2020 US Election (Part One)

[Takhisis]

Is it me, or have you been extra grumpy lately?

He is. Some things are just stress-inducing.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I saw his "Castro had a literacy program" comment and just felt this immediate sinking feeling. Sanders has been around long enough that the Miami Mafia will raise a ruckus if anyone says Castro was anything less than a Hispanic Hitler.


Is it me, or have you been extra grumpy lately?

It happens when I think about the DMV.

 

[Farm Boy]

Somebody give Tim a smooch. I mean, happy to, but kinda bristly and don't want to presume.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Somebody give Tim a smooch. I mean, happy to, but kinda bristly and don't want to presume.

If you join the next mafia game you get to kiss me. It's in the rules.

 

[Farm Boy]

Pro bono. Not interested in Mafia, the whiskerburn is complimentary.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Pro bono. Not interested in Mafia, the whiskerburn is complimentary.

Your whiskerburn, or mine? I have pretty thick fur so you'd have to really work it to scratch me.

 

[Farm Boy]

Game on.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Game on.

I would say that your beer is still waiting by the pool, but we got rid of the pool. Got the beer though. And you aren't really farming in February anyway, right?

 

[Imaus]

I honestly do not get America's military budget funding fetish. America is tired of war - until it isn't.

'Another disappointment is that Data for Progress found just 33 percent support (and 47 percent opposition) to a proposal “cutting back on our military spending for wasteful procurement of weapons systems.”'

Republicans and supporters apparently say that 1) as a *percentage* of GDP, military spending has been stagnant, and that 2) any reduction would endanger troops on the frontline. But the latter deals with the former: what frontline? America has, or the military loves to scaremonger that it has, slipped on peer-to-peer superiority and has no stomach or will to occupy any problematic nation for real change, and 'military adventurism' was a big topic in 2016, but apparently not now? The troops wouldn't BE on any frontline, they'll be withdrawn into a defensive posture: mostly Europe and Korea and Taiwan, maybe. What, are we really going to invade Iran? North Korea?

The DDX was a disaster, the F35 and F22 are fine but everyone else has not caught up in the slightest, and the fleet won't magically regain any superiority vis-a-vis China by getting into an building race there, and everything else is for wars that'll never happen, or frankly, shouldn't.

Americans won't be facing down Chinese or Russian troops and everyone else can be ignored - what tinpot dictators are we going to go after now? Especially after Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya?

The military budget should be cut back - 40% goes into dues and taking care of troops, fine. If even cut back to 50, 60% of what it is now, that's enough, isn't it? That 40% reduction (maybe over 4 years, so 90-80-70-60, or some such, and that is vastly needed elsewhere. In this budget, with nearly everything slashed save for the DOD and DHS, hundreds of billions do help on the ground. Especially if we get a Prog president who...needs money for their massive promised programmes! Or even just wants to fix the budget we had before Trump!

 

[Arwon]

At the DMV? Only if they came up with a five year flu shot. If you tell me I should go to the DMV every year just to get a flu shot I'm telling you I would rather stick forks in my eyes.

This has suddenly got me wondering why US motor vehicle registries have such a bad reputation for slow service, like it's a really common joke and reference people make?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

This has suddenly got me wondering why US motor vehicle registries have such a bad reputation for slow service, like it's a really common joke and reference people make?

It's not a joke. It's a reality that we laugh at because there is nothing else to be done about it.

 

[Takhisis]

This has suddenly got me wondering why US motor vehicle registries have such a bad reputation for slow service, like it's a really common joke and reference people make?

‘Department of Megas Violations’. Look it up.

 

[Arwon]

What do they actually do that makes it so hard? You get your licenses there, register your cars, isn't that it? How hard can it be?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

What do they actually do that makes it so hard? You get your licenses there, register your cars, isn't that it? How hard can it be?

Generally about three hours hard.

 

[Arwon]

Yeah this is what I find flummoxing. I don't think I've ever waited longer than 10 or 15 minutes at a government shopfront here (they do driving licenses but also other state level stuff). I'm not questioning the reality of the situation over there, just wondering how it got so messed up. It sounds at least as bad as our social welfare bureaucracy which is designed that way to punish people.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I honestly do not get America's military budget funding fetish. America is tired of war - until it isn't.

'Another disappointment is that Data for Progress found just 33 percent support (and 47 percent opposition) to a proposal “cutting back on our military spending for wasteful procurement of weapons systems.”'

Republicans and supporters apparently say that 1) as a *percentage* of GDP, military spending has been stagnant, and that 2) any reduction would endanger troops on the frontline. But the latter deals with the former: what frontline? America has, or the military loves to scaremonger that it has, slipped on peer-to-peer superiority and has no stomach or will to occupy any problematic nation for real change, and 'military adventurism' was a big topic in 2016, but apparently not now? The troops wouldn't BE on any frontline, they'll be withdrawn into a defensive posture: mostly Europe and Korea and Taiwan, maybe. What, are we really going to invade Iran? North Korea?

The DDX was a disaster, the F35 and F22 are fine but everyone else has not caught up in the slightest, and the fleet won't magically regain any superiority vis-a-vis China by getting into an building race there, and everything else is for wars that'll never happen, or frankly, shouldn't.

Americans won't be facing down Chinese or Russian troops and everyone else can be ignored - what tinpot dictators are we going to go after now? Especially after Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya?

The military budget should be cut back - 40% goes into dues and taking care of troops, fine. If even cut back to 50, 60% of what it is now, that's enough, isn't it? That 40% reduction (maybe over 4 years, so 90-80-70-60, or some such, and that is vastly needed elsewhere. In this budget, with nearly everything slashed save for the DOD and DHS, hundreds of billions do help on the ground. Especially if we get a Prog president who...needs money for their massive promised programmes! Or even just wants to fix the budget we had before Trump!

Just in case you are really asking why people don't think that's a great idea, at least several hundred thousand of them, I live in a valley with two decent sized cities and several unincorporated rural areas for a total population of about half a million. About twenty thousand of them make their living in military aerospace, where they are grossly overpaid for what they actually do because the things they build cannot be built overseas, ever. Every other job in this valley is in some way shape or form living off the pass through money that those 20,000 people bring here and spend to be respent and respent. When you say "cut military spending" you are telling this half a million people "I think this would make a really great ghost town."

Do you have any idea how hard you make it to get a Democrat even within spitting distance of winning here when you promote "vote Democrat and destroy the local economy"?

Do you have any idea how many demographic pockets just like this one exist?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Yeah this is what I find flummoxing. I don't think I've ever waited longer than 10 or 15 minutes at a government shopfront here (they do driving licenses but also other state level stuff). I'm not questioning the reality of the situation over there, just wondering how it got so messed up. It sounds at least as bad as our social welfare bureaucracy which is designed that way to punish people.

Underfunded is the answer. I just described where I live in the previous post. We have ONE DMV office.

 

[Bamspeedy]

What do they actually do that makes it so hard? You get your licenses there, register your cars, isn't that it? How hard can it be?

It's the long lines. 'Everybody' has to go there, because so many people have cars. Once your 'number' is called you're done in 5 minutes or less, it's the waiting to be called that is the pain.....unless you are missing some document you didn't know you needed, them it's "go home, get document, return to DMV and to the back of the line for another 3 hours".
50 different states, 50 different rules and procedures of what is required for registering vehicle, getting license, ID card, etc. DMV doesn't have any competition (unlike the post office), so there is not much incentive to speed up the lines.
Sure, "hire more people" is an easy fix, but 'lower taxes' gets more votes than 'shorter DMV trips'.

Personally, it isn't too bad for me. DMV trips take me 30-45 minutes...when I need to do it. I mail in my vehicle registration (and it saves $3 too). Edit: I mean my license plate renewal. Vehicle registration I do when getting new car, which I certainly don't do every 'year or two', more like once a decade.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

unless you are missing some document you didn't know you needed, them it's "go home, get document, return to DMV and to the back of the line for another 3 hours".

Two things about this.

A) At our DMV they are taught total commitment to getting the money first. They will tell you the price, take your money, and then print out a "you paid for a _____ receipt that is specifically NOT the _____ in question and hand it to you before they give you any indication that you did not bring what you needed. Some people say this is to give you that "I am done! I'm outta here!!!" feeling and then crush your spirit, but it is really just that they have figured out that people were often just saying 'screw it I'll risk a ticket' when they hadn't already paid.

B) With your already paid receipt, they will tell you that you can "just come back and you don't have to wait." This means that you could be at or near the front of the line and suddenly backed up by people who (to all appearances) are just walking in off the street. This compounds the waiting with an air of uncertainty that compounds the unpleasantness, and has been known to lead to actual fights (I know, I was in one.)

 

[Zardnaar]

I saw his "Castro had a literacy program" comment and just felt this immediate sinking feeling. Sanders has been around long enough that the Miami Mafia will raise a ruckus if anyone says Castro was anything less than a Hispanic Hitler.


Is it me, or have you been extra grumpy lately?

There's footage of Sanders in Moscow and Cuba in the 80s as major of some town in Vermont.