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Silicon Valley Swings To Republicans
phantomfive writes Silicon Valley is making a mark in Washington as Google has recently replaced Goldman as the largest lobbyist, but until recently, most of the money from Silicon Valley went to democratic candidates. In 2014, that has changed, and Republicans are getting most of the money. Why the change? Gordon Crovitz suggests it's because Harry Reid blocked patent reform. Reid gets a large chunk of donations from trial lawyers, who oppose the reform.
Yes. Do this. But beware that the person you put in office in his stead is not the same. The GOP is feared by trial-lawyers, yes, but they have not said one whit about patent reform that I can see. Indeed, most of them, being reflexively pro-business, are all in favor of the same zany IP laws as democrats. If someone has some counterpoints, I'd love to hear them.
The practice of paid lobbying ought to be outlawed altogether, with long prison terms in store for those who break that law. After that law is in place, anyone who formerly worked in the lobbying "industry", (and how odious to use that word in connection with lobbyists), would be forbidden forever from seeking public office or working for the government as either an employee or as a contractor.
It's time to outlaw the purchase of favourable legislation altogether. In fact, it's long past time to aggressively outlaw ANY circumvention of democracy. Yeah, I know it isn't going to happen - but I can dream...
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
So I guess that establishes the pecking order, doesn't it? Just when all eyes are on the military-industrial complex, Wall Street takes over. And then as they are in the spotlight, in sneaks the new corporate Stasi.
Bullshit! Just because the business of Silicon Valley are funding and endorsing republicans doesn't mean you have to vote for them. And they cannot legally occupy the office without your vote. The money can be rendered completely worthless by the conscientious voter. So please, quit your belly aching about the money. It is not an issue. The voters' obsession with it is. They keep voting for it.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
1. Republican power is increasing in Washington. If you want a powerful government friend to help you, you make friends with people who whose power is increasing.
2. People don't love Hillary Clinton. Support for Hillary Clinton rests mostly on hatred for her opponents. But her opponent hasn't been chosen yet. It might be Rand Paul. So it's hard to get your hate on enough to write the big check.
Both parties deserve credit for cooperation. Republicans and Democrats have been working together in the House to enact many reforms, not just patent reforms.
link.
The problem here is specifically Harry Reid, not the Democrat party in general. However, Democrats will not replace him on their own, and the only way to do that in this election cycle will be to vote a Republican majority into the Senate. Hence support for the Republican party when the actual target is only one Senator.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
The saddest thing here is that for most people, every time they get disenchanted with the Democrats or Republicans, so many of them switch to supporting Republicans or Democrats.
Which is best for clear throught: to take cocaine, or heroin?
Which is the path to a long healthy life: to shoot yourself in the head or stab yourself in the heart?
Which is more in the interests of America: Democrats or Republicans?
Depending on your preferences and values, you might actually have real, valid answers to these three questions. But you ought to also know that all these questions are absurd. Why do we still take that last one seriously?
Well of course not.....because now that the AP and other news orgs found out they weren't exempt from the domestic spying and psyops campaigns Obama is running (same as many presidents before him....really, Obama is just Bush 2.0 with better PR), they aren't covering for his multitude of lies and unethical behavior like they used to. So, for the many mindless sheep that will love Obama even if he starts WW3 before leaving office, the news is now the enemy and nothing more than "propaganda".....unless it supports their mindless bleating, then it's great.
Partisans are fools.
With Steve Jobs dead, he's having a hard time sending out his pre-election "I urge you all to vote Democrat" emails. And yes, I have about 5 of those archived.
I don't think this is actually a major factor, I think it's more people are pissed off by the people currently in power, and want change - any change - from what's currently happening.
Yes, I love the "The Republicans screwed us last time they were elected, let's vote in a Democrat!" "Oh no, Obama sucked too and screwed us like the Republicans did! I know, let's vote in another Republican and see if they're different now!"
Meanwhile the few sane people left are screaming from the sidelines, "Hey, we've got GOOD people here that actually want to, you know, represent their constituents.....if you'd just pay attention! Hello?!? McFly?!?"
Last time I was subjected to a new round of their peace and prosperity, I had to look for a new job.
I was out of work for two years (2009-10), had 20 job interviews, and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy before getting a new job. I was out of work for eight months (2013-14), had 60 job interviews, and took out a bank loan to pay rent before getting a new job. As a moderate conservative, I remembered when Republicans once stood for responsible government.
But I would really like to hear one person such as yourself explain, by the numbers, how this is not a time of relative peace and prosperity?
Well, the last time Republicans were in charge was Jan 2007. At that time, the unemployment rate was 4.6% and falling, and the deficit was $161 billion. Since a year after the Democrats have taken Congress, neither the unemployment rate nor the deficit has been this low.
As for now, 95% of the "recovery" has gone to the top 1% and the labor participation rate is at the lowest point since the '60s.
As for "peace", we've lost more soldiers in Afghanistan in six years under Obama than we lost in eight years of Bush. Iraq is on fire with women and children being sold into slavery or have their heads cut off and placed on stakes like the men. ISIS, a group that makes Al Qaeda look like alter boys, has taken over much of Iraq and is even making money from the oil sales. In Africa, school girls are being kidnapped and sold as sex slaves or wives, as if there is a difference.
Are these the numbers you were looking for?
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Up until the Goldwater Republicans fiscal conservatives wrested control of the party from the law-and-order business Republicans in the late 70s, the Republicans were actually very, very responsible -- at least, they implemented policy with responsibility in mind, rather than governing with the intent to make government not work. They believed in spending on infrastructure, and making sure the budget was something resembling balanced, not just as small as possible.
Even 1994's GOP is to the left of where it is today.
AS far as personality cults go, though, Ted Cruz scares the crap out of me. He strikes me as the sort that'd make Joe McCarthy look like a reasonable man.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
-- Arthur C. Clarke
Replies:
1. Obamacare failures -- New large programs often have initial glitches. W's medicare D did, and so did Medicare's roll-out. The GOP refuses to help with adjustments, instead just complains and tries to repeal it over and over. That's not problem-solving.
2. Loss of press freedom -- Both parties guilty of press games. It doesn't excuse anyone, but changing parties won't solve it.
3. Lowest labor force participation in many decades -- Most "mature" industrial nations are facing the same problem; it's not special to the US. It appears to be a combination of offshoring to cheap-labor countries, and automation. GOP has shown no intention of doing anything different to solve those. They seem to believe that if you can't compete with slave commies and robots, that's your problem: Social Darwinism.
4. Incompetence on Ebola -- I have not seen anything specific and verifiable, just cherry-picking facts to make O look bad. GOP tends to want to cut fed. health R&D in general. That's not going to help the next outbreaks.
5. Overweening regulation -- The devil's in the details. Most new regulations relate to preventing another banking melt-down. The banks failed to regulate themselves last time, so they have more rules now. Do you want a repeat? See also #8.
6. Politicization of DoJ and IRS -- Vague. There's no evidence of intentional bias at IRS. Sloppy procedures, perhaps, but not bias. DoJ has always been political for the decades I've been alive.
7. Extrajudicial killings of US citizens -- I've seen no evidence the GOP is against such practices over-all. Both parties are arguably "war mongers".
8. Crony capitalism bailouts of banks and GM -- The real problem is lack of anti-trust enforcement. If companies and banks grow too-big-too-fail, then failure creates a domino effect, which can wreck a weak economy. And I've seen no evidence that the GOP is for stronger anti-trust enforcement. If anything, they see it as "gov't interference" and wish to do nothing to stop it in the name of "free markets".
9. Increasing levels of poverty, highest levels of food stamp use ever. -- See #3
I realize "the other party also does it" doesn't sit well with voters, and they'll punish the party in charge regardless of what the other party would do instead. Voters are short-term thinkers, unfortunately, and that's why we get pendulum politics. Each side over-promises and then fails to deliver. Rinse, repeat.
Table-ized A.I.
I'm just going to be flat out, brutally honest here: The party in charge rarely, if ever, changes things in such a way that causes you to lose your job. Unless you operate a business where a specific law changed that outlawed your business in some way, then you aren't going to lose your job.
Fuck, I had a job that I lost shortly after Obama took office and the Democrats took the house. As much as I hate both of those facts, it would be incredibly stupid for me to blame my job loss on that.
Enough of the partisan bullshit.