In case you missed the debate last week SNL brought us a great recap

[jimmys69]

The closest analog to today's liberal policies are Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland. Those countries are all doing quite well. They all have socialized healthcare. They all have well-funded public schools and Universities. They all have a robust social safety net. They rank ahead or far ahead of the USA in many - if not all - key measurements.

But they are not so deeply controlled by the super rich/corrupted members of our government as ours is...

 

[Orson]

The closest analog to today's liberal policies are Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland. Those countries are all doing quite well. They all have socialized healthcare. They all have well-funded public schools and Universities. They all have a robust social safety net. They rank ahead or far ahead of the USA in many - if not all - key measurements.

You have cherry picked countries with tiny populations and some of them are in dire trouble.

Swedens example is one to run a mile from and fast. Open borders failure and selective non reporting of what is going on is not a good example for any country. The country is nothing to what it once was. With a population of 10 million any type of politics would be hard to fail.

Norway and Iceland have such tiny populations you could govern them with any idea. Populations of less than 6 million and a few hundred thousand could be governed on the back of a cigarette packet.

Denmark... a population of less than 6 million.

So the best you can throw up to justify tearing a country apart to install a failed political experiments is a couple of countries, some which are in trouble and have populations of a few hundred thousand to just over 10 million and rely on other countries to defend them.

Those examples are really going to sway the undecided and get them to vote for the Dem/commie/lefties/liberals or by whatever name they go by this week.

 

[Snowman999]

Pelosi and the far left Dems/Libs are already working on a plan to create a commission that can decide if a president is "unfit"...something that has nothing to do with the 25th amendment, but instead, it would put the decision into the hands of a small group of politicians and unelected people.
They are preparing the logistics for "officially" removing Biden and putting Harris in full control as the president.
It will happen within the first Biden term.

They are also looking to pack the Supreme Court with as many liberal justices as they need in order to guarantee that anything they want, if they take it before the SC...they will get their way. They are also looking to implement new rules in Congress to prevent the political minority from being able to stand in their way.
Also on the table is the possible addition of 2-4 new states that will have predominantly Dem/Lib representatives...and then to top it all off, with all that voting power in their hands exclusively, they will look to get rid of the Electoral votes...so then all future elections will be run by the popular vote, which will be controlled by the liberals in CA, NY, OR, WA...etc...so basically, the country will have a one-party government, since no minority parties will ever be able to win anything...and whatever small victories they manage, could always be overturned by the packed Supreme Court.

After that...we will sink into a radical socialist existance, run by a small few in power, with full control of the media, so the propaganda will be absolute, and things like freedom of speech and true equality will be doled out however the radicals think is appropriate at any given moment.
There will be all kinds of mandatory edicts and mandates that if anyone refuses to follow, will be penalized in some way...loss of government controlled benefits, etc...and since everything will become government controlled...that could mean just about anything.

Welcome to the USA of China.

Oh...and don't expect the moderate, more conservative Dems to suddenly become "woke" to the radical beast they have allowed to take power, and for them to try and roll things back to a normal, constitutional democracy...because by the time they do become "woke", if they ever do...it will be too late, all the rules will have been changed, and we will become a 3rd world disaster like Venezuela or Cuba...etc...at least for the majority, but there will still be the liberal elites who will live better than ever, isolated from the madness they have created for the rest of us.

Oh...and if I sound paranoid...it doesn't mean I'm just imagining all this is can happen...because it really can.
If people like Hitler and Castro and Kim Jong-un can come to power and hypnotize the majority of people into allowing madness to take control...don't think in this social media driven world that it would be any harder now for propaganda to create collective group-think...oh wait, it's already been happening, and people are happily accepting it either out of fear (look at the COVID overreactions) or because of their desire for convenience, created through our technology addiction.

The 25th Amendment is just Pelosi trolling Trump. That's never going to happen.

If Biden wins, the only way the Dems can do anything is if they win the Senate also. If they don't win the Senate, Biden will have to do everything via Executive Order. Because this Senate isn't allowing anything radical to get through. They will treat Biden/Harris the same way the Dems treated Trump. It's not right. But, it's tit for tat. There'd only be worry if the Dems win it all. If that happens, then it will show a complete rejection of Trump and Republicans. BUT, as of this week 72% of Americans say they're better off today than they were 4 years ago. This is during a pandemic. That's a big indication that Trump might win. They might hate the man, but you can't argue the prosperity he's reined over.

Only Americans would need a satirical programme explained to them

That voice doing the explaining sounded like it should have been a horror movie.

Sounds like Ireland where you cant get rid of the Government no matter how you vote. It started off as proportional representation which some countries even want to change their system for. But now its the political class and the peasants who are told how to vote and drip fed pro Gov and pro EU propaganda every day.......... Not forgetting anti Trump news/stories.

We've been to Ireland twice. I would move there in a heartbeat. It's the loveliest country. You can get anywhere in no time at all. The shore lines, the people. We did watch the news at night and it does seem crazy. But, on the streets and shops. Absolutely beautiful. If you're from there, you're extremely lucky.

The only thing I did not like is the speed limits. Seriously, a single lane dirt road should not be 80km. That's insane. In the US the roads that are 50 - 60km are 25mph which are about 35km or thereabouts.

 

[Orson]

We've been to Ireland twice. I would move there in a heartbeat. It's the loveliest country. You can get anywhere in no time at all. The shore lines, the people. We did watch the news at night and it does seem crazy. But, on the streets and shops. Absolutely beautiful. If you're from there, you're extremely lucky.

The only thing I did not like is the speed limits. Seriously, a single lane dirt road should not be 80km. That's insane. In the US the roads that are 50 - 60km are 25mph which are about 35km or thereabouts.

Visiting somewhere and living there are two different things. Speed limits have mainly been altered to suit in the past few years. Next year will be a telling time.

 

[Snowman999]

Visiting somewhere and living there are two different things. Speed limits have mainly been altered to suit in the past few years. Next year will be a telling time.

I know. It's still a lovely country. The politics are insane as they are everywhere.

It also might be, I've spent over 40 years in New York City. THE CITY. I've been to tons of concerts and Broadway shows, Lincoln Center... So, I could use a little peace and quiet. NY has become a useless dump. Seriously, Starbucks, Duane Reades, Walmarts and computer stores have taken over the landscape. We paid $1000 a month for a railroad apartment on 26th between 7th and 8th (Chelsea). My wife lived there 18 years. That crap place goes for over $2000 now. Would you pay $2000 to go to Starbucks and Walmart? You can do that in any shit hole town in the US. The greatness of the city is long past. Maybe one day the culture will come back. But as of today there's a commercial about getting food delivered to your apartment. OH MY GOD I can get delivery in a pandemic. That makes hearing my neighbors music worthwhile at 2am.

 

[Orson]

I know. It's still a lovely country. The politics are insane as they are everywhere.

It also might be, I've spent over 40 years in New York City. THE CITY. I've been to tons of concerts and Broadway shows, Lincoln Center... So, I could use a little peace and quiet. NY has become a useless dump. Seriously, Starbucks, Duane Reades, Walmarts and computer stores have taken over the landscape. We paid $1000 a month for a railroad apartment on 26th between 7th and 8th (Chelsea). My wife lived there 18 years. That crap place goes for over $2000 now. Would you pay $2000 to go to Starbucks and Walmart? You can do that in any shit hole town in the US. The greatness of the city is long past. Maybe one day the culture will come back. But as of today there's a commercial about getting food delivered to your apartment. OH MY GOD I can get delivery in a pandemic. That makes hearing my neighbors music worthwhile at 2am.

If you live out in the wilds where you think you are safe. It can be lonely and you may have to travel an hour just for a 4" nail.

As they say .............. 'Its six of one and half a dozen of another'.

 

[ibleedburgundy]

You have cherry picked countries with tiny populations and some of them are in dire trouble.

Those countries are absolutely not in dire trouble.

 

[ibleedburgundy]

So the best you can throw up to justify tearing a country apart to install a failed political experiments...

Nobody is justifying tearing anything apart. Liberal policies make the USA stronger, not weaker. Social security, medicare, the civil rights act - these things have been quite excellent for the American people - as evidenced by their popularity.

None of those things are failed experiments. None of the countries I listed are failed states.

 

[miroslav]

I'm just trying to understand how this works.

I'm sure you will figure it out eventually...

My comments about the rejection of Obama's 8 years aren't about some popularity contest...which is what you want to make it.
Rather they stem from some of the narratives being pushed that Obama did really great for the economy, and that people thought he was a great president who accomplished a lot of things...well if that was so, then why didn't it translate into a Hillary win, since she was a big part of the Obama administration...?
If anyone listened to the Dems in 2016...you would think Hillary was guaranteed to win and continue where Obama left off.

It didn't happen.

AFA Bush...he was not liked right from the start by the liberals, almost as much as they hated Trump before he ever took the oath of office.
So yeah...I would say the Obama win was partly about the left's hate for Bush...because Obama was a nobody, so it was more about symbolically rejecting Bush...but let's not forget, Obama being black made all the difference...he won more because of that than anything else.
I bet if it was Hilary against McCain...it would have been a different story.

 

[miroslav]

The 25th Amendment is just Pelosi trolling Trump. That's never going to happen.

If Biden wins, the only way the Dems can do anything is if they win the Senate also. If they don't win the Senate, Biden will have to do everything via Executive Order. Because this Senate isn't allowing anything radical to get through. They will treat Biden/Harris the same way the Dems treated Trump. It's not right. But, it's tit for tat. There'd only be worry if the Dems win it all. If that happens, then it will show a complete rejection of Trump and Republicans. BUT, as of this week 72% of Americans say they're better off today than they were 4 years ago. This is during a pandemic. That's a big indication that Trump might win. They might hate the man, but you can't argue the prosperity he's reined over.

Pelosi isn't really looking to use the 25th...I think that was just mentioned because it refers to transfer of powers if the president is incapacitated, etc.
She is instead looking to create a commission that (if the Dems get full power) would be able to vote if a sitting president appears to be mentally qualified...which is something different from the 25th...but it may very well be the groundwork for how they remove Biden without him necessarily being incapacitated, etc. It would be like a small group of executives deciding on a new CEO any time they wanted.
It's a simpler way to bypass the results of elections than the 25th...IF crazy Pelosi and the Dems actually go ahead with it...but yeah, she's now just flailing away trying to create any kind of distraction...which kinda tells you just how confident they are about Biden/Harris winning.

Of course...you are right that it would require for the Dems to win it all...the presidency, Senate and House.
The Senate numbers are close, and I think all they need are like a couple of seats...I'm not really sure how many are up for grabs this year.

All that said...I do agree that in the end, it's going to be about how well people are doing...and it's pretty clear that a Biden win would have a major impact on $$$ even without the virus, because they want to create a lot of "free" stuff...and even the dumbest of voters would/should know that the money for that doesn't fall out of the sky...so it's about lots of taxes.

I kinda laugh at the typical lower/middle class liberals who are applauding the Biden/Harris ticket...because for them there will be a much more rude awakening when their wallets are hit, and that idealism without reality often costs a lot...and that money doesn't know Dem from Rep or Lib...but hey, I'm sure the Liberal elites, all those movie stars and rich politicians, can afford to push their idealism without concern for reality and the cost that average citizens will have to carry as a burden in order to have all this "free" stuff that madman Bernie and AOC have pushed down the Dems throats...and then everyone else's if they win.

Oh...and the comments about Sweden, which is often used as some shining example of socialism...is just not so.
When they went hard for socialism...the country was on the verge of bankruptcy, and there were taxes as high as 150% on some stuff!!!
Sweden walked away from that, and is now an open-market economy, and taxes are more normal...but they did retain some socialized programs, but with much more flexibility than what our Bernie wants. Heck...he's got a manifesto...pushing for all government run programs, no more choices...etc...etc.
I would much rather live in Sweden than a Bernie manifesto world that Biden/Harris are pushing.

 

[TAE]

Ok back to the original purpose of this post.

This is some pretty decent funniness in a not so funny time...I am just blown away Jim Carrey would come back to the show to do this but here he is...If you haven't seen it ..watch it and cringe at the absurdity of the world in which we are currently living...OY! It's a much bigger, convoluted and complex mess than any of us can comprehend.....It will all work out in the end, if it hasn't worked out...it isn't the end....but in the end keep in mind it will be the end...

So in the mean time I encourage you to live, love n laugh while you can! Enjoy the video!

 

[miroslav]

IMO...the best takeaway from the SNL clips is how all the people in the audience are sitting close together, seat next to seat...and the black guy who comes out on stage takes off his mask...but these are the same folks who lose their minds when Trump's fans don't distance and when Trump takes off his mask.



The virus hypocrisy with the Dems/Libs is endless...

Otherwise...AFA the SNL comedy...it became predictable and boring many years ago.

 

[Snowman999]

Ok back to the original purpose of this post.

This is some pretty decent funniness in a not so funny time...I am just blown away Jim Carrey would come back to the show to do this but here he is...If you haven't seen it ..watch it and cringe at the absurdity of the world in which we are currently living...OY! It's a much bigger, convoluted and complex mess than any of us can comprehend.....It will all work out in the end, if it hasn't worked out...it isn't the end....but in the end keep in mind it will be the end...

So in the mean time I encourage you to live, love n laugh while you can! Enjoy the video!

I'm sorry, that wasn't the slightest bit funny. These are FUNNY.





In 2016 my liberal friends went insane. Now everyone's going insane with anticipation. Except me. I wrote it November 2016 -

 

[Orson]

Nobody is justifying tearing anything apart. Liberal policies make the USA stronger, not weaker. Social security, medicare, the civil rights act - these things have been quite excellent for the American people - as evidenced by their popularity.

None of those things are failed experiments. None of the countries I listed are failed states.

Social security and health is not a socialist/liberal policy. It is a system which on the surface is actually a great idea. But in reality gets abused and proves to be massively expensive which actually destroys the economy of the country when this happens.

The UK started theirs in 1948 and all was great. The population was healthy and evenly matched so it didnt cost that much and was paid for with approximately 7% -10% tax on earnings.

The deal was......any health problems....you get treated free on demand.
Unemployed...........as long as you had paid into the system.........you get unemployment money for you and kids and a pension.......disability money etc.

For that you paid a weekly tax of 7% - 10% and your employer paid some for you aswell.

It has fell apart and become a monster where it has swallowed trillions or zillions from the tax take and has become uncontrollable and will probably collapse. The UK has no money for anything because of it and it is abused to the hilt. It costs many times more than the maximum 10% of wages now and if people were actually charged for it as a tax, then I wouldn't be surprised if it was over 50% of wages at least.

The UK was possibly second or even on par with the USA at the time of its social welfare contribution. Today even though the country is much wealthier and the economy one of the worlds best. The UK cant afford to defend its country, fix the roads or clear the rubbish from the streets. But the social security/national health system swallows all and everything and still demands more. It is nothing but a never ending money pit.

Who the hell would want to introduce a wild and uncontrollable animal like that. An insurance system which the UK system was actually based on would be a much better system.

As regards the countries you mentioned before. Those countries have no defence system and rely on others to stop being invaded...again. Any natural resources they have is spent on providing the things you mention. They can only do this because of their tiny population.

 

[miroslav]

Social security and health is not a socialist/liberal policy. It is a system which on the surface is actually a great idea. But in reality gets abused and proves to be massively expensive which actually destroys the economy of the country when this happens.

That's the part the liberals don't get...or fail to see far enough into the future to know it won't work well.

If we just look at the big social program here in the USA....Social Security...it's been hemorrhaging money for years, and by current accounting will not last more than another 15 years.
So...the liberals want to introduce a few other government run programs where there are no other choices...and somehow they think it will be "free" for everyone and solvent indefinitely.

Let's be honest...there aren't too many government run programs that work all that well...why?...because they are run by politicians and government workers who don't feel any sense of liability or responsibility...they never see the money as their money to take care of, and when the programs start to flounder, they just ask for more money from the government...which means the tax payer.

If you take any business and run it like that...with uncontrolled spending and no sense of any need to stay out of the red because you think you can just ask for more money...they would all fail, but yet, liberals think it's a great idea to let government control every facet of our lives by introducing many more government programs.

 

[grimtraveller]

When the history books are written by unbiased writers, Obama should go down as the worst President this country has ever had, and I voted for him twice

Call it my arcane sense of humour, but that was funnier than anything SNL could have come up with !

the thing Obama misses is that his entire 8 years were rejected when Trump was elected.

Trump lost the popular vote by a pretty wide margin. Almost 3 million MORE Americans voted for Hillary Clinton.

Just the way the powers that be many years ago decided how the president of the United States votes from each state should be calculated.... is what it is ....that one president got the popular vote and won vs one that didn't and won is irrelevant...the winner is the winner

If he loses, he loses... That doesn't mean he was rejected by "all" of America, just the ones that thought Biden ( for whatever reason) was a better choice

the Electoral election process....balances things out and prevents majorities in specific areas from always having their way.
The problem with your popular vote is that it does NOT represent every man, woman and child in this country...and every election is different.

When Obama won the electoral college in 2008 by a much bigger margin than Bush or Trump, did that mean America rejected all 8 years of your boy Bush?

This is the way to balance how the whole country works in an election without bias to any heavily populated area that may have different values than others

If you win by the rules then you have won. No matter what the rules are then you have won or lost by the rules. All the most intelligent people in the country may vote for one person and all the dumbest people vote because they like one persons new hair style. Point is if nobody broke the rules then the winner and loser won by fair means.

Going back to say, 1960 {I start there because it was during that presidential term that I was born} with one very slight discrepancy, the United States of America has, to any outsider observing, been Swing City Central. Yes, every election is different and there will have been a multiplicity of reasons why but the historical and unalterable fact is that America has swung at the end of each 8 year presidential cycle. '60~'68 Democrat. '68~'76 Republican. Swung again in '76 with Carter of the Democrats and then we have the slight discrepancy of a swing to Reagan in '80 and no swing at the end of his 8 years. But George Bush did a Carter and only served 4 years before things got back on historical swing city track again with 8 years of the Democrats, then 8 years of the Republicans then 8 years of the Democrats before the latest swing in 2016.
Virtually everyone I know and have heard commentate was surprised that Donald Trump won the election in 2016. I wasn't at all. The surprise would have been if he hadn't won. America is nothing if not historically consistent in its electoral cycles over the last 60 years. It's not like the UK where you don't get that kind of thing. It's been all up, down and aqua planing since 1960. 4 years Conservative, 6 years Labour, 4 Conservative, 5 Labour, 18 Conservative, 13 Labour, 5 Conservative~Liberal Democrat Coalition, 5 Conservative.
Obviously things change over a given period of time and in 2 of the presidential cycles, the VP had to take over, yet the country has been remarkably consistent in its habits and it seems to me that the system in which the POTUS gets a fixed 8 year maximum to strut their stuff is actually a better one than either those of places like Zimbabwe, Russia and North Korea where one person can rule for all eternity {} or here in which a PM can conceivably go on ad infinitum and are not removed either by the people or the system, but by the long knives of their own comrades {as happened to Mrs Thatcher and Mr Blair}. That America goes from one party to the other every 8 years says something about the populus as a whole that isn't reflected in some of the political arguments that happen in prime time !

The UK cant afford to defend its country, fix the roads or clear the rubbish from the streets

That is more dependent on where you might live. Our roads are frequently being fixed where I live, the streets are not filled with rubbish and when rubbish does get on them, the mechanics are in place for swift removal and every so often, parliament has big debates/arguments about our defence deterrents, the armed forces and whether or not we can afford to or should be sending armed detachments to other regions of the world.

 

[Orson]

That is more dependent on where you might live. Our roads are frequently being fixed where I live, the streets are not filled with rubbish and when rubbish does get on them, the mechanics are in place for swift removal and every so often, parliament has big debates/arguments about our defence deterrents, the armed forces and whether or not we can afford to or should be sending armed detachments to other regions of the world.

Well what I saw after returning once for a long time was really bad and I went to a few places. Regards sending British Troops on American fancies of taking over other countries and their assets should never happen again. But Military experts all say the UK can barely do anything anymore such are the cut backs.......all off topic.

 

[ibleedburgundy]

Social security and health is not a socialist/liberal policy.

Social security and Medicare absolutely are liberal policies, and they absolutely are socialist ideas. This is not debatable. Social security was passed by a liberal congress and proposed by the most liberal President we've ever had (FDR), and with heavy conservative Republican opposition. Medicare and Social security are by far the two biggest Government programs.

I have no idea why you brought up healthcare costs in the UK, but you seem to believe they pay too much. Maybe they do, but Americans pay a fuck ton more:

• Health expenditure as share of GDP by country | Statista

 

[Orson]

Social security and Medicare absolutely are liberal policies, and they absolutely are socialist ideas. This is not debatable. Social security was passed by a liberal congress and proposed by the most liberal President we've ever had (FDR), and with heavy conservative Republican opposition. Medicare and Social security are by far the two biggest Government programs.

I have no idea why you brought up healthcare costs in the UK, but you seem to believe they pay too much. Maybe they do, but Americans pay a fuck ton more:

• Health expenditure as share of GDP by country | Statista

You gave examples of around the world to justify your failed idealism.

I gave the UK as an example of social welfare and a national health service which was born in 1948. The first and the best in the world. It used to be the envy of the world until the true costs of it were laid bare. Now nobody how ever wealthy could afford it or would even start a system like it in their country.

All except a few in America who are just dreamers. It would be the end of the USA.

 

[ibleedburgundy]

I'm sure you will figure it out eventually...

My comments about the rejection of Obama's 8 years aren't about some popularity contest...which is what you want to make it.
Rather they stem from some of the narratives being pushed that Obama did really great for the economy, and that people thought he was a great president who accomplished a lot of things...well if that was so, then why didn't it translate into a Hillary win, since she was a big part of the Obama administration...?

Obama did very well for the economy and he was a very popular President. He left office with a 65% approval rating.

Hillary Clinton led the State Department (1 of 16 cabinet positions) for half of Obama's Presidency. No doubt the Republican media made that huge for you, and you ate it up. But in reality Hillary Clinton was no more significant to the Obama administration than John Kerry (who also served as Secretary of State for 4 years).

Whatever the case, I understand your opinion:

When a Republican wins the electoral college for the first time in 3 elections, it means America rejected the current Democrat candidate, as well as the previous two elections (if a Democrat won).

When a Democrat wins the electoral college by a wide margin, it merely represents "the left's hate."