4 ms·

p.s. Ajit Pai is a puppet

by mbloom1915 10y ago

EGreg 10y ago
Why do Republicans really seem terrible? The party of hypocrisy - eg had only one 9/11 commission but ten Benghazi commissions, or eg cared about deficits only when Democratic president is in power Gerrymandering (REDMAP) Threatened US default over debt ceiling Wanted to gut ethics committee as soon as they could Refused to hold a vote on a supreme court justice indefinitely as long as a Democrat president nominated him/her Told CBO not to calculate cost of repealing Obamacare Want to roll back civil rights of gays Want to roll back environmental protections Want to make coal and fossil fuels win over clean energy, are angry about investment in green energy Want to roll back privacy and net neutrality Want to use taxpayer money to expand the army already past ridiculous levels Are angry about universal healthcare even though rest of the developed world has it and has cheaper better outcomes What is the explanation for why they seem to be against everything that a person would normally consider good? I realize they say they want personal freedom and smaller government. But then they want to expand the army, keep increasing fossil fuel subsidies, etc. And when someone is incompetent, they seem applaud it... they seem to be against college education, teaching evolution, skeptical of global warming to the end, etc. and (with some exceptions) are ok with Donald Trump's blundering and appointments of people to agencies who have explicitly said in the past they want those agencies eliminated. Why? Am I really being partisan and Democrats break just as many rules? I just don't see it. Both parties have their problems but Democrats seem to at least care about competence and fairness while Republicans honestly seem to find new rules to break all the time, on top of everything I mentioned above. And then when the Democrats follow suit they get upset.
- arca_vorago 10y ago
  Yes you are being partisan and not seeing how the D's do the same things. If I wasn't on mobile I'd explain more in detail, but essentially its a corruption, oligarchy, corporatacracy problem that transcends parties.
  - wry_discontent 10y ago
    I sincerely hope you come back to explain in some more detail, because this sounds like a bullshit claim to me. The Democrats aren't the ideal ruling party, but they are not nearly as bad as the Republican party. I wouldn't say they're even in the same ballpark.
  - EGreg 10y ago
    Me too, I would love to see the same list but for Democrats.
- sxates 10y ago
  Because they're anti-abortion, they get an enormous pass from people who believe they have some kind of moral high ground.
  - reitanqild 10y ago
    In that case, they have moral high ground. Abortions, at least late ones, should be a national shame just like death penalties. Doesn't support everything else Republicans do but just wanted to mention this since your post made it sound like this wasn't an important issue.
    - drjesusphd 10y ago
      What is the appropriate prison sentence for a woman who performs a late term abortion?
      - xahrepap 10y ago
        That's obviously not the only way to enforce abortion laws. You make abortions illegal, then you hold the doctors accountable. Since it doesn't make sense to imprison the parent in an abortion doesn't mean it doesn't make sense to ban the medical practice of abortion. It's a silly argument, really.
      - reitanqild 10y ago
        Where did I suggest that? I think todays system punishes women. See also sibling comment.
- TenOhms 10y ago
  "Threatened US default over debt ceiling" as I recall both parties play chicken with the economy to get their stuff passed, but the Democrats have the media to get people (perhaps like yourself) to buy that it's only Republicans who can take a hard line stance. Actually most of your examples are either complete strawmen or extremely biased and one-sided.
  - EGreg 10y ago
    Can you illustrate that for most of the examples? I sincerely want to understand why someone would think they are not fair statements.
    - TenOhms 10y ago
      Each example was given from the context of the worst-case expected outcome. I could make a similar list starting with "Democrats want citizens to be raped and murdered by illegal aliens", "Democrats want to keep high health costs to the benefit of the insurance companies", "Democrats want to keep increasing taxes while spending it on frivolous pursuits, often on programs to ensure their re-election (by entrapping people into economic slavery)".
      - EGreg 10y ago
        So do it. But it has to be fair. "Democrats want citizens to be raped and murdered by illegal aliens" Rape is already a crime and illegal aliens commit these crimes at lower rates, so from a rationale of preventing rape/murder/{insert violent crime here} spending resources on a group that's less likely to do it isn't a good solution. "Democrats want to keep high health costs to the benefit of the insurance companies" Actually their favored policies like Public Option would destroy insurance companies. Also, single payer systems prevent buyers from competing, and as patio will tell you, when buyers can defect, you can raise your prices. Meanwhile sellers still compete. So single payer systems achieve lower prices for the same outcomes around the world. (As the data around the world proves.) "Democrats want to keep increasing taxes while spending it on frivolous pursuits, often on programs to ensure their re-election (by entrapping people into economic slavery)" This may be true. :)
- supremesaboteur 10y ago
  > Refused to hold a vote on a supreme court justice indefinitely as long as a Democrat president nominated him/her Republicans have confirmed Democratic supreme court nominees before [1] > Want to make coal and fossil fuels win over clean energy, are angry about investment in green energy Not true, they want a market based solution to clean energy > Want to roll back privacy and net neutrality They want a market based solution to privacy and net neutrality > Are angry about universal healthcare even though rest of the developed world has it and has cheaper better outcomes Republicans believe in individual liberty and individual responsibilty and that healthcare is an earned right. > I realize they say they want personal freedom and smaller government. But then they want to expand the army Republicans believe that defense is within the purview of government. Also, note that if you give people freedom they will use it. So you will see some crazy people among Republicans, but it is preferrable ( atleast to some people ) to the politically correct groupthink present on the left. But the anti-science crictism of Republicans is valid. They need to do better. But it is surprising to me how much Republican bashing goes on in this site. I am not American, but still I find it annoying. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/31/us/politics/0731-sotomayor-vote.html http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/31/us/politics/07...
  - jasonjayr 10y ago
    > > Want to roll back privacy and net neutrality > They want a market based solution to privacy and net neutrality See, this is annoying. Because of telecom regulation, there is no 'market' so to speak. Lets roll back the regulations and allow some actual, legit last-mile competition, and then this might make sense. As it stands now, in most markets, there is no choice of a high-speed ISP that isn't drooling over the collection of internet usage data.
    - Consultant32452 10y ago
      I think people on HN over-estimate the consumer demand for privacy. One need only look at how many people use Facebook or other social networks to know this really just isn't important to them. So the market for people who care enough about usage data collection in order to actually speak with their wallets is incredibly small. If the market does demand it, then WIFI routers will start to advertise easy VPN setup with various vendors as a feature. Or maybe some other solution will arise. The market will provide one way or another.

p.s. Ajit Pai is a puppet

EGreg 10y ago

Why do Republicans really seem terrible? The party of hypocrisy - eg had only one 9/11 commission but ten Benghazi commissions, or eg cared about deficits only when Democratic president is in power Gerrymandering (REDMAP) Threatened US default over debt ceiling Wanted to gut ethics committee as soon as they could Refused to hold a vote on a supreme court justice indefinitely as long as a Democrat president nominated him/her Told CBO not to calculate cost of repealing Obamacare Want to roll back civil rights of gays Want to roll back environmental protections Want to make coal and fossil fuels win over clean energy, are angry about investment in green energy Want to roll back privacy and net neutrality Want to use taxpayer money to expand the army already past ridiculous levels Are angry about universal healthcare even though rest of the developed world has it and has cheaper better outcomes What is the explanation for why they seem to be against everything that a person would normally consider good? I realize they say they want personal freedom and smaller government. But then they want to expand the army, keep increasing fossil fuel subsidies, etc. And when someone is incompetent, they seem applaud it... they seem to be against college education, teaching evolution, skeptical of global warming to the end, etc. and (with some exceptions) are ok with Donald Trump's blundering and appointments of people to agencies who have explicitly said in the past they want those agencies eliminated. Why? Am I really being partisan and Democrats break just as many rules? I just don't see it. Both parties have their problems but Democrats seem to at least care about competence and fairness while Republicans honestly seem to find new rules to break all the time, on top of everything I mentioned above. And then when the Democrats follow suit they get upset.

arca_vorago 10y ago
Yes you are being partisan and not seeing how the D's do the same things. If I wasn't on mobile I'd explain more in detail, but essentially its a corruption, oligarchy, corporatacracy problem that transcends parties.
- wry_discontent 10y ago
  I sincerely hope you come back to explain in some more detail, because this sounds like a bullshit claim to me. The Democrats aren't the ideal ruling party, but they are not nearly as bad as the Republican party. I wouldn't say they're even in the same ballpark.
- EGreg 10y ago
  Me too, I would love to see the same list but for Democrats.
sxates 10y ago
Because they're anti-abortion, they get an enormous pass from people who believe they have some kind of moral high ground.
- reitanqild 10y ago
  In that case, they have moral high ground. Abortions, at least late ones, should be a national shame just like death penalties. Doesn't support everything else Republicans do but just wanted to mention this since your post made it sound like this wasn't an important issue.
  - drjesusphd 10y ago
    What is the appropriate prison sentence for a woman who performs a late term abortion?
    - xahrepap 10y ago
      That's obviously not the only way to enforce abortion laws. You make abortions illegal, then you hold the doctors accountable. Since it doesn't make sense to imprison the parent in an abortion doesn't mean it doesn't make sense to ban the medical practice of abortion. It's a silly argument, really.
    - reitanqild 10y ago
      Where did I suggest that? I think todays system punishes women. See also sibling comment.
TenOhms 10y ago
"Threatened US default over debt ceiling" as I recall both parties play chicken with the economy to get their stuff passed, but the Democrats have the media to get people (perhaps like yourself) to buy that it's only Republicans who can take a hard line stance. Actually most of your examples are either complete strawmen or extremely biased and one-sided.
- EGreg 10y ago
  Can you illustrate that for most of the examples? I sincerely want to understand why someone would think they are not fair statements.
  - TenOhms 10y ago
    Each example was given from the context of the worst-case expected outcome. I could make a similar list starting with "Democrats want citizens to be raped and murdered by illegal aliens", "Democrats want to keep high health costs to the benefit of the insurance companies", "Democrats want to keep increasing taxes while spending it on frivolous pursuits, often on programs to ensure their re-election (by entrapping people into economic slavery)".
    - EGreg 10y ago
      So do it. But it has to be fair. "Democrats want citizens to be raped and murdered by illegal aliens" Rape is already a crime and illegal aliens commit these crimes at lower rates, so from a rationale of preventing rape/murder/{insert violent crime here} spending resources on a group that's less likely to do it isn't a good solution. "Democrats want to keep high health costs to the benefit of the insurance companies" Actually their favored policies like Public Option would destroy insurance companies. Also, single payer systems prevent buyers from competing, and as patio will tell you, when buyers can defect, you can raise your prices. Meanwhile sellers still compete. So single payer systems achieve lower prices for the same outcomes around the world. (As the data around the world proves.) "Democrats want to keep increasing taxes while spending it on frivolous pursuits, often on programs to ensure their re-election (by entrapping people into economic slavery)" This may be true. :)
supremesaboteur 10y ago
> Refused to hold a vote on a supreme court justice indefinitely as long as a Democrat president nominated him/her Republicans have confirmed Democratic supreme court nominees before [1] > Want to make coal and fossil fuels win over clean energy, are angry about investment in green energy Not true, they want a market based solution to clean energy > Want to roll back privacy and net neutrality They want a market based solution to privacy and net neutrality > Are angry about universal healthcare even though rest of the developed world has it and has cheaper better outcomes Republicans believe in individual liberty and individual responsibilty and that healthcare is an earned right. > I realize they say they want personal freedom and smaller government. But then they want to expand the army Republicans believe that defense is within the purview of government. Also, note that if you give people freedom they will use it. So you will see some crazy people among Republicans, but it is preferrable ( atleast to some people ) to the politically correct groupthink present on the left. But the anti-science crictism of Republicans is valid. They need to do better. But it is surprising to me how much Republican bashing goes on in this site. I am not American, but still I find it annoying. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/31/us/politics/0731-sotomayor-vote.html http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/31/us/politics/07...
- jasonjayr 10y ago
  > > Want to roll back privacy and net neutrality > They want a market based solution to privacy and net neutrality See, this is annoying. Because of telecom regulation, there is no 'market' so to speak. Lets roll back the regulations and allow some actual, legit last-mile competition, and then this might make sense. As it stands now, in most markets, there is no choice of a high-speed ISP that isn't drooling over the collection of internet usage data.
  - Consultant32452 10y ago
    I think people on HN over-estimate the consumer demand for privacy. One need only look at how many people use Facebook or other social networks to know this really just isn't important to them. So the market for people who care enough about usage data collection in order to actually speak with their wallets is incredibly small. If the market does demand it, then WIFI routers will start to advertise easy VPN setup with various vendors as a feature. Or maybe some other solution will arise. The market will provide one way or another.