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@PGA2.0
The Democrats have a huge hand in that. Your country needs an overwhelming win by Trump by gaining not only the House of Representatives but also the Senate. The Dems have tied Trump's hands. Give him four years without this continual obsticale around his neck and you might have a slim chance or altering the culture although I suspect not even that will help. When your academic institutions are controlled and indoctrinate the youth the hearts and minds will follow. The media is largely a spin-off of this instrument (academia) used by the gatekeepers of society.
The GOP had two years of undivided control and nothing got done. I will be voting for Trump in November but I have little hope that he wins, and if he does even less hope that he accomplishes anything other than another SCOTUS justice
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@Greyparrot
One thing I desperately wish the USA would adopt from the Nordic cultures is the belief that all people should be taxed, even if you are poor.We have a gigantic voting block that doesn't give a crap because they don't give a tax.
The US does a lot of things wrong, yea. The US way seems to be that once a generation or so you have a transformative president (FDR, LBJ, and arguably Reagan) that makes big changes and between those presidents basically nothing happens. I was hoping Trump would be another one of these, but it wasn’t meant to be
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Also most people in this thread have no idea where this economy is going. Andrew Yang was probably right about a high degree of automation resulting in tons of unemployment.
At the same time, the inheritance from the 1/3rd or so of boomers who saved and invested diligently their entire lives is set to be the biggest wealth transfer in history. America is going to become economically stratified like never before. If paying somewhat higher taxes prevents the communist mob— which is likely have full control of this country for most of the next few decades so—from killing me and taking my stuff, sign me up.
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@Greyparrot
That being said, Hollywood is littered with failed progenies who end up bankrupt or dead from drugs. Having rich parents is no guarantee for a wealthy future unless you are a trust fund baby, which means you aren't actually productive, just spending the wealth someone else earned legitimately. You won't ever be wealthier than your trust fund if you don't produce anything. But we need the trust fund babies as an incentive for the parents that bust their balls to make millions of dollars, otherwise, the GDP suffers when they choose to sit it out.
Yeah, there's definitely something to be said about the human need for struggle. If your life is sufficiently easy enough that there is nothing to overcome, you need to make an effort to intentionally take on challenges, whereas normal people tend to just have them thrown at them by life. Also when it comes to celebrity kids in particular a combination of fame from birth + narcissistic parents is toxic af
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@fauxlaw
We've already established that won't happen. But okay, what exactly do you want to cut and by how much?
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@fauxlaw
I wonder why people, many who aere rich, are leaving NY and Ca in droves. I left CA for the last time nearly 20 years ago. Drive taxes high enough, your assumed tax base will dwindle.
It's a lot easier to change states than it is to change countries.
What is your solution to stop runaway deficit spending?
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@ILikePie5
Everyone has the same opportunity to be a millionaire or a billionaire, but not everyone can.
Yeah sorry, but no. This is simply not true. Donald Trump, who was born into a wealthy family with a thriving business had a much better chance of becoming a billionaire than someone like me, who grew up in a nice suburb. Someone like me in turn has a much higher chance than someone born into the projects. That doesn't discount the work Donald Trump did to build his business but to imply that it's anywhere near as impressive as an actual rags to riches story is asinine. Socioeconomic status is pretty sticky between generations due to nature, nurture, and inheritance.
As for your deficit, I agree that it’s a major problem. One of the only places I disagree with the President on. But he has limited powers on budgetary issues as it’s a congressional power. Entitlement programs are a major problem for sure, but any cuts to Medicaid or Medicare would cause riots on the streets. We have to look at other places we can cut the deficit like trade for example.
What do you mean? Are you confusing the trade deficit for the budget deficit? They are two different things.
The fact of the matter is that the deficit is never going to get under control without cuts to entitlement spending or tax increased. Even the military budget is not nearly as large a portion of our total spend as people think (and interest payments are over 50% of the military budget.) You yourself admit there won't be entitlement cuts, so where does that leave us?
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@ILikePie5
Sports is a completely different scenario that has little ramifications if that cause they already pay taxes in multiple states as well as federally. These taxes are aimed towards sports players, rather company owners, and as I said before, they can move to a different nation and pay lower taxes through trade treaties, etc by lobbying with the money they have in that government. Can’t legally tax as much for that
I’m literally just talking about income taxes. Businesses are taxed in a different way, and I agree with you that it is much easier to skirt that tax by incorporating elsewhere or moving money offshore. Hardly anyone in this country has a personal income above $1,000,000 and those that do tend to be entertainers, professional athletes, CEOs or other executive level management at large companies, and a smattering of high level tech workers in the Bay Area. Almost all of these people are openly hostile to conservatism and the kinds of people that the GOP represents so it’s weird to see republicans resisting the idea that these people should have slightly less money so fiercely.
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@ILikePie5
They already find ways around it. Let’s assume there’s no way around it. I can just as easily move my company as a rich person. Move myself, and then pay lower taxes. There are many ways to do it if you have the money to do. I don’t blame a rich person for taking advantage the system. You and I would do the same thing. The government sucks at spending money.
This is why wealth and corporate taxes are bad policy, because it’s a lot easier to just move that money offshore. It’s basically impossible to do so with income. Say the tax code is revised such that incomes over 1 million get a 50% marginal tax that increases to 60% at 5 million. How does Tom Brady find a way around that?
What’s your solution?
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@fauxlaw
So, a 15% increase on +$1M may not have a significant effect on the economy. If you know what your talking about, why don't you know that even double that tax rate will not sustain government spending at the rate your progs want it. Yeah, I'm conservative. The money supply is in better hands in the private sector.
I’m not a progressive...at all. I just recognize that Republicans have had undivided control of the government several times since LBJ’s Great Society created our modern system and spending just continuously increases. They’re not going to do anything about entitlement spending because it would mean certain electoral doom.
If thats our political reality (and it is) I would rather raise taxes on very high incomes to start with in an effort to mitigate the interest we will be paying on the debt later on. I would like to avoid any tax increases on the middle class but it seems unavoidable...however as much of the burden as possible should fall on the rich
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@fauxlaw
Care to demonstrate why, or do I just trust you know what you're talking about. As I explained in my post #1 [this is my string] the one-percenters, even if taxed 100%, could not possibly fund the government longer than 6 months at current expeditures, let alone adding wild hair projects progressives/marxists want to cover. Who else would be taxed then, by Biden. You, bud.
I see on your profile that you’re a conservative, so you most likely have at least some understanding of the dangers of extreme deficit spending. I am deeply concerned about the long term impact of all of this (necessary) covid related deficit spending. While some deficit spending is good, the kind of debt the United States has been taking on recently is likely to have dramatic long term consequences as interest payment on the debt becomes a greater and greater portion of the budget.
Creating a few higher income tax brackets would do absolutely zero damage to the economy, unlike a wealth tax or bringing the corporate tax rate back up. Having, say, a 55% marginal tax on incomes about 1 million instead of 40% will not have a meaningful effect on the economy/incentive to work but would be a good start to getting our finances back in order. I don’t want taxes to go up on the middle class (me) but I’ve basically accepted that they will at this point, because it’s incredibly obvious that we are never going to get our spending under control. A compromise of higher taxes and an absolute prohibition on future discretionary spending is the only way I see out of continuously running trillion dollar deficits until the currency collapses.
And to answer your first question, yes, you should just trust that I know what I’m talking about
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@ILikePie5
The rich won’t pay taxes anyways. Why increase them for the middle class?
What does that even mean? They won’t have a choice. That’s the point of taxes.
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@TheUnderdog
When the US had practically open borders with war filled Europe in the early 20th century, we didn't get war in the US. The people fled the war; they hated war and they didn't want to bring that war here. I think the same would apply to Latin American immigrants.
The foreign ideologies imported with mass 19th century immigration resulted in large numbers of riots and terrorist attacks, culminating in the assassination of President William McKinley by one of the "new Americans" of that time. Mass immigration didn't lead to civil war (is anyone contending that it will?) but it absolutely led to a lot of unnecessary domestic strife in the 19th century. We'll see how to 21st century plays out but looking at the current state of American politics it aint looking great
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Taxes need to go up. Especially on the rich
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@Vader
The people who are starting riots are ANTIFA members and white people is what is sad. That's whats messed up about it
I've been watching a ton of this on livestreams from around the country...from what I've seen the looters were overwhelmingly black, the rioters were a mix of black, white, and hispanic depending on the area. But the rioting crowd was always whiter than the looting crowd, which makes a lot of sense--ideologues who will travel to a location for the "cause" vs. locals taking advantage of the situation. It's gotten ridiculous at this point, what are they even trying to accomplish?
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@RationalMadman
I don't think the left wing narrative is much better but yeah, the right has proven time and time again that (at least in its current form) it's unable to lead
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Fate clearly wants Donald Trump to be reelected. He was given coronavirus to bail out his presidency and he fumbled it, and immediately afterward he was given this. Unfortunately, as recently as yesterday he was going after Joe Biden for being too tough on crime. Does he even want to win?
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Republicans are truly pathetic. They’re so obsessed with winning a marginally larger number of black votes that they will let bonafide riots run unchecked, at the expense of their actual base.
At the same time mainstream conservatives clearly have a very low opinion of ordinary black people if they think the average black person supports this kind of street violence. Trump would almost certainly win more black votes by cracking down on the riots than letting them run rampant. If they think so little of black people, why would they even want to be associated with them? They haven’t thought it through and clearly never will.
It’s with a heavy heart that I admit: the right is too stupid to be trusted with power
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DDO had been in decline for years before the spam attack wiped it out. The biggest cause (other than the spam attack) was that Juggle redesigned the front page in a way that harmed your ability to see actual debates. Since almost all debates on DDO outside of those between core members ended in a forfeit, there was a lot of garbage to sift through. The old front page automatically filtered out any debate that had a forfeit.
Juggle for whatever reason got rid of this around 2014ish and there was an immediate decline in site quality and it became more of a social site that used to be a debate site
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My vote:
- Ratify the new Code of Conduct?
Yes! - Allow sharing of Private Messages?
Yes1, the truth will set us free. - Change the Voting Policy to expand S&G to include other excessive legibility issues?
Yes, but S&G shouldn't exist as a point. - Require a reason when submitting a report?
No1
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@TheRealNihilist
Don’t have the time for what?Why even start this if you knew you didn't have the time?
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@TheRealNihilist
Pretty weird to give this response when thett3 can't be bothered to commit to it. I could argue about stuff you said but I won't.
Me not having the time to “commit” to running a presidential election that the mods have said they won’t recognize doesn’t mean that a presidency is a bad idea. I work full time and go to school so I certainly wouldn’t have the time to administer an election in a timely fashion.
This site is dying. This thread has gotten significantly more posts than anything else recently. It needs a jolt of excitement, and a leader who can carry that excitement further
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@David
Your main forum hasn’t had a post on three days. This site is dying, and it’s going to die entirely if there’s no excitement. Implement a presidency.
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@David
This thread has gotten more posts than almost anything else recently on this website. The response is overwhelmingly positive and, let’s face it, this site desperately needs some positive excitement. Implement a presidency!
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@oromagi
Agreed, that is why we need a check on the power of moderation
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the good news is a lot of people showed up and more people who couldn't make it or didnt know about it expressed interest so it should be easy to get some games going in the future
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that was a lot of fun, we will definitely have to make sure it happens again--and soon!
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@David
His first election was totally non-controversial. His re-election was controversial because who won was open to interpretation (Bsh won the votes prior to the “time stamp”, but if you counted votes that were cast before the moderator posted to close the election, Wylted won.) It was a freak event.
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@David
You are misremembering what things were like because the last two DDO elections were total shit-shows. For the vast majority of its existence the presidency was a controversy free position that served as a symbolic head of the site advised the moderators on what was on the communities mind. A great example of this is when the users weren’t happy with Airmax’s disastrous personal conduct policy and the elections forced him to take a more laissez-faire approach.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. There needs to be a check on the power of moderation.
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@Discipulus_Didicit
The point is that we, the people, can have a direct line of communication and voice to the creator and owner of this site. The mods are doing a good job but they obviously have a different viewpoint than the average user. Think of it like a House of Lords/House of Commons distinction
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@Vader
Glad to know I can count on your support!
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Greetings all,
Now that we have had some time to let the new moderation team settle in, it is time that a new chapter of this site begins.
Our forefathers on Debate.org had a presidency for many years, and several DDO presidents accomplished great things. And let us not forget that when the institution was abolished the site met its fatal end shortly afterward. Virtuoso has been doing a great job as head moderator so far, but the people need a voice. Therefore, I formally propose that this site holds its first presidential election in June of 2020.
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Wow what a complete scam. I offered up an official resume and didn’t even get an interview!
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does anyone have a way to contact him, if so please send him this. Zmike if you’re lurking here HMU bro
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I haven’t been following this at all but the entire concept of restraining orders on a small debate site is kind of ridiculous and should only be used in extreme circumstances if at all. I don’t know TheRealNihilist at all (unless he once went by a different name) and I don’t know Supa very well but I know him well enough to know that he’s a reasonable person. I don’t see the justification for why we should assume that the two can’t act like adults to the extent that the mere act of them posting, accidentally, in the same thread warrants a seven day ban.
Blind legalism is dumb even in a country of 300 million people, it’s beyond idiotic on a site with a few dozen members.
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Site MVP
thett3
Member of Honor
Supadudz
Top Forum Post
When Utopia Crumbles LD
Best Mafia Game
Office
Most Liked Member
RM
Trending Topic
bsh1 resignation
I
Funniest Members
Drafter
Rookie Of The Year
Speed
Quality Forum Poster
Greyparrot
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Also since I know there’s a very good chance he’s reading this I also want to say that redemption is always possible and he doesn’t have to exile himself from this community forever if he chooses not to (although he should never be a moderator again.) But he does need to change his ways
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@ethang5
Since this board began, bsh1 has been sexually out of control.
I think this is a really good way to put it. From the incessant flirty comments to the bizarre poetry (https://www.debateart.com/forum/topics/924/raps-by-darters) he's flaunted his sexuality in a way that is questionable at best, and comes off REALLY badly when read in the wrong light. He even made a sexual comment about me, saying he would nominate my ass for the hall of fame. I've self doxxed on DDO multiple times so I know that he knows what I look like, meaning it wasn't just a normal comment. I didn't say anything because I don't care, but somebody else could've absolutely been offended or hurt by a comment like that.
I truly don't think he meant anything sinister in his comment to the minor. But it doesn't matter. It was a totally unacceptable way for a moderator to behave, and it was at that moment that I would imagine a lot of people suddenly started viewing his sexual behavior in the past in a *very* different light which caused the tremendous backlash.
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This site has a moderator for every five members or so, lol. They have to justify their positions somehow
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@coal
I agree with everything you said. And to his credit, while his knee jerk reaction was to defend himself he eventually acknowledged his mistake. There’s a middle ground between saying something ridiculous like this being the result of PC culture and thinking that Bsh is automatically a monster or a pedophile because of one comment that is probably one of the worst things he has said in his life.
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I think part of the reason the Bsh comment triggered the reaction it did, is that not only was it a wildly inappropriate thing for an adult moderator to say to a minor, but he also made just about the worst sexual comment to a minor that somebody in his position could make.
Think about it. What’s the whole “daddy” thing about? The fantasy of a powerful man using that power to exploit a subordinate. And the head moderator called himself daddy and told a kid to bend over.
That said, I don’t think he meant it as anything other than a crude joke, and as far as I know he has no history of grooming minors. I wish him the best, truly—but it’s probably good for him to at least take a break from this site.
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@bsh1
It isn't about free speech.
1) You are now tripling down on what was NOT an appropriate thing to say to a high schooler.
2) You are a moderator, and thus held to a higher standard.
Just admit it was wrong and that you wouldn't feel comfortable if I told your 16 year old cousin that I was daddy telling her to bend over
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@Speedrace
As forum moderator, what is your position on posts such as this? https://www.debateart.com/forum/topics/2919/when-utopia-crumbles-live-thread?page=1&post_number=16
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