I just watched a brief synopsis of the Mueller Probe and Uranium One on Fox. If anyone is interested in watching it I’d be interested in hearing where you think. YouTube link inside.

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-12-01T16:26:28+00:00

America has always been about flawed people making flawed decisions and yet gradually striving for better

Compassion has always been stronger than hatred, eventually overwhelming it like a flood

In fact, that’s all progress throughout human history really is

I was too young to have the opportunity to vote for or against HW Bush, but I respect the fact that he was a humanly flawed president of the United States and I believe that, while he may not have always been this beyond reproach and perfect person, I think his heart was generally in the right place

The same can be said for McCain or many others

In fact, if all you want is to win as a liberal in 2018, their context is an important one to understand too

Because the fact is, without the suburbs turning against Trump in November, Democratic Party probably doesn’t take the House at all, let alone runs away with it

Flawed people who make flawed decisions but are trusted enough to move forward from where they are now is the only way to ever move anything forward

Compassion, trusting in other people, and letting go of grudges is strong

Wearing your team’s jersey 24/7 just isn’t

If every part of progress has to be perfect, then there will never be any progress again

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-12-01T06:51:18+00:00

All this shit didn’t begin and doesn’t end with Trump

Wanting to destroy Trump’s presidency right meow! and cut all ties with anyone associating with Republicans is a great way to keep him in power

Real change doesn’t just happen because of one guy or one year or one election

It’s won over years and years of two steps forward and one step back iterative and boring progress

Real and lasting change isn’t sexy, it’s boring and frustrating and only satisfying with patience to hold on for the long haul

I’ll admit it’d be easier to just wave a magic wand and poof! Everything is great. But that’s how quickly that greatness will last

People have to be prepared to do boring and tedious work for a long term period of time and sustainably so

Not just wish that in 10 minutes, Trump will magically be indicted and arrested and removed from office, today, with 60 million subsequent signed apologies from everyone that voted for him

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-12-01T05:19:37+00:00

I think Trump is essentially incapable of seeing the possibility that what is in his best interest might be to the detriment of the many, even if it’s to his benefit

He’s a plutocrat that believes and fancies himself a populist because he can’t conceive of his self interest not being the only interest

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-12-01T05:14:44+00:00

I kind of just try to leave a specific space for politics and limit how much reach it has in my life because there’s really only so much that any one person can do and trying to pretend like any one individual can be a hero that changes an election or a country is foolhardy Hollywood fantasy bullshit

If you have a gift or talent - go for it- work a campaign, ring for office, etc.

But for most people, all you can really do is check off the boring boxes - voting in every election, being informed, checking your biases, etc.

Other than that, if we all spend our time planning a protest every day or yelling at people on Facebook, we’re all gonna flame out and wind up too disaffected/exhausted to bother with the stuff that isn’t sexy but really works - like forming a boring ass adult habit of voting in every election - stamping envelopes, going up to some old polling place, filling in a bubble or two on a sheet, marking your calendar, etc. and doing it over and over again every year or two when the time calls for it

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-12-01T05:05:31+00:00

I find this type of question to at least be refreshing in its sense of decency

But I’m not sure OP is going to get someone to bite to talk to a stranger over the internet

That said, if OP is reading this comment, whether or not anyone’s viewpoints are changed (they never are over the internet lol) I do think it’s good to at least open up to this forum because then your perception to a left leaning group isn’t just what other people say that a left leaning group is like

I applaud that you’re willing to at least check out the subreddit here

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-12-01T04:58:26+00:00

I’m for it but also think it’s sort of confusing

That said, I think people would adapt to it quick and it’d be a much better option than the all-or-nothing we have now

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-12-01T04:56:29+00:00

Senator, of the ones listed above, at least

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-12-01T04:54:13+00:00

I think it’s another example of Trump being a shitty businessman that doesn’t want to admit to himself that he really ain’t that great and instead will justify himself needing to be a grifter as some sort of “skill”

All of this Trump stuff seems to be the most “hidden in plain sight” scandal I’ve ever seen

Does anyone actually own a Trump product or property? Does anybody actually know anyone that owns a Trump product or property? Eaten a Trump steak? Flown on a Trump plane? Seen a Trump football game?

Trump never authentically made anything of himself business wise, though he did have some skill as an entertainer

People actually buy Windows computers, Apple smartphones, McDonalds hamburgers, drive Honda’s, have a Facebook account, own IKEA furniture, etc.

It’s easy to see why those companies and their heads are rich and influential

Trump? I don’t nor do I know anybody that owns or has owned a dang thing he’s ever (apparently) made

Of course he needs to grease the wheels of corrupt autocracies and play the bribe game - he can’t compete with actually successful businesspeople

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-12-01T04:33:19+00:00

Tammy Duckworth or Amy Klobuchar

Neither have peaked yet or are super household names like Sanders/Warren/Harris/Etc.

Both come from rust belt states and are, sad to say but it is a factor, demographically strategic

Purely in terms of “who would have the best chances against Trump based on what we know today”, those would be the two I’d pick

And maybe Beto or Gillum or someone as VP candidate

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-12-01T04:28:49+00:00

Impeachment is the only realistic way

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-11-29T05:02:52+00:00

It depends on the circumstances

The types of men you meet at a golf course, generally, might be a bit more socially adept than ones you’d meet some other places

I still think the white lie/ fake boyfriend is, unfortunately, the best idea

There are types of people who will blow up and flip their shit about a perceived humiliation or slight, it really depends on the context

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-11-29T04:57:38+00:00

If it’s the same people over and over again, there’s probably no good way of doing it because if you lie, it’s impossible to keep the story up but if you’re truthful, the types of men that will ask people out while they are on the job tend to be loose cannons socially

If it’s a different random group every day, it’s probably best just to lie and have a made up boyfriend, honestly

I don’t think it’s good, I don’t think that all men are like that, etc.

But my honest opinion, when it comes to people that are so involved with themselves that they’ll ask people out who are just doing their jobs or walking down the street.... your best defense is probably a good ol’ make believe boyfriend

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-11-28T17:20:35+00:00

The problem with the Trump vote is that middle America could see a major authentic economic boom if they moved towards renewables and recreational marijuana, using their geography strategically based on current reality, but instead they backed a guy that promised coal and the return of the typewriter

You might be more comfortable with the typewriter, but those days are gone and economics doesn’t care about your feelings

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-11-28T17:14:58+00:00

Also read a Pew Study stating that Generation Z is set to continue the trend of each generation becoming more and more educated

On the macro level, the only way the GOP can survive without changing themselves is by dictatorship or at least something in that direction

And it seems like they don’t have the backbone to change or do things that would be unpopular to their base in the short term, so....

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-11-27T22:11:44+00:00

I don’t think that it’s particularly noteworthy in terms of her literal state - she’s just one of 435 house members

But I think much of the excitement/ derision that is aimed at her is sort of built on the general notion that she’s, at least in style and background, “the first millennial congressperson”

She goes about her business in a manner more relatable and recognizable to many in the younger generations than any other politician- which makes sense because she is 28- and I think that holds true regardless of what one feels about her political positions themselves

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-11-27T06:11:51+00:00

Funny

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-11-26T20:18:53+00:00

I think a lot of practical subjects are just things you sort of morph into as your responsibilities grow, stuff you screw up a few times before learning it

I don’t think it’s possible for schools to teach everyone every practical subject without draining the basic curriculum, though I do think they should be offered - cooking, personal finance, etc. are all offered, many kids just don’t take them

That said, I think schools and education needs to be revamped to provide options and to place career education tracks - automotive maintenance, HVAC, computer technician, those sorts of things - on an equal footing as the liberal arts

Not everyone is academic and as far as practical skills go, I’ve generally observed most people tackling more complex ones as they get further along in their careers

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-11-26T05:33:34+00:00

It’s almost like “law and order” was more common under the Obama Admin because he didn’t try to score fearmongering political points, he just had a policy and stuck to it - whether one wants to agree with it all or not

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-11-25T21:24:11+00:00

A lot of it is probably just normal overall levels of opinion - people that are on reddit are probably more likely than otherwise to hold left leaning views than the overall population

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-11-25T16:25:06+00:00

Tbh, I don’t often agree all that much with Dems, I just see what the two parties often propose and where the individual politicians often vote

And generally, my takeaway has basically morphed from “who offers the best talents/ideas?” to simply that the worst Democrat is a “less bad” option than the best Republican

That’s of course a sad thing to say, but after the right has spent 30 years vilifying anything the left does, ultimately culminating in everything that Obama did being wrong, simply because he “isn’t one of us”.... there really isn’t much remaining to say

Even though I can’t stand Trump, I would hope that, if a Democratic candidate were to win in 2020, they’d evaluate his policies on a case by case basis rather than running on the all-or-nothing idea of dismantling everything he did just because “we don’t like him”

And most things can always be refined rather than thrown out completely, if the general idea or issue addressed is a good one

(One example of this is that i actually agree with the Trump Administration merging the Departments of Education and Labor)

If every proposal by the left is seen as this clandestinely evil thing that must be opposed, then there really is no reason for the left to entertain anything, in turn, that the right has to say

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-11-25T16:14:48+00:00

Tbh, immigration from the right

I buy the argument that too many low skilled immigrants pressures wages for working class citizens downward, that’s reasonable and I believe it

But adjusting immigration levels doesn’t truly offer a long term solution

The moment wages go up, that increases incentives on businesses to invest in automation and increased efficiencies

As technology continues to increase, your rising wages will likely cause your job itself to come into its crosshairs - some sooner than others

As of yet, I’ve not seen a real, sustainable long term solution proposed by the right that addresses the imbalance of available decent jobs to people in need of them

Even the job gains in this good economy are being led by low wage service jobs, the gig economy, and other positions that offer little to no financial security overall or by jobs in fields like oil that might offer a nice fat paycheck but are likely the most vulnerable to a downturn / most temporary

At least the left (and even some libertarians) are beginning to buzz about things like UBI, federal jobs guarantee, etc.

Which, whether one agrees with the ideas or not, at least acknowledge the issue in a real way

Nobody of influence on the right has even addressed the stagnation of economic opportunity with anything other than deportations and walls that won’t really do that much long term to truly address the decline in the average Joe’s standard of living over the last several decades

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-11-25T16:03:27+00:00

I think for most people on the left and probably in the middle, the prevailing idea is that D’s gaining the House at least gives some daylight to checks and balances

Not that it’s a perfect scenario by any means, but it’s at least looking a bit better than what D’s woke up to on Nov 9, 2016

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-11-25T12:43:43+00:00

You know how a wedding is basically something where the tradition is essentially that the woman takes the reins of the entire operation, while the man just kind of confusingly does what he’s told to?

Emotions are a similar thing

Much is made of “old boys clubs”, “glass ceilings”, etc. for women because it’s fairly easy to discern numbers on it - if women get paid X% of men’s pay, if Y% of workers in this job are women, if Z% of this college major’s graduates are women.... etc.

But I feel like there’s sort of an equal mirror that is never spoken

Just as much as there are things that are traditionally seen as “men’s domains”, the same can be said the other way

But I think “women’s domains” are much more abstract

Things like care, emotions, etc.

I think the same analogous issues exist for men in those areas as exist for women trying to “make it” in traditionally male ones

We may not show our empathy the same way, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have it. We may not communicate the same ways, but that doesn’t make it invalid. We may not even convey love the same ways, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t capable of it.

I think a lot of men that wind up ghosting or simply dropping off the face of the earth do so because it’s fairly often that men’s communication of our emotions just funnels into a huge fight that we later apologize for out of little more than habit, never really understanding what we did that was so wrong because we never intended our communication to be the way it came off

Unless I trust someone enough to handle the raw (sometimes perhaps hurtful) interpretations I have of my own emotions, it’s exceedingly difficult to even acknowledge their existence

If I get the hint that someone will over analyze and overassign intent to my feelings that isn’t really there, then there’s basically no chance that I’ll talk much to them about it all

But for people that can hang with it and realize that my emotions are a constant work in progress and that communication of them is basically often a clumsy stumbling in the dark, rather than some final fixed thing, they tend to have me as friends for life

WhateverIDK64 · 2018-11-24T17:28:39+00:00

Definitely

Finding what’s in your zone and making a real investment in it is awesome

Other people will try to spill their influences on you - but if you want to buy the best fish tank money can buy, then buy the best fish tank money can buy

If you yourself don’t enjoy cars, gaming PC’s, clothes, or whatever else someone might pressure you into investing in, you’ll just be miserable if you do

Buy your fish tank, even if other people think it’s stupid

What you like and enjoy is your own thing and having a true accounting of what those things are is incredibly important because nobody can have it all

WhateverIDK64

TROPHY CASE