The reason no-one believed Trump would win was that we were all suckered into believing that no-one would be dumb enough to vote for the asshole.

On one hand, we were right. In any sane election, Trump would have lost because he got TWO MILLION less votes.

On the other hand, we underestimated the stupidity of half the US electorate.

The dumbest people voted for the dumbest, most crooked candidate and he is now merrily fucking over the very same people who voted for him, while they lie back screaming "yeah, fuck me harder.... I can take it! more!!"

Sorry USA, but if you don't get your shit together, we'll just have to wait for your inevitable economic collapse, because there's no way you can maintain your position if this is the calibre of leader you intend to elect in future.

I need to get myself a rifle! Fuck the forest creatures. Who would rather see them frolicking and gliding merrily through the forest than laying in bbq sauced pieces on their dinner plates anyway? Who gives a shit about the furry babies and the young birds that are left behind to fend for themselves and that will likely die because their Mothers didn't make it home? They're only animals.

I'm curious. Are you by any chance in the military and would you feel the same sort of rush from shooting a person?

And this is why it'll keep going this way...

They knew (just like most MMO or server based games do) that there was demand and completely failed to meet it, then dropped key features like cheetah speed to try and play catch up...

As for F2P with microtransactions, no, it's not worse. It's far superior depending on the transaction model. I get to play the game and if I enjoy it, I can plonk down as much dosh as I wish to. With Simcity, they just couldn't play the game they paid for. Yay...

Nevermind if you want to while away the hours on a flight playing a bit of Simcity, or if your internet drops out for the evening. Just because most people can be connected all the time doesn't mean they always are. If you want to play it single player and miss out the regional stuff, why shouldn't you be able to?

And let's not even get started on stuff like tiny city sizes, broken mechanics like miniscule employment rates in high population cities causing your retail sector to collapse, fire stations ignoring calls from places next door merrily burning away, no undo, lost cities due to the cloud save fucking up etc...

You want to bend over and let them take advantage of you sans lube, go nuts, but every time you do you let them know it's okay to try it on with everyone else.

It's amusing that Obama get's criticism for "pushing it down the throats" of Americans, for not "working across the isle" when the only agenda of those on the right side of the isle was to obstruct progress and then blame his administration for the lack of it. Why are congressional republicans not held to the same standard?

So answer this: what exactly is the government supposed to do when there is a democratically elected majority in all three branches?

Put another way, if we somehow tragically got a republican super majority next month, do you think they would hesitate to write a constitutional amendment repealing Roe v. Wade? Affordable Care Act? Would they hold back because a little less than half of Americans disagree with them? No, of course they wouldn't. They would merrily "push it down our throats" and call it a mandate.

I'm not an expert on how to stop the cycle of violence with abusers. I'm just a tree hugging, softie old liberal who looks at the world through psychological colored glasses.

Here's my intuitive, uneducated, unresearched response to how this PSA might be helpful....

Abusers tend to have been abused themselves.
They abuse because they get caught up in their own anger, it's not a conscious choice.
IF IF IF they see this PSA, in a moment when they aren't angry and out of control, they might -- just might -- identify with the kid in the video and understand that maybe -- just maybe -- they have a problem and get help.

Then there is the kid's point of view.
They also can identify with that kid.
They get to see that the abuse is wrong.
That others see it as wrong.
That, dare I say, It Gets Better.'

So yeah, in my Pollyanna, I want the world to get incrementally better through positive action way, I hope this PSA helps change some lives.

Now I shall skip off happily, singing la la la to myself and to the butterflies flitting merrily 'bout my head.

Cheers! Glad you enjoyed it That's the first I have ever seen that guitarist and he seems great!

In reply to this comment by oritteropo:
What a great sift! Bravo, Fusionaut

It looks to me like he overcorrected initially, almost causing him to wipe out the second time. Then again, if you're going merrily along and your car starts to slide I'm sure 99% (except schumacker) would be surprised and overcorrect.

Regardless, that was very impressive and kudos on the fellow/dame.

>> ^Doc_M:
It's a shame to see the median income has dropped so low bellow the mean.
I'm guessing it will be even more shocking in a year when we see the 2009 national debt and inflation rate. The rate at which we have been printing money this year makes Al Gore's "hockey stick" look like a tooth pick. Not to mention the other trillions that the new administration and the Dem congress want to dish out.


Not to pick on you, DocM, but your comment (and the fact that it's gotten several upvotes), is a prime example of how I think most conservatives misunderstand the relationship of various aspects of our economy.

First, you make a comment about median incomes dropping so far below the mean. As a liberal/progressive, I think after unemployment, that's one of the largest issues with our economy today.

Second, you say you think that issue will be somehow directly affected by the national debt and inflation rate (with the implication that those two things also have direct correlation to each other).

Third, you blame Democrats, and not the Fed, for the increase in the money supply, and presumably the inflation rate and national debt too.

The charts already on display should dispel all of these assertions, but somehow, they haven't.

If you look at real national debt, you will see that the curve had a brief slope downward during the Clinton years. CPI during that time continued to rise. National Debt and inflation do not have a causal relationship, nor do Democrats and National Debt, if you look at joedirt's chart.

Now, Fed interest rates and inflation rates have a high correlation, though that's not a perfect fit, either. I don't think we have a chart that shows us inflation vs. income disparity, but I'd love to see that, along with top marginal tax rates, and see which has a higher degree of correlation, because I think income disparity has more to do with tax rates than inflation.

Lastly, there is actually a reason why Democrats (and the Fed) are dishing out trillions. Notice how the CPI has a hook downward? That's deflation, and the last time we had that was during the Great Depression. So Ben Bernanke, being a student of Milton Friedman, is pumping out massive amounts of cash to try to prevent a deflationary cycle from taking root. Unfortunately, Fed rates have been at zero for a while now, and it can't get any lower, which brings us to fiscal stimulus, like what Obama got passed.

Now, imstellar subscribes to a theory of economics that essentially says deflation is a good and natural thing. That's fine. I disagree, but at least there are plenty of people smarter than both he and I who take up opposing sides of that debate.

Most conservatives though, have never heard of Austrian Economics, and certainly can't explain why they disagree with most mainstream economists about what to do right now. They're operating on a much simpler philosophy: say anything to encourage people to think everything bad happens because of (Democratic) government.

Lots of people repeat ludicrously nonsensical economic "policy" on that foundation alone, and do things like relentlessly point at the green line in Chart #3 and say "see, our debt is insane!" When the real issue is the size of the gap between the Red and Green lines on that chart, not the height of the Green line itself. Then they mix in inflation, not understanding that inflation actually helps keep our debt under control to some degree, since the dollars we owe are fixed, but the value of the dollars we use to pay off the debt are worth less as time goes on.

They also seem to propose, with just as much vigor, that what government needs to do is slash taxes, without remembering their momentary concern over debt. They also seem to think cutting government spending in a recession will help speed the recovery, not deepen the decline (ditto for letting banks and auto manufacturers collapse spectacularly). They also fail to see that a contracting economy can create a government deficit all on its own, since tax revenues fall as unemployment rises and mean income falls, and dismiss the proposition that government spending to get us out of a recession is likely better for the debt in the long run.

So in the end, we end up fighting about the same tired bromides about the size of government, rather than noticing that income disparity has been growing steadily despite an overwhelmingly conservative swing in our government's policy for the last 30+ years.

But people go on merrily slitting their own economic throats by demonizing Democrats as "big spending liberals" or more recently "socialists", not realizing that we're the ones that want to cut your taxes, and make government serve the people and not just the top 1% of income earners, and make fixing income disparity a top issue.

I'm not really surprised by that, but I'm constantly fascinated at how many knots people have to twist themselves in to defend the Republican party line.

HistNerd, I did a silent "yay" the moment I saw your gold star appear like a halo next to your name. Now continue sifting merrily along.

In reply to your comment:
“ I didn't get this much congratulatory stuff when I got a gold star. (playful sadness)

Congratulations amxcvbcv. As we speak, I am procrastinating on two papers.”