomach being reminded that the country is filled with people this dangerously dumb.
 
I avoid engaging with these kinds of people like the plague. There's no point, they're brainwashed, and it just puts knots in my stomach being reminded that the country is filled with people this dangerously dumb.

I normally don't unless directly engaged, but after a long week of work, it was actually quite cathartic to reveal this person as the complete fucktard that he is.
 
I normally don't unless directly engaged, but after a long week of work, it was actually quite cathartic to reveal this person as the complete fucktard that he is.

The futility just makes it not worth it for me. You can occasionally sway someone's perspective if you're both level headed and have a long time to discuss things. Engaging like that is just demoralizing because I know there's nothing I can say to get through to them
 
The futility just makes it not worth it for me. You can occasionally sway someone's perspective if you're both level headed and have a long time to discuss things. Engaging like that is just demoralizing because I know there's nothing I can say to get through to them

I didn't really want to get through to him. I just wanted to make him look as crazy and stupid as I possibly could. And he didn't disappoint.
 
Haha yeah what the guys who wrote the Constitution considered a feature, you call a loophole.

It's a loophole. The constitution operates under the mantra of majority rule, minority rights. It's why basically everything explicitly written down in the constitution regarding the passing of any law or constitutional amendment involves majority consent.

The situation we're in spawns from an extremely vocal loud minority shutting down government not through vote, but by essentially refusing to their jobs. In this case, they refuse to do their job of passing a budget. This wasn't a "feature", because this isn't minority rights, it's minority rule.
 
I just had one hell of a conversation with a friend-of-a-friend on Facebook, who called the ACA "a greater threat to individual freedom than any law ever enacted in this country."

When I pointed out slavery, Jim Crow, et cetera, his response?





Holy shit. This shit was bananas. I'd post the whole thing, but it would take an awful long time to cut out all of the names.

Dude's a champion of false equivalence if anything.
 
Spotted in an Alaska National Weather Service forecast...

bfsFYhT.jpg
 
The futility just makes it not worth it for me. You can occasionally sway someone's perspective if you're both level headed and have a long time to discuss things. Engaging like that is just demoralizing because I know there's nothing I can say to get through to them

Sometimes crazy can be engaged for the benefit of others. It useful not to allow publicly displayed political craziness to stand unchallenged.
 
Sometimes crazy can be engaged for the benefit of others. It useful not to allow publicly displayed political craziness to stand unchallenged.

agree. Every now and then I get into it with assholes on facebook, knowing hell will freeze over before these people change their mind- but it always draws an audience, plenty of "likes" and the occasional PM or friend request.
 
RIght wingers piss me off so much. They have this combination of batshit craziness with the religion stuff, sense of cultural entitlement because they want a society where white, religious people are dominant again, and blatant corrupt shilling for big corporations (not that the dems are great on this one either). The government shutdown encapsulates all of these.
 
So realistically, does this have a chance of actually working?

By that point, I sure hope this is all over (doesn't everybody?), but a discharge petition would take some commitment from individual GOP members, since the main fear is being called out as a renegade to the party.

The procedure didn't always work this way. The original form was designed as kind of a non-partisan safety valve where members could file a petition against the leadership in anonymity, but there was a rule change in 1993 that made all names on the petition public information.

Wikipedia has a brief summary:

Under the old system, if a petition was unsuccessful, the leadership would never know if a particular Representative signed the petition. If it was successful, all the "defectors" would at least be in the same boat. With open signing, the leadership can exert maximum pressure on stopping the last few signatures. Those who make the last few signatures open themselves to especially severe payback, as early signers could argue privately that they were only posturing, and didn't think the petition would ever pass.

Wikipedia also says the guy who pushed for the rule change was then Representative Jim Inhofe, who is now the Republican Senator from Oklahoma.

The history of the procedure is worth reading up on, since it was first used by a (then) progressive Republican caucus against a old line Republican Speaker.
 
This is the guy who wrote the letter to Boehner saying they should shut the government down several months ago. Thanks to Rachel Maddow who covered this tonight:

First it was Stutzman with this gem:

We’re not going to be disrespected,” Stutzman said. “We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.”

And then we get this:

https://soundcloud.com/toddzwillich-1/meadows1-shutdown-wav

Its so sad these guys have no idea why the government is shut down. LOL
 
Oh god.

Fucking idiot said:
[Bertram], currently, the ACA isn't proven to be as bad or worse than slavery; however, I believe only a very short sighted person would fail to acknowledge the future potential for the ACA precedent to be a very dangerous power in the hands of some future President or Congress.

This fucking guy.
 
Oh god.



This fucking guy.
I think I understand his thought process:

1. The ACA FORCES EVERYONE to buy something they don't want.
2. Because of this the government will be able to FORCE EVERYONE to do ANYTHING it wants.

I think he literally believes the ACA will be the catalyst for Hitler 2.0 and doesn't realize for even a nanosecond how astronomically far that leap in logic is.
 
Oh god.



This fucking guy.

I honestly cannot tell if these people in the GOP are legitimately mentally deranged or if they're just trying their damndest to put the worst spin they possibly can on this stuff knowing full well their constituents are dumb enough to buy into it. I kind of want it to be the latter because it's truly frightening to think people this shitballs crazy can climb so high in our government.
 
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