Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo — Page 726

I just want to take a moment to talk about what an utterly bullshit waste of tax dollars this stupid RealID act is.

By 2020 if you plan to do any air travel or entering of federal buildings, you need to get a new ID card (which can also be a driver’s license) which serves the exact same purpose as your current state ID card/driver’s license. But it’s federal.

Another fantastic quasi-dystopian power grab by our federal government on the heels of 9/11 that is costing millions in tax dollars that will have literally no effect on our security or the betterment of the nation, but I am sure is heavily lining the pockets of some already-rich white dude.

TV’s Frink said:

I’d like to see some statistics backing up the supposed consensus.

I suspect it’s directly down party lines.

While I’m no Reagan defender, quite a lot of time has passed since then and both parties have changed a lot. Republicans tend to praise Reagan as an article of faith, but frankly he’d be viewed as a fringe liberal in today’s Republican party. On some issues he’d be fairly liberal for a Democrat these days too. Top marginal tax rate of 50%? Pffft! Go back to your Bernie rally, Ron! Evil Empire? Fake news!

So if you ask “What do you think of Reagan?” I agree the answer will be split down party lines, but if you ask “What do you think of these specific policies?” the answer may also be split down party lines, in the opposite direction!

Oh, I wanted to mention something I saw this May Day. As with most cities, we see some people every year using May Day as an opportunity to smash stuff, start fights, and engage in random violence during otherwise peaceful protests. I don’t know whether we’re better or worse than most towns, but it’s seemed pretty bad by my estimation.

Well, this last May Day, there were lots of protests and very little violence, which was nice. But the great thing was what I saw. A room full of riot cops all decked out and ready to go, sitting around bored and playing with their phones. Something about the sight really made me happy. Sure, it was to some degree wasting taxpayer money and they obviously overstaffed by a big margin, but frankly I’m still delighted that they found solace in Candy Crush or whatever instead of going out into the protests and making trouble where there wasn’t any before.

There’s a Russian bot on the site with GOP in its name. Idk what to make of that.

Per Wiki:

In a 2000 WSJ poll of an “ideologically balanced group of 132 prominent professors of history, law, and political science” Reagan ranked 8th among presidents.

In 2012, Newsweek magazine asked a panel of historians to rank the ten best Presidents since 1900. The results showed that historians had ranked Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama as the best since that year.

In a 2010 Gallup poll, 74% of respondents rated Reagan favorably.

In a 2014 Quinnipiac poll, Reagan was chosen as the greatest president since WWII by the greatest number of respondents. Same in their 2018 poll.

The sense of his popularity I have fits with those numbers and undercuts the idea it’s a strict partisan divide.

I don’t care how popular he is.

Mrebo said:

In a 2014 Quinnipiac poll, Reagan was chosen as the greatest president since WWII by the greatest number of respondents. Same in their 2018 poll.

That just means that the greatest number of of respondents were fucking wrong.

moviefreakedmind said:

I don’t care how popular he is.

Well it’s popularity and ranking by academics. And not caring about a consensus is fine.

If they think Reagan is in the top ten, then they’re nuts.

moviefreakedmind said:

If they think Reagan is in the top ten, then they’re nuts.

Okay.

If you think Reagan is better than Johnson, Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, T. Roosevelt, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, or JFK then you’re wrong.

Johnson? Wilson? I’m confused.

I was never a Reagan fan, but I would confess to having been moved by his speech after the challenger disaster.

Probably it’s just that most people have to go back to Reagan before they remember a president in the near of now they actually either respect? Or think led us in a good and solid way.

Puggo - Jar Jar’s Yoda said:

Johnson? Wilson? I’m confused.

I was never a Reagan fan, but I would confess to having been moved by his speech after the challenger disaster.

I find Bush’s 9/11 speech at the ground zero rubble to be quite moving as well. I still oppose the presidency.

http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/02/reuters-poll-black-male-approval-for-trump-doubles-in-one-week/

Thanks, Kanye.

Jeebus said:

Mrebo said:

http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/02/reuters-poll-black-male-approval-for-trump-doubles-in-one-week/

This really doesn’t seem all that significant, considering the small sample size and the tendency for fluctuation in opinions among that demographic.

I think looking at Kanye’s approval rating might be more telling 😉

Good point. Still that makes me wonder why there has been as high an approval rating as there has been. A headline, “20% of blacks approve of white supremacist president,” would be tough to reconcile.

I don’t think the argument has ever been that Trump is a white supremacist, but rather it’s that his base is significantly composed of racist idiots.

Weird little story about Paul Ryan trying to get rid of the chaplain of the House. The chaplain claims that Ryan’s chief of staff said, “maybe it’s time that we had a Chaplain that wasn’t Catholic.”

Violation of free exercise of religion?

Mrebo said:

Weird little story about Paul Ryan trying to get rid of the chaplain of the House. The chaplain claims that Ryan’s chief of staff said, “maybe it’s time that we had a Chaplain that wasn’t Catholic.”

Violation of free exercise of religion?

There shouldn’t be any government employed Chaplain.