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The Old Hack

Political Discussion Thread (READ FIRST POST)

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5 hours ago, ijuin said:

Yeah, but male birds, unlike male mammals, don’t have their genitalia dangling externally when they’re not in the act of mating.

Points, but that takes away the "they are human" thing.

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1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Also, visible male duck genetalia is not indecent exposure.  It is an eldrich abomination.  

(If you have never seen one, DO NOT look it up.  Just think 'Corkscrew'.)

... visions of DIsney cultists summoning Scrooge McDuck.

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$174k? I thought they were paid about twice that—perhaps the figure I saw was with medical and other non-salary compensation included.

Anyway, $174k is only one-third of the amount of income required to qualify for being in the “one percent”, so it hardly seems like their salary is overly high, and in fact is below the median for privately practicing lawyers of their level of work experience. As Rat points out, they are somehow getting a lot of money through means other than salary.

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US Senators live (actual physical habitation, not legal residence) in one of the country's more expensive areas, too. And they socially/politically can't afford to live cheap, they have to go fairly high class.

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The interesting thing is that Congress can set its own salary, with the caveat, due to the 27th Amendment, that they would not begin receiving their updated salaries until their next reelection. As such, they could have voted themselves salaries of maybe ten times as much before the voting public would turn against them. The fact that they have not, suggests that they realize that it is good optics for them to appear to be drawing as little as possible for themselves on the formal budget balance sheets.

Then again, the wealthiest people throughout history have always gained the bulk of their income from their property rather than their salaries—in pre-industrial times it was real estate property, while these days it is stockholdings. Mr. Smith will go to Washington and get ten billion dollars of government funding for his state, a large slice of which will go to companies that he has a stake in (or who offer him “contributions”), and he returns home with a hundred million of that money in his own pocket.

The fact that the most recent ex-POTUS is still deep in debt despite very visible attempts to milk this system for everything that it’s worth says something for financial mismanagement, and that is as far as I am going to wade into that particular cesspool.

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10 minutes ago, ijuin said:

The fact that the most recent ex-POTUS is still deep in debt despite very visible attempts to milk this system for everything that it’s worth says something for financial mismanagement,

Wish I were guilty of the sort of financial mismanagement that results in net-worth estimates ranging from US$3 billion to US$10 billion...

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17 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

Wish I were guilty of the sort of financial mismanagement that results in net-worth estimates ranging from US$3 billion to US$10 billion...

Among the many indictments are ones targeting his supposed valuation not having any foundation in reality. I suppose we'll see.

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3 hours ago, mlooney said:

Doesn't he realize most of the world will interpret that as a confession?

Also, I read an interesting idea somewhere... what if Taiwan sends troops to reinforce Ukraine?

Putin claims Russia would interpret any such action by anyone as an attack, and would counterattack.

Taiwan then turns to Beijing and says "you claim Taiwan is part of your country. Will you use armed force to defend it?"

(I don't see that happening... but it's an interesting thought experiment.)

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1 hour ago, Don Edwards said:

Doesn't he realize most of the world will interpret that as a confession?

Sadly, I don't think he will.  Nor will a select class of westerners.  

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2 hours ago, mlooney said:

Sadly, I don't think he will.  Nor will a select class of westerners.  

I feel like he can't possibly be as dumb as he pretends to be. I think he believes if you stick to your lie, you will convince enough people to get by. History says it works to a point.

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9 hours ago, ijuin said:

It’s not like Presidents on our side aren’t sticking with ridiculous lies themselves.

Yes, Putin is by no means unique, he's just noteworthy as an archetype and for the impact his application of his philosophy (so to speak) is having.

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Putin, unlike a lot of other politicians, has control of a nuclear button and has made threats to use it.  That sets him apart from most others. 

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Didn't we fight two world wars and a cold war with dozens of proxy wars just to prove to each other that blindly following a strong man who says the things the most frightened voters want to hear isn't a path to lasting peace and prosperity?

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