snafu
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Posts posted by snafu
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1 hour ago, ComradeKayAdams said:
Thank you, snafu, for being the only one to directly address my questions in full.
1. Ms. Walton is a democratic socialist. Castro was a dictator who ruled as head of a command economy. The political and economic differences between the two systems are comically enormous.
2. You didn’t quite answer my question here. I acknowledge Ms. Walton’s socialist identity. But what are her specific public policies that distinguish her as a socialist and not as a typical liberal? I can only count two: neighborhood-owned grocery stores and support for a public bank. But as a city mayor, she has zero power to ever implement a New York state-owned bank. So is this what the McCarthyite fearmongering is reduced to…fear of better produce options for East Side denizens??
3. Sinatra’s brother is a major campaign donor to Byron Brown. We are not our siblings, but it still reeks of corruption. Also, the Buffalo Common Council consists entirely of establishment Democrats. Ms. Walton’s allies aren’t the ones suggesting that the mayor’s office be abolished! And I have never denied that the Democratic Party is horribly corrupt, though political corruption isn’t unique to a particular party or political philosophy.
4. In my opinion, this mayoral race will probably have a negligible impact on the national stage. American politics and the progressive movement, however, are so charged and unstable right now that Buffalo could be the origins of a political “butterfly effect,” regardless of the mayoral race outcome. A lot could depend on how the media (both corporate mainstream + independent leftist) chooses to cover (or ignore) it.
5. We’ve seen worker cooperatives have success in a variety of limited situations around the world and throughout history. I’m most familiar with ones currently existing in Spain, Italy, and France. The question is whether they can be scaled up to the national level and across all industries? I’m not a socialist, so my best guess would be “no” for probably the same reasons you have. However…I consider myself an open-minded person and so have yet to completely give up on market socialism models, either. I’d like to see one attempted without it being sabotaged from American imperialistic forces who want to exploit the foreign labor and foreign natural resources. Also, we’ve seen more than enough from variations of laissez-faire capitalism to know that it doesn’t work for the working class (or for the environment) and inevitably devolves into crony capitalism models (see: American history: Gilded Age, Great Depression, 1980-now).
Because he missed the state’s ballot petition deadline. On electoral substance alone, I don’t even mind the judge’s ruling. What’s galling is that we all know Ms. Walton would have not been granted the same exception if the roles of her and Brown had been reversed.
(1) Castro wasn't a dictator in 1950. He was trying to get into the machine but the machine changed the rules. Sound familiar? He BECAME a dictator after he came into power in order to consolidate and retain his power. The comparison isn't comically laughable -- it is the logical extension (or the execution of) what starts out to be laudable goals in theory. It's nice to have the lofty goals she lists in her website. But when the policy needs to be implemented, the hand gets heavier and heavier. You want a different comparison, let's go with Evo Morales, or any of the "pink tide" leftist leaders in South America.
(2) the closest I can see in her policy statements is WRT housing and canceling rent and holding landlords accountable because of her declaration that housing is a right. Sure it is a right. But if you don't OWN your housing, then you need to RENT your housing. For money. Or go live with your parents forever. To take (or even to diminish) the property rights of one class of people in order to distribute the fruits of those rights to another class of people is pretty damn "command economy/socialist". If she wants to limit herself to holding Landlords accountable for substandard living conditions, then yes, sure, whatever. If she will eventually tell Landlords that they can't set the market -- which is the direction she's heading -- then what do you call it? And, hey, why limit this to renters? Why not have any single family homeowner paying a mortgage get their debt canceled?
(3) You're sounding like a January 6 conspiracist. I think you and I agree on the sh***y nature of party electoral gameplay.
(4) Looks like we agree on my "time will tell" answer.
(5) Can't be scaled up. If someone wants to live in a commune, then there's plenty of places to go. That should be a personal election, not imposed upon people who don't choose to live collectively. And I'd add that for India Walton to believe for a second that just because Byron Brown lost focus in the primary doesn't mean that she's got a mandate or ANY broad public support to implement her platform. Her level of support, Citywide, from the potential constituents that she would be working for is miniscule.
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43 minutes ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:
i haven’t see anyone here impartial enough to moderate without bias.
Correct.
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37 minutes ago, John Adams said:
That thread is dedicated to lack of quality posting and it’s the best thread in the history of ppp.I started MPPPGA!
We know that theme won a presidential election.
Are you taking credit or accepting shame? -
3 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:
It is the points over replacement point as well though. Kind of easier to find consistent production in the 2nd tier of QBs. Especially as against backs. The way the the league is going now the pool of viable running backs thins out pretty fast because so few teams are run heavy with a clear #1 bellcow.
I have always been a QB later guy though so I am probably not the guy to ask.
This makes sense, yes, for the top RBs. But you’re also looking at points over replacement vs RBs who are just behind the top guys — so draft order is important there, too. I guess I’d go WR even over a bellcow, except maybe one who can also catch passes or isn’t on a bad team that has to throw a lot late in games.
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15 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:
Yes Diggs over Allen.
Standard scoring a receiver scores 1 point for every 10 receiving yards and 6 points for every touchdown. Whereas a QB will receive 1 point every 25 passing yards and 4 points per touchdown pass.
A lot of leagues now are "PPR" which means point per reception so in addition to yards your receiver gets 1 bonus point for every catch... so say Stef has a 25 yard touchdown catch he gets 9.5 points on that play alone. Allen gets 5 points for the same play.
Is it why the QBs who go early are generally the ones who gain rush yards because it is 1 point for every 10 yards rushing too. So you will likely see Lamar and Kyler and maybe even Dak go before Rodgers and Brady.
I’m not in a league. My wife is, so I’m a casual observer. If a QB averages the same or more points per game than a RB over the course of a season, then isn’t that a good thing? So if you’re picking 9th or 10th and everyone ahead of you chooses the top RBs and WRs then why not go for Mahomes or Allen? Steady point production every week, no? -
2 hours ago, jeremy2020 said:
Not really, he said Black Qbs are judged more harshly than their white counterparts.
He might be right. Only in his case Josh kinda blew his point out of the water.And I hope he does well in Houston. He’s in a bad spot, but I’d love to see him succeed.
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This week is rough, no team really stands out.
Especially since it is week 1. I don’t think I’ll have my choice until the last minute.
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1 hour ago, John Adams said:
There are plenty of forums out there. This doesn't have to be what it has become. It's better since the BillsChan group left but it's still a hole. And yes, I accept the nomination to be all-powerful moderator.
Aren’t you the guy that started the *****-poster thread which pretty much violates the TOS by calling people out directly, instead of limiting your comments to the quality of the post?-
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1 hour ago, ComradeKayAdams said:
Looking for the following from the PPP community:
1. The specific model of socialism that you think best characterizes India Walton’s political philosophy (a technical label or a matching country/time period is fine).
2. Public policies pulled from Ms. Walton’s campaign website that you think qualify her as a socialist.
3. A candid appraisal of the fairness of Judge John Sinatra’s ruling, with reference to his brother’s political ties.
4. A simple “yes” or “no” answer here will suffice: Do you think Byron Brown winning in November will hurt the far-left movement, from a national perspective and not a local one?
5. Any personal opinions on the efficacy of worker cooperative implementations.
Hi, Kay.
1. Castro circa 1950.
2. She doesn’t self-describe in the “Who is India Walton” section of her website. However, her endorsements label her as a socialist. Also her site contains this interview of Walton from Jacobin Magazine (there’s a loaded title!) discussing her endorsement by the Democratic Socialists of America. They discussed Socialism and her vision quite a bit. Not only that, but any media outlet that announced her primary win distinctly labeled her as a straight-up Socialist, and I never saw her push back on that. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/05/india-walton-interview-buffalo-mayor-race-democratic-primary?fbclid=IwAR2GeLuz8_ra-dCgQ60umzdCm27DDHT7w6LTnaEsEWQFion8kcc2x-4IM1M3. I haven’t read Sinatra’s decision and I don’t know who his brother is. I will say that the decision, coupled with the past recent news that the City Council is thinking of banishing the office of Mayor led me to my answer #1. With your question #3 are you insinuating that you see a political party setting up the apparatus to defeat a political outsider whom they see as an extremist? Hmmm, have we seen this before?
4. Time will tell. Can’t answer that yet.5. Depends on a lot of things, but I’d say, like everything Socialist and further left: good in theory, bad in practice. Time and basic human nature erodes the good idea and eventually the only way to sustain the idea is through heavy-handed regulation, to say the least. See my answer #1.
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9 hours ago, Governor said:
There’s a lot of moving parts but what’s very clear is that 70 percent of the country doesn’t like the 30 percent and continues to marginalize them, which is causing them to lash out.
It will turn to violence soon. There’s no doubt in my mind that the North will be putting the squeeze on the South real soon.
The GOP abandoned democracy and that’s made it impossible for a healthy multi-party political system. As the party continues to shrink, it’s only going to get worse, until something is finally done.
Their goal now is to take control by force, an Apartheid, and that’s going to be met with force.
It won’t start out with bombs. It will start with the removal of federal funding, starving these states out, to change political behavior.
Truth is, these states don’t have any industry and they’ll just need to be put in check. They can’t sustain themselves.
It wouldn’t take much to turn DeSantis into AOC in a matter of weeks if we took the money away and they couldn’t run on lowering your taxes every election cycle and quit the nonsense.
I’m going to guess this post to be a troll job, since it is so incredibly stupid that nobody who wrote it would possibly believe anything in it.
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I think nominations should be made by PM to the board owner and whomever becomes a moderator should be given the option of having a second screen persona, if possible.
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That day was my eighth wedding anniversary.
I was supposed to be about a block away from the World Trade Center at 9:00 that morning, but put off the meeting until 4:00 because I had to stay home with my 3 year old until 9:00 when our sitter showed up. I got in my car and it was a perfect weather morning. I had the radio on and heard about the first plane and then the second and I kept driving like a zombie from my house in LI to my office in Brooklyn. Traffic was bad on the Long Island Expressway and I remember the ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks heading toward the scene. There where lots of them. Lots. People made way for them and I sometimes think about the men and women who rushed to the scene and didn’t make it back. I kept trying to call my wife, who was at work in a federal office building in Queens, but the phone lines were jammed up and I couldn’t get through to her.When I got close to my office, I could see both buildings smoldering. I don’t know why I kept driving. It was like I was on auto pilot while I listened to the radio. I came over the Greenpoint Avenue bridge and both buildings were right in front of me, so close. They looked like candles that had been just blown out, the smoke was blowing to the east I turned down a side street just as they were broadcasting that the first building went down. The reporter’s voice just conveyed shock and a bit of panic. I finally made it to work and everyone on the street was silent and stunned. A couple co-workers and I walked down toward the river to see what we could see. The second building was down. I’m glad I didn’t see either of them go down, but I felt it with sadness. We saw a couple fighters fly over our heads and just walked back to the office and didn’t get a damn thing done.
I walked to the flower shop that was supposed to deliver roses to my wife and brought them home to her. Our anniversaries have never been quite the same ever since. 2001 is always in the background of our minds. So many people lost so much.
I’ve got two weeks worth of NYTimes from the 12th through the 25th wrapped up in a bundle in my attic. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back and look at them, but I’ll never throw them out.
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6 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:
Huh? So, we need to maintain an airbase in Germany because the people in Poland want us to have one there? Fantastic!
Back to where we started, I see a whole lot more justification for keeping a base in Afghanistan then the reasons you're citing dating back almost a century.
I agree that having some presence in Afghanistan would have been nice.
And the European ones are also NATO-affiliated. So the "dating back to a century" is based on one of our oldest treaties, and it makes things a helluva lot easier when we're entangled in the mideast and central Asia. There's plenty of justification for keeping those intact.
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34 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:
You guys realize we're talking about airbases...right? We are not marching on foot into Russia anytime soon. This isn't a game of Risk! And as the most recent, "Longest War in US History" proved we can fight a war pretty darn quickly even if we DO NOT have a base in the region at the time war breaks out. IMHO, the US should seriously consider closing the vast majority of these international outposts which are all left over from eras, and wars, long gone by.
In Europe, they worry about tanks rolling through just as much as anything else.
Ask Poland if they want us to leave.
And if we've got an airbase in Germany (or anywhere else) then we don't need to ask a bunch of other countries for permission to fly over their airspace.
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1 hour ago, SectionC3 said:
Try looking at a physical map rather than a political map.
I know what a physical map looks like. Poland and Belarus are between Germany and Russia.
Maybe you'd have been right prior to 1989.
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15 hours ago, SectionC3 said:
Check on Russia.
Have you looked at a map of Europe lately?And (though I’m not advocating for maintaining a base there) Afghanistan borders Iran, China and always shaky nuclear-armed Pakistan. So by your measure of usefulness, Afghanistan is a pretty good location.
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1 hour ago, John from Riverside said:
BB is a lot of things.....stupid is not one of them.
It is fun to watch BB run on the QB hamster wheel.
I could watch it for 20 years.
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49 minutes ago, Tiberius said:
They went along, didn’t cheer it.. would of happened whether they wanted it or not. This was a Republican war
Maybe Iraq. Not Afghanistan. This thread is about Afghanistan.
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6 minutes ago, Tiberius said:
The Republican Party as a whole were wildly behind Bush and his wars. No one wants to admit that now.
So was Biden and Clinton. Nobody wants to remember that, either.-
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1 minute ago, Tiberius said:
Don’t read your own posts I guess?
Two Democratic presidents had to clean up his two lost wars.
Nice try. I didn’t agree with the Iraq war and I didn’t agree with staying in Afghanistan as long as we did.
But as long as you mention it:
By bringing up your two D hero presidents, do you mean the one who got out of Iraq and left ISIS to take over? That same one who put MORE troops into Afghanistan? And the current one who crapped the bed and is still rolling in his own feces?
8 minutes ago, BillStime said:
Stime, we get it.
You wouldn’t be the person you are today if it weren’t for Trump.
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9 hours ago, Governor said:
Overall, Americans just don’t care about Afghanistan. There’s basically 1 more day of coverage and then we’ll have a full week of hurricane coverage.
Gonna blame Bush for the hurricane? -
4 minutes ago, B-Man said:
Charles Lipson rendered this concise verdict after the attack but before Biden’s remarks: “This deadly fiasco didn’t just happen on his watch. It happened because of his decisions, a series of fundamentally bad ones, taken by the President himself.” Anyone can see that too.
To this point. Could you imagine the leaking and whistleblowing from the State Department and the Pentagon that would be going on right now if this happened a year ago? Heck, there are so many voices now deflecting from Biden and laying blame on Trump, as though he’s still in office. Trumps agreement was bad, yes, but that’s no excuse for Biden’s failure.
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7 hours ago, sherpa said:
I really think the reaction to this, while valid, is missing the point, and the only solution.
Folks are blaming bad behavior by inhuman punks on politicians in the US.
Of course it could have been handled better, and I did not vote for Trump, Clinton, or Biden.
Still, the point isn't that those folks screwed up.
The point is that fundamentalist lunatics in the Muslim faith are getting support and supplies from somebody else.
They are incapable of producing military hardware, or in this case, simplistic weapons.
It seems the focus is on ISIS Khorasan, known as Isis K.
This is Pakistan supported.
There are two countries who support this kind of madness, not as a national posture, but under the sheets.
Iran and Pakistan.
That is where the international community needs to bring to accountability.
You can run one US president after another up the flagpole and it isn't going to matter.
The solution lies in eliminating support.
I agree with this. We were parked in Afghanistan 20 years later to keep tabs on both these neighbors. We kicked the crap out of the Taliban early on. Then we soft-handled Pakistan when the Taliban melted across the border into the hills. Didn’t want to rile up a nuclear-armed “ally”, and they didn’t help in any meaningful way. Half the Taliban are Pakistani and now Pakistan, the region, and the world has a potential nuclear problem on their hands if the Taliban some day decides to move south. ISIS-K may be Pakistan supported, but a lot of those fighters are from the former Soviet-Stans. Maybe they’re supported by Pakistan in order to give the Afghan Taliban something to wrangle with as a distraction.And reports are that Iran is actively allowing Al Quaeda leadership to stay in their country. AQ knows that we’re not going to do anything to them while they’re in Iran.
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18 minutes ago, oldmanfan said:
I am saying Beasley is the most strident and is influencing others around him. And while there are protocols in place this season, they are not being followed as evidenced by what happened this week.
what happened this week came from a vaccinated trainer (at least the way I understand it). Beasley’s fault? No.
White trash: Central Florida style
in Off the Wall
Posted
Just married?
He was just high on life!