American Democracy On Life Support

[FreeMan88]

That makes a lot of sense. I mean Hitler and Il Duce rode in on a Populist wave.

 

[Derec]

It is a form of social and sexual intelligence.
How you carry yourself will make you more or less attractive to other people.

Not buying it. The dumbest motherfuckers seem to be having the most sex. Usually unprotected.
Like in that song:
Been around the world and found
That only stupid people are breeding
The cretins cloning and feeding

Or Idiocracy intro:

 

[Swammerdami]

There's no thread on Joe Manchin? No thread for this man who proudly hopes for his epitaph to be "I killed American democracy single-handed"?

One wonders what his motive is. The American public — even Republicans — overwhelmingly support improving access to the ballot box, but Manchin allies himself with the vote suppressors. Why? 79% of West Virginians support the For The People Act; Manchin opposes that. West Virginians, whether D or R, are strong supporters of a $15 minimum wage; Manchin opposes that. Whatever Manchin's motive may be, it is NOT to appeal to his constituents.

It turns out the answer to that is ... guess what? ... Money. Filthy corporate money. Joe Manchin receives big sums of money from Charles Koch and his front companies. Manchin's anti-democracy OpEds are taken almost word-for-word from Koch-inspired propaganda.

I am NOT a fan of TheYoungTurks and, frankly, couldn't even finish this video. But why aren't other pundits telling this story of betrayal? If you do just skim it, don't miss the amusing/disgusting part early on where a Koch spokeswoman brags about how Koch-written legislation is made to appear to have a "grass-rootsy vibe."

[YOUTUBE]FflZVookMCA[/YOUTUBE]

 

[untermensche]

There are some jobs that are filled by people who do well on tests.

Doctors, lawyers, dentists.

Many make more money merely because they had higher test scores. They work hard but so do construction workers.

That does not mean they are the best people for the jobs.

Doctors and lawyers both use the same sort of mental abilities that IQ tests measure.

No they don't. The IQ test does not measure how well somebody will formulate an argument or how well they will do surgery.

IQ tests are passive. They do not measure active capacities like creativity and social aptitude.

Dentists have tests that look at hand dexterity because IQ tests don't measure that.

 

[Harry Bosch]

That's very generous.

All four groups have their idea of winners and losers.

Then how author Joseph Packer doesn't think that the US is dying. He notes that "US is dying" in various forms was said in 1861, 1893, 1933, and 1968.

I would go along with 1861 and 1933. Just as we are now due another 80-90 years later for something similar. It may not be a war (hopefully) but there will be a substantial political change driven from the bottom up. As with other cycles, wealth disparity is the big driver again today but something like bitcoin may be progressive disruptive solution for the commoner to break his (her) bonds from the elite banking powers using crypto technology they simply have no control over...we will see in the near future.

Amigo! Perhaps I have this wrong about you, but weren't you one of the people on this forum questioning the 2020 election that Biden won? Weren't you supporting the republicans and civilian protestors who tried to override the election? (If I'm wrong, I apologize). Let's not be passive aggressive here and blame the danger of losing democracy on "wealth disparity"!! One side tried to overturn the election and the constitution. They got mad and believed in conspiracies and wanted to blow up the system. That side lost. Democracy won - for the short term at least. But a great deal of republicans, including their leader, Trump, believe in conspiracies. And if Trump gets elected in 2024, that might be our last election. Trump and his supporters are the greatest threat to our democracy today.

 

[ZiprHead]

There's no thread on Joe Manchin? No thread for this man who proudly hopes for his epitaph to be "I killed American democracy single-handed"?

One wonders what his motive is. The American public — even Republicans — overwhelmingly support improving access to the ballot box, but Manchin allies himself with the vote suppressors. Why? 79% of West Virginians support the For The People Act; Manchin opposes that. West Virginians, whether D or R, are strong supporters of a $15 minimum wage; Manchin opposes that. Whatever Manchin's motive may be, it is NOT to appeal to his constituents.

It turns out the answer to that is ... guess what? ... Money. Filthy corporate money. Joe Manchin receives big sums of money from Charles Koch and his front companies. Manchin's anti-democracy OpEds are taken almost word-for-word from Koch-inspired propaganda.

I am NOT a fan of TheYoungTurks and, frankly, couldn't even finish this video. But why aren't other pundits telling this story of betrayal? If you do just skim it, don't miss the amusing/disgusting part early on where a Koch spokeswoman brags about how Koch-written legislation is made to appear to have a "grass-rootsy vibe."

This was reported a week ago by Randi Rhodes and I relayed it here at TFT in another thread.

 

[untermensche]

It is a form of social and sexual intelligence.
How you carry yourself will make you more or less attractive to other people.

Not buying it. The dumbest motherfuckers seem to be having the most sex.

No.

The people with the highest social and sexual intelligence have the most sex.

You are dumb to not recognize this important form of intelligence.

And not having as much sex as those with it.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

There are some jobs that are filled by people who do well on tests.

Doctors, lawyers, dentists.

Many make more money merely because they had higher test scores. They work hard but so do construction workers.

That does not mean they are the best people for the jobs.

Doctors and lawyers both use the same sort of mental abilities that IQ tests measure.

No they don't. The IQ test does not measure how well somebody will formulate an argument or how well they will do surgery.

IQ tests are passive. They do not measure active capacities like creativity and social aptitude.

Dentists have tests that look at hand dexterity because IQ tests don't measure that.

I was picturing the office context more than the surgical context. Surgery adds another type of intelligence, also.

I do agree that they don't measure things like creativity and social aptitude. It's not that IQ tests are wrong, it's that they are incomplete.

 

[Trausti]

No they don't. The IQ test does not measure how well somebody will formulate an argument or how well they will do surgery.

IQ tests are passive. They do not measure active capacities like creativity and social aptitude.

Dentists have tests that look at hand dexterity because IQ tests don't measure that.

I was picturing the office context more than the surgical context. Surgery adds another type of intelligence, also.

I do agree that they don't measure things like creativity and social aptitude. It's not that IQ tests are wrong, it's that they are incomplete.

Whatever it is it measures, it measures something. No one wants a surgeon with a double digit IQ.

 

[Patooka]

No they don't. The IQ test does not measure how well somebody will formulate an argument or how well they will do surgery.

IQ tests are passive. They do not measure active capacities like creativity and social aptitude.

Dentists have tests that look at hand dexterity because IQ tests don't measure that.

I was picturing the office context more than the surgical context. Surgery adds another type of intelligence, also.

I do agree that they don't measure things like creativity and social aptitude. It's not that IQ tests are wrong, it's that they are incomplete.

Whatever it is it measures, it measures something. No one wants a surgeon with a double digit IQ.

Trump wanted one in his cabinet.

 

[Trausti]

Whatever it is it measures, it measures something. No one wants a surgeon with a double digit IQ.

Trump wanted one in his cabinet.

??? You mean Ben Carson? You don’t think this neurosurgeon has a three digit IQ? ‘Cause he’s black?

 

[untermensche]

Carson when young was a good student and he learned to be a good surgeon.

But later in life we see this did not translate to wisdom.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Whatever it is it measures, it measures something. No one wants a surgeon with a double digit IQ.

Trump wanted one in his cabinet.

??? You mean Ben Carson? You don’t think this neurosurgeon has a three digit IQ? ‘Cause he’s black?

It's his behavior, not his skin color that would imply a double-digit IQ.