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Big City Life. Unsustainable?
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iwazaru Send message Joined: 31 Oct 99 Posts: 173 Credit: 509,430 RAC: 0 |
This is a "new" problem. A lot of forces at play making it hard to realize there's a problem, let alone pinpoint a few of the major causes. We're a bit like frogs getting slowly boiled. And it's making us go backward instead of forward on a few issues. One prime example was during the Trump/Brexit peak when otherwise smart people started asking, "Should everybody have the right to vote?". I don't think a lot people see what's going on. I'll just use Tokyo as one example. Sky-high rents in Tokyo these past few decades were "classic" supply and demand. This is easy for most of us to understand. But something else is going on now. Something completely different. Canadian big cities for example did not suddenly become Tokyo. Well technically they have, but for different reasons. What are those reasons? What's so new and disruptive? |
iwazaru Send message Joined: 31 Oct 99 Posts: 173 Credit: 509,430 RAC: 0 |
It's a result of population density, and that cities are frequently populated with centrist Democrats. Apologies, but I have to move this discussion over here. I can't believe we're still doing this "Clinton won the popular vote" thing. I don't know what kind of science-fiction books you guys are reading, but the ones I've read are full of warnings about ideas like these... Nick, by arguing for a popular vote you instantly made all the RED counties above COLONIES of the cities. Is that what you want? - - - - - - @SARGE You're right about WI but AFAICT Nick doesn't want to talk about WI specifically I think. I think he wants to steer this discussion towards popular voting and Brexit. Which is fine :) It's all part of the same debate. |
W-K 666 Send message Joined: 18 May 99 Posts: 19062 Credit: 40,757,560 RAC: 67 |
OKay if you have objections to the "Hillary won the popular vote" comment, how about, "Can the Democrats ever have a controlling influence in the Senate?" |
iwazaru Send message Joined: 31 Oct 99 Posts: 173 Credit: 509,430 RAC: 0 |
I don't know where you're going with this but I thought (and I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm wrong) that under Obama they did at some point. And did jack with it? If this is something you guys have been discussing I totally missed it. Edit: Are you trying to say that 2 senators per State is a bad idea? |
W-K 666 Send message Joined: 18 May 99 Posts: 19062 Credit: 40,757,560 RAC: 67 |
Are you trying to say that 2 senators per State is a bad idea? I think that having two senators per state gives small population states too much power, and when you add their numbers into the Electoral College it only adds to unbalanced effect already included in the number of House Representatives per state. I do recognise that there needs to be a system that ensures that the big states don't have too much control, but IMO the system is over corrected. |
iwazaru Send message Joined: 31 Oct 99 Posts: 173 Credit: 509,430 RAC: 0 |
I think that having two senators per state gives small population states too much power... Well it's both set in stone AND a good idea. States are equal. Let me make this point in a roundabout way. Countries in the EU are equal in their sovereignty. If the EU had a US senate system, BREXIT would never have happened. As it is, the Germans are calling the shots. Pick your poison :) |
W-K 666 Send message Joined: 18 May 99 Posts: 19062 Credit: 40,757,560 RAC: 67 |
Well it's both set in stone And that is probably the reason why the US political system will eventually fail. If communities fail to adapt to changing times they are doomed to failure. |
iwazaru Send message Joined: 31 Oct 99 Posts: 173 Credit: 509,430 RAC: 0 |
Your not thinking this through. What a "Trump" can do to make rural America red, another "Trump" can do to make the cities red. In fact, it would probably be a lot easier. |
Gary Charpentier Send message Joined: 25 Dec 00 Posts: 30651 Credit: 53,134,872 RAC: 32 |
Your not thinking this through. Rump did not make rural America red. Richard Nixon and his Southern Strategy did so, along with the defection of the DixieCrats from the democratic party. Rump simply exploited what was there already. |
iwazaru Send message Joined: 31 Oct 99 Posts: 173 Credit: 509,430 RAC: 0 |
And Bernie could've turned a lot of it blue. And Obama could have too.... If he actually did anything in those years he had the senate on his side. But he sat on his hands. People voted for change. He didn't deliver. And why were smart people in the cities tripping over themselves to vote for Hillary? What was Hillary ever going to do for middle-class-city folk? It's a big club and we ain't in it. The day Amazon has to pay even a LITTLE bit of taxes, is the day any of us here has the right to say, "Yeah, I like my president." Until then we're just bickering over my-grifter-is-better-than-yours. |
Gary Charpentier Send message Joined: 25 Dec 00 Posts: 30651 Credit: 53,134,872 RAC: 32 |
And why were smart people in the cities tripping over themselves to vote for Hillary? What was Hillary ever going to do for middle-class-city folk? I live in a large city, Los Angeles, and I have never found a person who wanted Hillary. Many anyone but Rump, never a pro Billary. She bribed her way onto the ticket and the result is predictable. Americans don't want corrupt politicians. Pelosi is right, don't impeach, let Rump do it to himself, he is doing a wonderful job of it now. If he keeps it up, he is going to look worse than Nixon plus Hillary. He's going to look like a Gambino! |
Sarge Send message Joined: 25 Aug 99 Posts: 12273 Credit: 8,569,109 RAC: 79 |
And Bernie could've turned a lot of it blue. And here we will differ, at least a little. HRC would not have set in motion or allowed for the attacks on Roe v. Wade. She would not have had tried a complete ban on Muslims. Had children in cages. So on and so forth. But, she most definitely was a flawed candidate. Perhaps we'd be interefering in Yemen more than we currently are under HRC? "Pick your poison," indeed. And what the Trumpists don't understand, is a good portion of us would have been fighting HRC on her worst impulses, had she won. People who'd only contacted their elected officials once in the previous 20 or so years contacting them multiple times now, never made political donations but making them now ... HRC's successes and failures would have been guiding the choices we'd make on those things, just like DJT's complete failures (except maybe something on criminal justice reform???) are guiding them now. Capitalize on this good fortune, one word can bring you round ... changes. |
iwazaru Send message Joined: 31 Oct 99 Posts: 173 Credit: 509,430 RAC: 0 |
And here we will differ, at least a little :) It's not that you're wrong but... you're wrong :) Trump is not the cause. He is the effect. If an Obama presidency can deliver a Trump presidency ... what would a Hillary presidency deliver? (@ Gary However I am glad to hear Pasadena is not really a Hillary fan) |
iwazaru Send message Joined: 31 Oct 99 Posts: 173 Credit: 509,430 RAC: 0 |
Pelosi is right, don't impeach, let Rump do it to himself, he is doing a wonderful job of it now. If he keeps it up, he is going to look worse than Nixon plus Hillary. He's going to look like a Gambino! This is why I have such a fascination with psychopaths. Normal people can't help themselves but treat psychopaths (what most people incorrectly call a**holes when push comes to shove)... as OTHER normal people. I've told you this before, a lie detector works only on you & me (and everybody else in these forums). But Trump? Like water on a duck. IOW people like you & me already knew Trump was a Gambino, likely before he ever announced he was RUNNING for President. Mr. grab-'em-by-the-pu**y had a million chances to implode before the women of the United States decided they'd rather vote for a d*** than a c***. Go figure. (IOW there's NO-ONE that can touch the Trump except... Trump himself. The only way a "Trump" implodes is if he does it to himself.) |
Sarge Send message Joined: 25 Aug 99 Posts: 12273 Credit: 8,569,109 RAC: 79 |
And here we will differ, at least a little :) I thought you were better than this. Never anywhere in that post nor anywhere else have I said Trump is a cause or an effect nor implied it. Capitalize on this good fortune, one word can bring you round ... changes. |
iwazaru Send message Joined: 31 Oct 99 Posts: 173 Credit: 509,430 RAC: 0 |
I don't know why you took my reply for an attack :) We're just talking... Never anywhere in that post nor anywhere else have I said Trump is a cause or an effect nor implied it. If you re-read what I wrote you will see I technically "never said you did". I was just setting up a question which you ignored for some reason. You implied Hillary would have been better at a few things... but since I'm pretty sure Obama "built" those cages (and even if he didn't, he deported a record number of people) my brain had trail of thoughts... Either Trump had a magic flute and the mice spontaneously followed him mesmerized like a cult leader... Or Obama did a bad job and America voted for a lunatic on the off chance he really would make America great again. But it was Obama that was supposed to make America great again. He didn't. So we get Trump. Yet Obama was a nice guy. Hillary a grade-A narcissist. So I'll ask again: If an Obama presidency can deliver a Trump presidency... what would a Hillary presidency deliver? |
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