The Good Post Gallery

[opebo]

chill out bro.

I was kidding, really.  I'd actually like to hear about your predilection, it sounds fascinating.  I'm usually most interested in things that aren't really my cup of tea.

[opebo]

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Sig material.

Only majority and/or people with power can be racist. (South Africa and a couple other countries in it's vicinity are examples of minority racists).

[opebo]

Romney is no McCain and does not deserve these numbers... Frankly, Obama has been as committed to veterans as any of his predecessors

[opebo]

OK, I'm obviously grading on a curve here, but Naso sometimes produces absolutely lucid, factually correct, and intelligent posts:

Yes, but my definition of 'Big Mo' is something that moves the polls by one point or more. Because our electorate just isn't very elastic anymore. Which means that 'Big Mo' is a necessary, not a sufficient condition for Romney victory.

A week ago this race was trouble for Romney. Now, we have a shot at winning Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Iowa and even Colorado with Pennsylvania and Michigan looking tough but much closer.

I'd venture a guess that if the election were held today, which I understand it's not but still, Romney could win the McCain states plus Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio and Virginia. That sits him at 266. One other state and he is elected President.

That's a fantastic position to be in less than a month away from the election, especially when you spent all of September looking like toast.

[opebo]

The largest air blitz in history against the strongest ground network in history. However, the underdog Democrats will hold against the Koch/Adelson juggernaut, just as little England weathered the Nazi storm.

[opebo]

I've been hard on Tweed about this kind of thing - as hard as any of you, despite my fondness for the lad.  But this attempt I liked.  Perhaps its just that its dumbed down a bit (that's self deprecation, yes) from the usual arty stream-of-consciousness schtick.

Better off going to Thailand.

Eastern Europe, better -- the fantasy of taking the 16 year old peasant girl straight off the farm.

how do you get her to lose the restraint?  a frightening number of heterosexual relationships are not partnerships between equals, I learn this every day canvassing, and the nature of this particular fantasy would only serve to exacerbate the effect.

say everything works out: I get my $1m, hide it sufficently to keep it from governments and whoever else, and 'acquire' a reverse-mail-order bride, call her Alicja.  she's a virgin, of course, or at least that is what I am sold and I make no move to falsify it.  everything goes well, I'm in backwoods Poland, cheap vodka reigns, the world-weary bearded Tweed and Alicja, who went from 100-hour weeks of backbreaking labor to this strange life of leisure in no-time.

...I see her as timid, avoiding my glance, blushing furiously.  so anxiety-ridden she can't boil pasta correctly.  always willing to give in to my advances, but never daring to initiate any of her own... what I would do, for just that once!  for Alicia, to desire me, not to need me, but to desire me!  and to draw her ire in a matter!  when I cross her, for her to call me on it!  for her to be FURIOUS at me, the man who saved her from a life of anonymous ruin!  and then to cuddle with her after we've made-up, to see a tired, satisfied, knowing and calm gleam emanating from her eyes, knowing she has something on me, too...

[opebo]

Looking at the polls from Ohio and Virginia the past couple days, I don't think anyone has to worry about what to do if Romney wins.

[opebo]

It's because Berkeley is corrupt and unlikable, which makes me like her more to be honest.

Women need to play by the same rules as men so it's just refreshing is all.

[opebo]

Glad I'm not the only one that loves super corrupt and "unlikeable" Democrats. They're some of my favorite politicians!

I love them.  Though that wasn't the only reason that was a good post - to me it was the most muscular kind of feminism - when a woman can embrace being a powerful villain. 

[opebo]

I love them.  Though that wasn't the only reason that was a good post - to me it was the most muscular kind of feminism - when a woman can embrace being a powerful villain. 

I just learned that my 'step-grandfather' was on trial for criminal conspiracy re: the Garment Workers union in the early 80s.

That's fantastic!  I have two close friends with familial connections to two different ancient but not entirely defunct mobs, and my own father was thought to be a designate of another (though he wasn't at all, just a man who knew and even met with their representatives, and the fact that they refrained from crushing him gave him cachet).

[opebo]

...what BRTD once was to opebo?

[opebo]

My take:

1. It used to be understood that Latinos were far poorer than the US average. But there is now a large Latino middle class heavily urban and well-educated, effectively an intelligentsia. It remains able to connect with not-so-rich Latinos, much unlike middle-class white intelligentsia who can't relate effectively to poor whites. (Non-white and non-Christian intelligentsia also contrast in their political influence toward the poor of their own ethnicity and religion to white people). Such makes a huge difference in political realities between white Christians and about every other economic group in voting.

2. Latinos remain majority-Catholic. To be sure the Religious Right has made some headway into the Latino population, but not enough to break the Catholic culture. The Catholic Church is quite rational  -- much more than is so for Protestant Fundamentalists -- on science and history. Poor Catholic Latinos, unlike Protestant Fundamentalists of similar economic achievement, more respect formal education. The difference in valuation of education between Latinos and Anglo whites in the lower strata of economic achievement makes a huge difference in political attitudes. Latinos see formal education and the government necessary for it vital to their dreams; Anglo whites, to the extent that they are Protestant Fundamentalists, see formal education as a threat to their culture as well as part of the 'problem' of Big Government spending.

Poor white Protestant Fundamentalists, who at times have been exemplars of populist tendencies that go far to the Left, are now about as Right-leaning as the Master Class of tycoons, executives, and big landowners who can reach out to such people as they cannot reach out to the middle class.   

4. Although President Obama is clearly non-Hispanic, he is capable of playing to non-white, non-Christian, and non-Anglo populations very well. He has assimilated into the black middle class, but its values are close to those of the Latino middle class. Bingo!         

[opebo]

Yeah, but the real question for 2016 is whether Obama's coalition turns out for all future democratic candidates or whether his coalition recedes back into the shadows with a Biden or Clinton candidacy.  I also wonder if the black vote holds up for say the fake Obama down in Texas, Julian Castro.  By the way, are there any VP's who have lost their party's nomination once they chose to run?

My hunch is that Obama built a coalition for himself and that it won't be nearly as strong in the next election, especially when faced with a Rubio/Martinez (or vice versa).

I agree. I think the coalition is Obama's coalition, not the Democrat's.

Somebody owes me $10, the "those people will never turn up in 2016" argument from the GOP is what I was expecting to emerge in late 2015... so congrats on being early.

[opebo]

That sounds like a slight variation on the "Real America" of Sarah Palin. Republicans make a huge mistake by demonizing urban America -- which now increasingly includes Suburbia as it takes on urban characteristics. The great urban areas have the high-cost infrastructure and high-cost public services. A four-lane freeway that exists in rural areas so that it can connect Louisville and Cleveland is superfluous for local needs... but it is wholly inadequate in Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus, or Cleveland. Small towns can pay teachers and cops badly by big-city standards because of a lack of alternatives... but in a great city teachers have the ideal skill set for selling big-ticket objects and cops have to be paid well enough so that they don't become de facto parts of the payroll of criminal gangs. Want good roads, good teachers, and honest cops? You have to pay for those if you live in a city.

Such is one of the divides between rural and urban America. A century-old house in a small town might be one of the finest buildings in town and well taken care of. In a giant city it is probably a slum subdivided into apartments similar in size to prison cells.  In a city one needs to take a pooper-scooper along if one walks the dog. Deep in farm country? Nobody will ever know where your dog defecates.

The Republicans miss something that Barack Obama has caught onto: that Suburbia is becoming legitimately urban in its problems, including decaying infrastructure. Note well that the post-WWII suburban sprawl is approaching 70. Think of what is happening to all those once-new sewers and streets built to last a lifetime. The lifetimes of the people who first bought into that suburban sprawl are mostly no longer living. 

[opebo]

The judge should turn over the factories to the worker.

[opebo]

Seatown is great:

"Humiliation of the working class hits a new level" - should be the title.

The sore loser is the guy who got the tattoo on his face.

I believe Romney is the sore loser, this guy is just a loser.

[opebo]

Of course. America is a very simple beast that will readily and enthusiastically allow its handlers to return to the same poisonous trough time and again. Our collective economic thinking has been so restricted to think that what happens in our economy is natural and capitalism at its best. Booms and busts are created and we keep feeding into them without questioning them. And as long as people are led to believe that they are also benefiting and that the boom will never end, they'll keep jumping for joy every time they make a little imaginary money. Meanwhile the people fueling this make billions and continue to hoard it while demonizing those who want a healthy economy as anti-job commies. But we never learn...

[opebo]

The old theological debates between jmfcst and supersoulty were the best.

Thank you, angus, for revealing the futility of this thread, or the discussion of any 'favorites of the forum' or even discussion of the quality of the forum in general - because the forum is a shadow of its former self.

Yes, there are still worthies here in shadow form, but after one of the pantheon was ripped out for nothing - just to demonstrate the power - well, here we all are.  Sad days.

rip jfcmts

Thanks lief, perhaps not surprisingly, the censors removed the original post - apparently it is 'trolling' to remember the purges they committed in the past.

jmfcst is to removed from history by the Ministry of Truth.

[opebo]

The old theological debates between jmfcst and supersoulty were the best.

Thank you, angus, for revealing the futility of this thread, or the discussion of any 'favorites of the forum' or even discussion of the quality of the forum in general - because the forum is a shadow of its former self.

Yes, there are still worthies here in shadow form, but after one of the pantheon was ripped out for nothing - just to demonstrate the power - well, here we all are.  Sad days.

rip jfcmts

Thanks lief, perhaps not surprisingly, the censors removed the original post - apparently it is 'trolling' to remember the purges they committed in the past.

jmfcst is to removed from history by the Ministry of Truth.

You got death points for that?

That's right, five death points for remembering.

[opebo]

That's right, five death points for remembering.

Can the mods come and justify this? Because the way opebo puts it, it sounds really irrational. I'm sure there's a logical explanation for this.

They don't want jmfcst or what was done to him talked about, Simfan.  It is quite rational/logical.

[opebo]

xhamster is great.

Yeah seems to be the best one, but was blocked here in Thailand for years.. however sometimes it is unblocked for a few days, for whatever reason.. like today and yesterday.

[opebo]

opebo?  You would subject yourself to the laws of a society that would find it necessary block xhamster?  I would guess the availability of cheap Thai hookers would eliminate the need for porn to a degree, though.   

Yeah, of course.  Not just cheap but much more appealing than back home.

[opebo]

The problem is that a security guard who is effective in the rare situation where he is needed, but is not a pompous nuisance, a detriment to your business, and frankly a minor danger to customers is very hard to find and deserves a much higher salary than he is going to get.

[opebo]

Current DUI/DWI penalties are fine.

you support coerced 12-step participation for non-addicts and non-alcoholics?

Coerced therapy is useless to its nominal aims and not really any sort of therapy at all, but it feeds a lot of people (and feeds them well) out of the public purse without officially swelling the ranks of government employees. Besides, it's cheaper than jailing middle class offenders and preserves their respectability. From the point of view of bourgeois democracy, it's a win-win-win-win.

[opebo]

OK here's an experiment, translate this awesome and classic opebo post into both Polish and Czech and compare:

No, no, no.  If you are a poor, and you have a job at the Electric Company, you stay there, and say 'yes sir' and 'no sir, and just batten down the hatches and wait.  It will all be over soon enough.  No need to rush it by getting conned up the a**s by some Kiwi b******s and ending up living under a bridge.

Seriously, I know poors who work at the Power Company (true they're from the previous unionized generations so they made $70,000/year, but still), and they survived.  Every one of them - and they will get to die in hospitals with medical treatments.  Yes, Public Utilities are not government jobs, but they're the next best thing.

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...Looks pretty different to me actually.