meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Considering that the majority in the house and the senate did not change hands and that we re-elected our president, Why are people excited?

If you ask me since the basic makeup didn't change why do people think these next four years will be any different then the last two years?

More over how do you you see it? Better?worse? the same? why?

The biggest single thing is being 4 years further from the market meltdown.  Maybe some positive momentum can be found.

I don't think anyone in DC can fix the economy.  Our economy is not designed to be fixed.  JR has some good posts about this.  Even though we may be on opposite sides of the spectrum, I respect and agree with a good bit of his writing on this.

For some people social issues matter more, and social issues took a huge step in a positive direction yesterday.  For example, my dogsitter/friend has been in a loving an committed relationship for over 15 years yet she is unable to receive certain benefits because of her/their non marital status.  This DOES effect them, everyday in ways you don't even think of.  They are denied a basic RIGHT based on hate and prejudice.  As it stands right now that will come to an end on December 6th.  THAT is a reason to dance in the streets, and tonight when it's confirmed, we will.

The rest of it...well that's political.  Some things that BOTH party's do change peoples lives for the better or worse.  Healthcare, Education, War....just because they don't effect your life, doesn't mean it won't effect others.  But that's a political debate that I have no energy for post election.

Oh ya and I can smoke pot legally now I suppose?

Mike

pucho812 said:

If you ask me since the basic makeup didn't change why do people think these next four years will be any different then the last two years?

Click to expand...

http://rt.com/usa/news/obama-caught-medvedev-president-502/

For one thing that might be different.

He was caught whispering to the Russian President Dmitri Medvedev “This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility,”

It would appear from his comment that he has been on some kind of good behavior to not damage his re-election chances. Now that worrying about what voters might think is no longer a consideration, he is free to do what he pleases.

I am not smart enough to predict what that might be. I was already dissatisfied with him being "good".

Of course it's also possible he was deceiving the Russian President with some veiled promise of future accommodation, that he wouldn't have to deliver if he didn't get re-elected.

Whatever, decide for yourselves. 

JR

#echo... indeed DC can't fix the economy, but they could stop harming it.

Interesting John. I am with you dc could do things to not harm the economy.

TV wasn't vagina dentata a police album?

pucho812 said:

TV wasn't vagina dentata a police album?

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Ha ha that was a good one

pucho812 said:

TV wasn't vagina dentata a police album?

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No, no ... and no.

It was "Vaginyatta Dentatta".

A completelly different animal.

Echo North said:

I don't think anyone in DC can fix the economy.  Our economy is not designed to be fixed.  JR has some good posts about this.  Even though we may be on opposite sides of the spectrum, I respect and agree with a good bit of his writing on this.

For some people social issues matter more, and social issues took a huge step in a positive direction yesterday.  For example, my dogsitter/friend has been in a loving an committed relationship for over 15 years yet she is unable to receive certain benefits because of her/their non marital status.  This DOES effect them, everyday in ways you don't even think of.  They are denied a basic RIGHT based on hate and prejudice.  As it stands right now that will come to an end on December 6th.  THAT is a reason to dance in the streets, and tonight when it's confirmed, we will.

The rest of it...well that's political.  Some things that BOTH party's do change peoples lives for the better or worse.  Healthcare, Education, War....just because they don't effect your life, doesn't mean it won't effect others.  But that's a political debate that I have no energy for post election.

Oh ya and I can smoke pot legally now I suppose?

Mike

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Damn mike, I'm going to have to bring my pitbull and move to your neck of the woods..
Hagaha...
Myke

SubhumanRecords said:

Damn mike, I'm going to have to bring my pitbull and move to your neck of the woods..
Hagaha...
Myke

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HaHa.  You can join our "walk-a-bulls" weekend walking group.

It'll be very interesting to see how the legalization of marijuana plays out with the feds.

Echo North said:

It'll be very interesting to see how the legalization of marijuana plays out with the feds.

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Can you list it at your store now? Hehe  ???

jsteiger said:

Echo North said:

It'll be very interesting to see how the legalization of marijuana plays out with the feds.

Click to expand...

Can you list it at your store now? Hehe  ???

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Haha.  Gonna need to make a new "category". 

I heard today that the state is moving forward with setting up retail licenses and such unless the justice dept raises a challenge (which they may not).  Gonna be real interesting on Dec 6th.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019631839_marijuanafolo08.html

We have reversed ourselves before at the federal level on alcohol prohibition, and marijuana seems no more dangerous than alcohol. Pass an amendment. It would be good to stop/slow all the revenue flowing to drug cartels from their illegal activity.

I saw the marijuana legalization campaigns more as an effective way to turn out the youth vote that generally favors Obama and who wouldn't be as enthusiastic this time around. The youth demographic was not the decisive factor, more likely the latino vote that was larger this time and decidedly voted for Obama.

Romney could have blunted that latino advantage by nominating Rubio for VP, but hindsight is way tooooo easy. I think Ryan would have been a great VP if he won, for working after he won to help clean up the fiscal policy mess. but first you must win. doh

====
I am a vocal proponent of the electoral college to make close races appear less close, to prevent public foment. The winner should be careful about actually "believing" a win with such a narrow popular vote is any kind of a mandate. While they will surely claim it.

Looking at a red/blue map by county instead of state suggests that if the electoral vote was parsed more granularly, say down to county level. The outcome would have been way different the other way. Of course this would not survive adjustment of the county definitions, should they gain more electoral weighting (google="gerrymandering"- the political actors would game the county borders too).

The democrats now own this train wreck, lock stock and barrel (well maybe not the barrel). It did start under Bush's watch, even though he had a democratic congress his last two years that thwarted republican attempts to address the excesses of Fannie and Freddie, before the sh__ hit the fan, but were blocked from even holding a vote in committee about it (good riddance Barney Frank).

This next few months will be very interesting as it will take legislators on both sides of the aisle changing their spots to negotiate a solution to the impending legislative deadlines and subsequent downturn if.when they don't.

Interesting times....  I wouldn't count on a strong recovery in 2013, even if they kick the pending tax rate expiration down the road. There are several factors in the private sector looking better (housing and big banks-not small banks), DC still does not have their spending act together, so the golden goose is still down and struggling. 

Iran is somewhat relieved, but maybe they shouldn't be.

JR

JohnRoberts said:

Looking at a red/blue map by county instead of state suggests that if the electoral vote was parsed more granularly, say down to county level. The outcome would have been way different the other way.

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I've seen this map and I really don't get the point.  Ultimately is shows population distribution.  Remember Obama still won the popular vote, maybe by as much as 3-4% in the end.  If you spread people out evenly over the country, it would sill be more blue.

Luckily we don't elect leaders based on sq/ft.

Mike

I think the first thing Obama should do is give the Republicans heath care reform. Since it's basically a Heritage Foundation plan as it stands the Republicans should be able to get behind it with some rhetorical slight of hand. Grease the wheels a little.

Echo North said:

JohnRoberts said:

Looking at a red/blue map by county instead of state suggests that if the electoral vote was parsed more granularly, say down to county level. The outcome would have been way different the other way.

Click to expand...

I've seen this map and I really don't get the point.  Ultimately is shows population distribution.  Remember Obama still won the popular vote, maybe by as much as 3-4% in the end.  If you spread people out evenly over the country, it would sill be more blue.

Luckily we don't elect leaders based on sq/ft.

Mike

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Did you mean population density?

It's just an observation not a suggestion. Indeed vote should not be weighted by square miles, just interesting that population dense urban areas are so dominantly blue and population sparse (fly-over) country areas red. 
=====

The pending deadlines I mentioned will come soon enough in real time. The time to warn about them has pretty much past. 

Good luck to us all.

JR

Gold said:

I think the first thing Obama should do is give the Republicans heath care reform. Since it's basically a Heritage Foundation plan as it stands the Republicans should be able to get behind it with some rhetorical slight of hand. Grease the wheels a little.

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Come on guys, I have real work to do and the election is over..

OK I googled heritage foundation  & healthcare recommendations and came up with this http://www.heritage.org/research/projects/the-case-against-obamacare

heritage said said:

The unmistakable conclusion of this series is that Obamacare must be fully repealed.

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This supposed reform we have, is just typical legislative suspension of reality...  expanding coverage, and mandating low prices, as if individuals will not still act in their own self interest. healthcare costs will probably increase even faster if this is not fixed, and I don't feel very lucky.

The odds of significant correction of the major shortcomings for another few years looks unlikely, so Obama-care related tax increases will start kicking in, and the unintended consequences will hit small business pretty hard.

I agree that the republicans are probably better equipped to fix this mess, but republican proposals (like toirt reform, etc) were summarily rejected during the framing of this. Now the republicans do not have the backing of the senate and Chief executive, so they can only attempt to de-fund some of the most onerous spending associated with this but that is far from productive good governance.

The public signed on for this (however narrowly), so I fear they (we) will now have to pay for what they bought...

JR

Yes density sorry.

As a "city-slicker" I do not find it shocking that the more dense and diverse (race, income, sexuality) a population becomes, the more liberal it gets.  When the social agenda (immigration, class, sexuality, women's rights... ) of a party directly effects (affects?) your neighbors, co-works, and friends you find it hard to believe in the rest of their agenda.  Romney's sudden right turn on immigration in the primary probably cost him this election and I'm not sure it was even needed.  If I recall, Bush was actually quite moderate on immigration reform.

Mike (american for 2 days now)
 

JohnRoberts said:

Come on guys, I have real work to do and the election is over..

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+1 

You have to admit for as diverse a group that we have here, we discuss things in a very civil manner.  The problem is smart people like us don't run for office!

Hell if jsteiger can be good pals, anything is possible!

JohnRoberts said:

OK I googled heritage foundation  & healthcare recommendations and came up with this http://www.heritage.org/research/projects/the-case-against-obamacare

Click to expand...

They are a partisan conservative group and also came up with the intellectual fire power to oppose Obamacare. They were also the ones who came up with the idea of private insurance pools instead of single payer to cover everyone and reduce costs via the free market. Romney got his plan from the Heritage Foundation.