US CE Spring 2022: I'm convinced it's useless which is why I argue about it all day every day

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > US CE Spring 2022: I'm convinced it's useless which is why I argue about it all day every day

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LionArcher: Mar 29, 2010

A bunch of Karen�s here (probably white) acting like will slapping wasn�t the funniest thing.

Also, calling it �violence� is just a code word to imply he should go to jail, another black person. In other words racism. Real pig energy going on in here.

Meanwhile Florida governor just signed the don�t say gay law. That dude should have a lot worse than a slap done to him. (And no mods, that�s not advocating for violence, he�s a loving murderer. Jail is worse than a slap, and he should be in prison).

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:31

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# ? May 20, 2024 21:05

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

punk rebel ecks posted:

I find it odd to lump categories like "accepting refugees" as neoliberal, but looking at that poll it is little wonder why so many "safe" Democratic voters are embracing the new right.

Free trade, free movement of people, and free movement of currency are the literal founding principles of neoliberalism.

The odd one out is considering nuclear power a neoliberal position, because it is something that requires government assistance to be viable.

Also, hatred of foreign aid and accepting more refugees has been a majority position for a long time in the U.S. and not something created by the "new right." Polls still show that a majority of Americans think we should increase spending on everything (health care, education, military, infrastructure, etc.) except for foreign aid. The only category that gets majority support for cuts is foreign aid; which most people think is around 20% of the U.S. budget, but is actually about 1%

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Mar 28, 2022

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:32

PhazonLink: Jul 17, 2010

Dick Trauma posted:

I have brought you all something even worse to discuss.

https://twitter.com/HeartlandSignal/status/1508506135212474376?s=20&t=Isg7GFxl8zpRouh1EOrFrA

please let this the time line where regressives monkeypaw furries into mainstream acceptance way ahead of scheduled.

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:39

NeatHeteroDude: Jan 15, 2017

I honestly can't believe will Smith didn't ask for his wife's consent before hitting Chris Rock. It's seriously not even that hard. Takes one or two seconds and then you're not removing her agency

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:43

haveblue: Aug 15, 2005; Toilet Rascal

NeatHeteroDude posted:

I honestly can't believe will Smith didn't ask for his wife's consent before hitting Chris Rock. It's seriously not even that hard. Takes one or two seconds and then you're not removing her agency

Didn't he? It's on video that while he laughs, she looks really mad, then shortly afterward he goes onstage. There may have been some communication there, or at least he may have quickly decided it was what she wanted

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:48

NeatHeteroDude: Jan 15, 2017

haveblue posted:

Didn't he? It's on video that while he laughs, she looks really mad, then shortly afterward he goes onstage. There may have been some communication there, or at least he may have quickly decided it was what she wanted

I hope there was. She did look very unhappy about it (the joke). Maybe I shouldn't make assumptions

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:49

some plague rats: Jun 5, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

NeatHeteroDude posted:

I honestly can't believe will Smith didn't ask for his wife's consent before hitting Chris Rock. It's seriously not even that hard. Takes one or two seconds and then you're not removing her agency

Every morning when I wake up the first thing I ask my wife is whether I have her permission to assault any comedian I encounter

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:50

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Gas prices aren't bothering all Americans.

Alaska has collected so much money in excess tax revenue, that they are running out of ideas on how to spend it.

The entire Alaskan state budget last year was $4.3 billion. They are expecting to bring in $6 billion in oil revenue for 2022 - not including all other tax sources.

They have already put $1.2 billion into a rainy day fund for education, given out an additional $1,300 check to all Alaskan residents, paid off more than half of the state's outstanding debt, increased education spending by $59 million, and have to decide what to do with an additional billion dollars after they ran out of ideas.

https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1508530636713345029

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:51

PhazonLink: Jul 17, 2010

can they sell bonds to other states? or some other form of fin. instrument voodoo?

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:53

NeatHeteroDude: Jan 15, 2017

some plague rats posted:

Every morning when I wake up the first thing I ask my wife is whether I have her permission to assault any comedian I encounter

That's a safe bet, and she respects you for it.

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:53

WAR CRIME GIGOLO: Oct 3, 2012; The Hague
tryna get me
for these glutes

Will Smith slapped Chris rock who slapped Rihanna so it's impossible to say whether Chris rock is at fault or Rihanna.

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:55

Jaxyon: Mar 7, 2016; I’m just saying I would like to see a man beat a woman in a cage. Just to be sure.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Gas prices aren't bothering all Americans.

Alaska has collected so much money in excess tax revenue, that they are running out of ideas on how to spend it.

The entire Alaskan state budget last year was $4.3 billion. They are expecting to bring in $6 billion in oil revenue for 2022 - not including all other tax sources.

They have already put $1.2 billion into a rainy day fund for education, given out an additional $1,300 check to all Alaskan residents, paid off more than half of the state's outstanding debt, increased education spending by $59 million, and have to decide what to do with an additional billion dollars after they ran out of ideas.

https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1508530636713345029

They could provide healthcare to folks but lol Alaska.

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:56

haveblue: Aug 15, 2005; Toilet Rascal

Obviously the solution is for Rihanna to slap Will Smith, then the universe will return to balance

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:56

How are u: May 19, 2005; by Azathoth

PhazonLink posted:

can they sell bonds to other states? or some other form of fin. instrument voodoo?

They should be spending every single cent on transitioning away from being an O&G state as quickly as humanly possible, but.... it's Alaska. The politics are bad and weird.

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:57

Jaxyon: Mar 7, 2016; I’m just saying I would like to see a man beat a woman in a cage. Just to be sure.

WAR CRIME GIGOLO posted:

Will Smith slapped Chris rock who slapped Rihanna so it's impossible to say whether Chris rock is at fault or Rihanna.

haveblue posted:

Obviously the solution is for Rihanna to slap Will Smith, then the universe will return to balance

extremely white posting energy here

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:57

some plague rats: Jun 5, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Jaxyon posted:

extremely white posting energy here

What? In D&D?!?

NeatHeteroDude posted:

That's a safe bet, and she respects you for it.

The day I don't ask will be the day I finally meet Jeff Foxworthy

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:58

NeatHeteroDude: Jan 15, 2017

Jaxyon posted:

extremely white posting energy here

Have you heard of ibram x kendis anti racist baby? It's a good book that yoy might want to read.

# ? Mar 28, 2022 20:58

This Is the Zodiac: Feb 4, 2003

WAR CRIME GIGOLO posted:

Will Smith slapped Chris rock who slapped Rihanna so it's impossible to say whether Chris rock is at fault or Rihanna.

Did you just confuse Chris Rock with Chris Brown?

# ? Mar 28, 2022 21:01

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

PhazonLink posted:

can they sell bonds to other states? or some other form of fin. instrument voodoo?

Selling bonds would be taking on debt to increase their cash on hand. Alaska has the opposite "problem" of having too much cash on hand.

Jaxyon posted:

They could provide healthcare to folks but lol Alaska.

To be fair to Alaska, the (most likely correct) assumption is that this is a one-time thing and the debate they are having is about what to do with the rest of the excess money because permanent tax cuts or spending increases could mess up the budget in the future. So, they have done a ton of one-time tax cuts and payments.

Most state budgets increase or decrease by about 2.5% per year, but Alaska increased their state budget by ~65% in a single year.

# ? Mar 28, 2022 21:05

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

lmao that a plurality of voters are against the noble expanded child tax credit that reduced childhood poverty by ~~50 percent~~ ~~30 percent~~ some amount during the year that the extra $1k was in effect, and which was an appreciably lesser amount than stimulus cash under either trump or biden.

# ? Mar 28, 2022 21:06

whiggles: Dec 19, 2003; TEAM EDWARD

LoL

nearly anyone could slap chris brown and get away with it. I personally wouldn't cause I'm a fearful halfling.

But I COULD!

# ? Mar 28, 2022 21:06

Elephant Ambush: Nov 13, 2012; ...We sholde spenden more time together. What sayest thou?; Nap Ghost

WAR CRIME GIGOLO posted:

Will Smith slapped Chris rock who slapped Rihanna so it's impossible to say whether Chris rock is at fault or Rihanna.

Chris Brown hit Rihanna, not Chris Rock.

Also, toxic masculinity sucks. The joke sucked and wasn't justified, the slap sucked and wasn't justified, and people who expect their partners to violently retaliate against someone for being mean to them are awful people who feed into the toxic waste dump. If Jada wanted Chris Rock to get slapped she should have slapped him herself at the after party or whatever.

# ? Mar 28, 2022 21:07

Bottom Liner: Feb 15, 2006; a specific vein of lasagna

And he didn't slap her, he violently beat her until her face was unrecognizable.

# ? Mar 28, 2022 21:09

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Bottom Liner posted:

And he didn't slap her, he violently beat her until her face was unrecognizable.

Seriously.

Chris Brown and McDonald's have had the most successful PR programs in history given the amount of people who think the hot coffee lady was an example of lawsuits gone wild and Chris Brown "just" slapped Rihanna.

Look up the pictures of Rihanna from that night. It is horrifying.

And everyone around him, including many women like his manager, record label account executive, new girlfriend, and other artists kept his career alive afterwards (and still today!) because he made them a lot of money.

Edit: "Nice Guy" Drake and "Girl Power" artist HER both had Chris Brown on their new singles and star in their music videos in the last two years. So, he has been entirely rehabilitated in the recording world.

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Mar 28, 2022

# ? Mar 28, 2022 21:14

Jaxyon: Mar 7, 2016; I’m just saying I would like to see a man beat a woman in a cage. Just to be sure.

whiggles posted:

LoL

nearly anyone could slap chris brown and get away with it. I personally wouldn't cause I'm a fearful halfling.

But I COULD!

Not really because it won't be one on one because Chris Brown is a cowardly piece of poo poo who jumped Frank Ocean with 6 people.

And yes it's disgusting that he still has a career after what he did to Rihanna.

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Edit: "Nice Guy" Drake and "Girl Power" artist HER both had Chris Brown on their new singles and star in their music videos in the last two years. So, he has been entirely rehabilitated in the recording world.

Sad about HER but Drake is already a predatory groomer

# ? Mar 28, 2022 21:26

Precambrian Video Games: Aug 19, 2002

BiggerBoat posted:

I gotta admit that for a while I found myself wondering what the perception would be if, instead of Chris Rock, the slappee was...oh....let's say Ben Stiller or Wil Farrell. Trying to think of a relatively well liked white comedian actor. A part of me thinks the narrative might have been a little different if you know what I'm saying.

Probably the most popular white comedian actor today is Volodymyr Zelensky, so imagine the 'nuclear' takes if he'd been invited and slapped on stage. Kelly could do a lot better with this

# ? Mar 28, 2022 21:36

Main Paineframe: Oct 27, 2010

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Kind of interesting to see a poll directly test the NIMBY vs. YIMBY housing questions against each other.

Although, the NIMBY position may actually be even more popular than the poll indicates because a lot of the problem with NIMBY stuff is that everyone is good with it in theory until they actually have to make a choice about it in their neighborhood.

Most surprising thing: White and black respondents (despite white people being more likely to be Republican and black people more likely to be Democratic) don't have a huge difference in their desire to protect property values at all costs. Both of them generally support it. But, Hispanics do have a large difference from everyone else for some reason.

No demographic group, except for Hispanics, gets a majority in favor of the more housing position.

Not surprising, but funny: Republicans are the group least likely to support property rights in this scenario.

twitter.com/PatrickRuffini/status/1508494987696254978[/url]

The same poll also polled some "neoliberal" policy positions and basically came to the conclusion that Americans generally like the environment, but hate refugees.

They are also pretty evenly divided on cash payments to parents, nuclear power, and free trade.

twitter.com/PatrickRuffini/status/1508493398675755011[/url]

It's worth noting that this is a openly Republican polling firm, whose co-founder Patrick Ruffini spent more than a decade working for the GOP and Republican candidates before departing to create polling firms that he himself called "right-of-center".

I don't have many specific complaints about the methodology, because as far as I can find, the polling methodology isn't explained anywhere at all. The closest we get to details is that it was drawn from a "web panel" which they applied a "Likely Electorate" weighting to.

It doesn't explain what a "Likely Electorate" screen is at all, except to say that it's different from a likely voter sample (and it doesn't explain exactly how it's different). But while their methodology isn't clear, the results are quite something.

This is a sampling that skews quite heavily conservative. A majority of respondents are age 50 or older, the retirees almost outnumber the workers, and the South seems rather overrepresented. Naturally, the political self-ID question comes out pretty much like one would expect given those demographics.

# ? Mar 28, 2022 21:40

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

It's an election year so let's wave dicks over who loves soldiers & bombing more:

quote:

President Joe Biden implored Congress in his budget request Monday to boost military funding by 4 percent and non-defense coffers by 5 percent, while forcing the wealthiest households to pay more taxes.

Republicans are expected to offer a stiff counteroffer � demanding that Biden go even bigger than his proposed $813 billion for the national security budget, and shrink his ambitions for $769 billion in non-defense spending.

Guess which of the two (raising taxes & increasing military funding) will likely pass?

# ? Mar 28, 2022 21:47

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Willa Rogers posted:

It's an election year so let's wave dicks over who loves soldiers & bombing more:

Guess which of the two (raising taxes & increasing military funding) will likely pass?

The answer is going to be technically neither.

Congress hasn't passed an actual budget in years and the continuing resolution they passed recently (and will likely extend for a few months over and over instead of passing a new budget for an entire fiscal year) already included about 3.8% more military spending and 5.4% more domestic spending. With the Ukraine supplementals, the military part should get pretty close to 4%. The extra 4% that Biden is requesting is on top of that 3.8% for R&D for advanced semiconductors and quantum computing, increased salary and pension payouts for active duty and retired troops, pandemic research and planning, and Ukraine aid. Only the Ukraine aid is likely to ever go through.

# ? Mar 28, 2022 22:17

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

The big question is how much bang for the buck defense companies will get in exchange for their lobbying & donations:

quote:

War means windfall. Defense companies, both large and small, are scrambling to grab their share of ballooning budgets in the U.S. and abroad sparked by Russia�s invasion of Ukraine.

That dash for cash is expected to create tension between more established defense firms and younger upstarts as the Pentagon and allies figure out how to divvy up funding for Ukraine.

***

Defense companies, and their lobbyists, have taken notice and are banging on doors on Capitol Hill to sell more fighter jets, missiles, small arms, drones, and the technology to shoot down enemy aircraft.

�For the defense industry, happy days are here again. When the defense budget rises it tends to lift all boats in the industry,� said Loren Thompson, Lexington Institute COO and a defense industry consultant who receives money from Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies.

A rising tide "lifts all boats" in the defense industry is my new favorite nonsensical euphemism.

# ? Mar 28, 2022 23:05

shimmy shimmy: Nov 13, 2020

Willa Rogers posted:

The big question is how much bang for the buck defense companies will get in exchange for their lobbying & donations:

A rising tide "lifts all boats" in the defense industry is my new favorite nonsensical euphemism.

Isn't that a JFK analogy?

# ? Mar 28, 2022 23:12

Kalit: Nov 6, 2006; The great thing about the thousands of slaughtered Palestinian children is that they can't pull away when you fondle them or sniff their hair.

That's a Biden success story.

Willa Rogers posted:

The big question is how much bang for the buck defense companies will get in exchange for their lobbying & donations:

A rising tide "lifts all boats" in the defense industry is my new favorite nonsensical euphemism.

So� I don�t have much faith in Politico in general, but are they really desperate enough to re-use a quote from 2016 to try to get clicks? That was literally about boats? It�s not a direct quote attributed to Thompson in https://portal.ct.gov/OMA/In-the-News/2016-News/Ohio-Replacement-Plan-Is-Good-News-For-Electric-Boat, but it seems like it might be something he stated, given the context. And I don�t see a date/source for it given in that Politico article :rolleyes:

Regardless, it seems like this article is just trying to hype up what everyone knows. DoD budget goes up every year and defense contractors love conflict/wars. Luckily, we have a president who seems opposed to direct intervention for once.

E: VVVV

Yinlock posted:

There's something sincerely disgusting about how cheerfully they go about it. Just total sociopath behavior, which while unsurprising is still gross.

It�s probably not an actual quote by Thompson about the current Russia situation. Look at the article I included

E2: I found the �happy days are here again� quote from Thompson was stated a lot. In addition to the above article about Ohio, here�s another instance about Trump being elected :lol:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2016/11/09/for-the-defense-industry-trumps-win-means-happy-days-are-here-again/amp/

Kalit fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Mar 29, 2022

# ? Mar 28, 2022 23:36

Yinlock: Oct 22, 2008

Willa Rogers posted:

The big question is how much bang for the buck defense companies will get in exchange for their lobbying & donations:

A rising tide "lifts all boats" in the defense industry is my new favorite nonsensical euphemism.

There's something sincerely disgusting about how cheerfully they go about it. Just total sociopath behavior, which while unsurprising is still gross.

# ? Mar 28, 2022 23:42

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Prediabetes has more than doubled among children in the U.S. in the last 20 years.

It is not concentrated among any demographic group. It more than doubled in every racial, income, geographic, and household education level.

Nearly 3 out of every 10 kids in America had prediabetes in 2018.

https://twitter.com/cnni/status/1508579769251684364

quote:

Prediabetes in America�s youth is following a concerning trend: Rates among children have more than doubled in about 20 years, according to a new study.

The increase was seen over almost all subpopulations of young Americans, regardless of income, ethnicity and education, said study author Junxiu Liu, assistant professor of population health science and policy at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, included children from 12 to 19 years old and looked at data in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention�s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to 2018. Over that time, the rate of prediabetes in adolescents went from 11.6% to 28.2%, rising fairly steadily in that time frame.

Prediabetes is very common in adults, but 80% of those affected don�t know they have it, according to the CDC. The condition is marked by blood sugar levels that are higher than normal but not yet at the diabetes threshold, and it increases a person�s risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

�If we do not intervene, the children who have prediabetes have a higher risk of developing diabetes and also have a higher risk of all cardiovascular diseases,� Liu said.

The study is well done, and adds to a body of knowledge about concerning trends when it comes to diabetes and America�s youth, according to Dr. Robert Gabbay, chief science and medical officer of the American Diabetes Association.

�As a society we need to work together to reduce obesity and prediabetes in youth,� Gabbay said. �This will take a broad public health approach from working in schools, families, and most importantly availability of healthy foods with a particular emphasis on populations that are (at) greatest risk such as the youth population.�

What the study couldn�t answer is why prediabetes has been on the rise, Liu said, and that is the next question future research should pose.

There may still be questions about what is causing the rise, but Liu and Gabbay said a healthy lifestyle is a great place for families to start to reduce their risk.

Most children should be getting regular physical activity, reducing screen time, spending more time outside, eating a healthy diet and getting enough sleep, Liu said.

Researchers saw a decline over five years in the amount of physical activity children as young as 6 years old engage in per day, according to a 2019 study published in the journal Pediatrics. At the same time, children 8 to 12 years old are getting almost five hours of screen time per day while 13- to 18-year-olds are spending over seven hours glued to their screens, according to a 2019 report from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that provides entertainment and technology recommendations for families.

Getting kids away from the screen and moving can be a challenge for some, so CNN contributor Stephanie Mansour, host of �Step It Up With Steph� on PBS, suggested working with your child to find what works for them � whether it�s team sports, swimming on a summer day or going for a family hike.

�Allowing your child to find what sports or physical activities they�re interested in early on can give them something to look forward to while maintaining good health and fitness during the school year,� Mansour said.

And when it comes to healthy eating, it doesn�t have to be a fight.

Listen to your kid�s hunger cues, model healthy eating, incorporate healthy additions to meals they already like and make healthy food available (and unhealthy food less so), said Alexis Wood, an assistant professor of pediatric nutrition at Baylor College of Medicine, and lead author of a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association.

# ? Mar 29, 2022 00:22

BRJurgis: Aug 15, 2007; Well I hear the thunder roll, I feel the cold winds blowing...
But you won't find me there, 'cause I won't go back again...
While you're on smoky roads, I'll be out in the sun...
Where the trees still grow, where they count by one...

Wish we celebrated the true empowering strength of discipline, intent, and seeing things through even if it's uncomfortable, rather than the fashionable aesthetics of looking good and being succesful. The rewards are largely within wrt to the former, and obvious and public with the latter. It's a hard ask though, when we're so thoroughly infused with certain profitable values as soon as we pop out, and furthermore shackled by them.

I don't say this lightly, many people in my sphere (yes some very close and loved by me) are fretting themselves sick, or reaching for diagnoses to explain their "problems" when they don't seem to fit into the world we've built in the way they reckon they should.

Nature and life are chaotic and uncaring. But we've supplanted nature, we've built a cruel and profitable system that redefines human life and turns people into twisted up ghosts, and all it's going to cost is everything.

# ? Mar 29, 2022 00:59

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

We have reached a conclusion on the two biggest issues of today.

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1508595153300336654

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1508594301953056781

# ? Mar 29, 2022 01:04

Kavros: May 18, 2011; sleep sleep sleep
fly fly post post
sleep sleep sleep

Deciding whether I want to be pulled in the direction with the ring, or the direction without

# ? Mar 29, 2022 01:30

Fritz the Horse: Dec 26, 2019; ... of course!

Hi everyone, we discussed mod feedback threads and Koos Group would like to try and have one roughly quarterly (every 3mo). Since our last feedback thread was end of Jan, that means we will plan to do another one end of April.

If you have questions, comments, suggestions, complaints etc in the meantime feel free to PM a mod of your choice. Or if you think it warrants a QCS thread, there's always that option.

# ? Mar 29, 2022 02:53

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Former Representative Will Hurd is running for the Republican nomination in 2024. He is technically the first candidate to officially enter.

He's going to run as a compassionate conservative who advocates tax cuts, a focus on conservative issues that resonate with black and hispanic voters like school choice and religious liberty, stopping the focus on transgender and CRT issues, and bringing a muscular American foreign policy back to the world after Joe Biden's pullback of America.

Basically, 2002-era George W. Bush.

We'll see how that works for him.

He would also be the only African-American and youngest Republican candidate.

That makes Hurd the only confirmed candidate and the following are potential candidates:

Donald Trump
Ted Cruz
Mike Pence
Kristi Noem
Ron DeSantis
Greg Abbott
Tom Cotton
Larry Hogan
Mike Pompeo

quote:

Will Hurd thinks there are enough normal voters to deliver him the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. But is he right?

Last spring, having just retired from Congress, Will Hurd was feeling adrift. He had agreed to write a book, telling his remarkable life story and diagnosing a malfunctioning political system, all while teasing out a run for the presidency in 2024, but Hurd struggled with an underlying anxiety. For the first time in his adult life, the guy who�d climbed so quickly�from college class president to star CIA operative to lone Black Republican in the House�didn�t know his next move. Finally, Hurd sat down with his nearly 90-year-old father and shared his concerns.

�William, I can�t give any advice on what you should do, because I don�t understand any of these things,� Bob Hurd told his youngest son. �But I know what you shouldn�t do. Don�t be desperate. Because when you�re desperate, you make bad decisions.�

The former congressman tells me this story on the back patio of El Chaparral restaurant, one of his favorite haunts, in suburban San Antonio. We�re drinking Ranch Water�tequila and lime juice over ice, with a splash of mineral seltzer�and comparing notes on his book, American Reboot, which splices together riveting tales that help illuminate his views of a Republican Party that�s rotting from the top down. But the book doesn�t contain the story about this father-son talk. Rather, the anecdote surfaces organically when I ask Hurd about his brutal indictment of the GOP and how that has changed his relationships with the likes of Kevin McCarthy and Elise Stefanik, party leaders whom he once considered close personal friends.

�Some of my friends, some of my former colleagues, they are desperate,� Hurd tells me. �They are so desperate to hold on to their positions, to hold on to their power, that they make really bad decisions.�

Read: Will Hurd picks a side

Those bad decisions are evident when it comes to big, history-forming events, such as the party�s enabling of Donald Trump�s assault on American democracy. But the bad decisions are also made subtly, in response to smaller episodes every single day, often to accommodate the party�s ugliest impulses. (The third chapter of Hurd�s book, written as an open letter to the Republican Party, is titled �Don�t Be an rear end in a top hat, Racist, Misogynist, or Homophobe.�)

The desperation�lawmakers catering to the loudest voices in the party base�is not healthy, Hurd says. It�s the by-product of safely partisan districts that provide more incentive to light fires than put them out. It�s the consequence of the public�s collapsing faith in the core institutions of civic society, which invites national politicians to weaponize disputes that should be addressed at the local level. It�s the expression of a country in decline�a country convinced that its existential concerns are not Chinese sabotage and Russian disinformation, but face masks in public and vaccines for a virus.

�We�re in a competition. If we don�t win it, we�re going to be a former superpower,� Hurd says. �We need to treat it as a competition�us versus the world. But we can�t, because our politics are so messed up. We�re too busy fighting with ourselves.�

Hurd�s book is notable for many reasons�his personal and professional journeys are legitimately compelling�but most of all for its rebuke of America�s proportionality problem. Drawing on his diverse experiences, from chasing down intelligence overseas to parsing classified documents in Congress to working with groundbreaking tech companies today, Hurd argues that we are woefully unprepared for what is coming our way. Quantum computing has the potential to break every form of encryption that guards our money and our secrets. Artificial intelligence could cut the service-based workforce in half�every two years. Biomedical advances will force questions about the ethics of rewiring our brains and halting the degradation of human cells. In the meantime, China will continue its siege of the American economy�swiping our intellectual property, snatching up our real estate, sabotaging our investments�while Russia will intensify its decades-old campaign to delegitimize our systems of government and turn Americans against one another.

His subtext is plain enough. To confront these challenges, Hurd�s colleagues in the Republican Party might need to rethink their fixation on transgender athletes and critical race theory.

�Everyone treats everything these days like it�s some drat emergency. And it�s got to stop,� Hurd says. �We�re going to be dealing with issues that are so complicated, and so life-altering, that they make the stuff we�re dealing with right now look like tickle fights.�

Hurd proposes a wholesale reorientation of our politics�away from the dopamine-inducing cultural conflicts of the day, and toward the generational trials that will shape American life in the 21st century. To pull it off, he says, we�ll need both a groundswell of reasonable people reclaiming the political discourse from absolutists and ideologues, and innovative, unifying leadership at the highest levels of government.

Hurd knows that these two conditions are codependent: A leader can�t emerge without a movement, and a movement manifests only with the inspiration of a leader. He also knows that some people view him as uniquely qualified to meet this moment: a young, robust, eloquent man of mixed race and complete devotion to country, someone whose life is a testament to nuance and empathy and reconciliation.

What Hurd doesn�t know is whether America is ready to buy what he�s selling. The nation has been lulled into long-term complacency by elected officials and special interests and media personalities that have short-term motivations. The most engaged voters in his party�the people likeliest to cast ballots in a presidential primary�are, to varying degrees, addicted to the fear and grievances being peddled by people clinging to relevance. Hurd realizes that breaking this addiction won�t be easy. In fact, it might prove impossible.

He does, however, see another path forward�one that depends less on persuading those hardened partisans and more on mobilizing a different kind of voter. The overwhelming majority of conservative people in this country, Hurd says, are not watching Fox News every night or imbibing conspiracy theories online. They are not politically neurotic. In fact, they may have never voted in a primary to choose a nominee for president�and that�s the point. �They have been busy trying to put food on their table, put a roof over their head, take care of the people they love,� he says. �But now they�re getting fed up. They are tired of everybody. They are ready for something different.�

Like what?

�Something normal,� Hurd says.

Every politician has an origin story. But I�ve never listened to one as telling�and infuriating�as Will Hurd�s.

In 2008, the young CIA operative was stationed in Afghanistan. He had been an unlikely recruit to the agency; having majored in computer science at Texas A&M, Hurd once dreamed of making a fortune in the tech world. But serendipitous encounters with CIA veterans on the A&M faculty had transformed his curiosities, and several years into the War on Terror, Hurd had emerged as a vital asset in the Middle East. After a bombing near the CIA compound, Hurd was tasked with briefing a group of lawmakers from the House Intelligence Committee, who happened to be visiting Afghanistan. When he began to explain the nature of the local rivalries between Sunni and Shia factions in the region, one of the congressmen interrupted. He asked Hurd what the difference was between a Sunni and a Shia.

Read: Will Hurd could be the canary in the coal mine

Hurd thought it was a joke. He waited for the punch line. But it never came. The congressman�s expression made it apparent that he, as well as others in the room, did not understand the basic distinctions at the heart of this war zone. Here were federal lawmakers�members of the intelligence committee�who could not be bothered to understand the place where they were sending trillions of dollars to fund wars in which young Americans would fight and die.

The episode confirmed Hurd�s worst suspicions about American politicians: that they were lazy, ignorant, and selfish. (Some of the members of Congress he spoke to that day, he writes in his book, grumbled that the briefing was keeping them from shopping for local rugs.) Hurd was so enraged that he decided to quit the CIA, move home, and run for Congress.

The workhorse reputation Hurd earned on Capitol Hill is best viewed through this prism: the endless weekend drives through the loneliest corners of his district, the obsession with basic constituent services, the determination to gain expertise on every issue before him, the reflex to ignore partisan squabbling and pass legislation on a bipartisan basis. It also explains Hurd�s impatience with far-right and far-left partisans who hail from safe districts where no meaningful work is required to win reelection every two years�and who, in between social-media feuds and cable-news speeches, disparage people like him as languid �moderates.�

�The moderates are the ones who behave the same way regardless of whether their party is in power or not. The moderates are critical to crafting and passing legislation that actually gets signed into law. The moderates are the ones who work the hardest,� Hurd writes in his book. �And we are the ones who get poo poo done. Extremists do the most bitching and get the least accomplished.�

It�s true that Hurd has never been driven by any particular ideology. He hired a number of Democrats for key positions in both his D.C. and local offices�a practice that�s virtually unheard of on Capitol Hill�and, when in search of legislative partners, defaulted to looking across the aisle before recruiting fellow Republicans. Once, while we were driving together across a barren stretch of West Texas, I spent an hour pressing Hurd to explain why he considered himself a Republican. He rambled a bit, recalling that his first-ever vote was for Bob Dole (but only because of Dole�s military service). He talked about Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves. Then he pivoted to standard fare about too much government impeding human progress. Finally, he shrugged. �Look, my hypothesis is that 80 percent of Americans are around the center�40 percent left of center, 40 percent right of center,� Hurd told me. �And they�re all persuadable. The letter next to my name should matter less than my message.�

Hurd�s book�and to an extent, his prospective presidential candidacy�should not be read as an attempt to erase the differences between the two parties. Rather, it is a rejection of their fringes, and of the false choices that frame much of our political debate. Even when it comes to subjects as fraught as abortion or Second Amendment rights or the definitions of human sexuality, Hurd argues that there are broad areas of agreement obscured by the incessant demagoguing of partisans who stand to benefit from sowing narratives of zero-sum division.

Take the issue of immigration. The nadir of Hurd�s time in Congress came in early 2019, when the federal government shut down for a record-setting 35 days because of a stalemate over which policies to fund�and how much money should be spent�at the southern border. For 35 days, Hurd watched the leaders of both parties scheming, wrangling their rank-and-file members, figuring out how to emerge victorious from the standoff. Never once in those 35 days did anyone, in either party�s leadership, solicit an opinion from Hurd�a national-security expert, the member who represented more of the U.S.-Mexico border than anyone else in Congress, a guy who�s studied the issue inside and out.

Why wouldn�t they want Hurd�s input? Simple. Because they knew he wasn�t going to tell them what they wanted to hear. They knew Hurd would offer a set of solutions�the mass streamlining of legal immigration for both high-skilled workers and low-skilled laborers; the construction of a cutting-edge �virtual wall� utilizing cameras and fiber-optic cables to monitor illegal crossings; the granting of citizenship to millions of �Dreamers�; the surge of funding to local agencies dealing with a mass influx of asylum seekers�that would antagonize the loudest voices in both party bases.

�So, nothing gets done,� Hurd says. �Because politicians would rather use it as a bludgeon against each other, as opposed to solving a problem that most Americans, Republicans and Democrats, agree on the solutions to.�

The beating heart of Hurd�s book is a call to Americans to consider the most contentious issues of our times more holistically. He�s not under any illusion that consensus will magically appear. But he does believe that most voters�what he describes as the 80 percent clustered within range of the middle�are tired of being presented with binary choices when it comes to big, complicated questions.

In one passage, Hurd describes his anguish over the murder of George Floyd. It was made that much worse by the reductive scrutiny of his own actions in the volatile aftermath: As the lone Black Republican in the House of Representatives, Hurd felt as though anything he said or did�such as marching with protesters in Houston, over the objections of his staff�was perceived as picking a side. In his view, there were no sides.

�I wanted to show solidarity with Black America. I wanted to explain it was okay to be simultaneously outraged by a Black man being murdered in police custody, thankful that law enforcement puts themselves in harm�s way to enable our First Amendment rights, and pissed off that criminals are treading on American values by looting and killing police officers,� Hurd writes.

�These emotions,� he concludes, �aren�t mutually exclusive.�

None of this means Hurd wants to be a great reconciler of the two parties. Just because he can envision leading a post-partisan movement, does not mean he expects�or hopes for�some cease-fire between Republicans and Democrats. He believes that competition between two healthy parties is essential to a functioning democracy. He just doesn�t believe we have two healthy parties.

Hurd makes no secret in the book of his scorn for the ascendant progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Its crusade against oil and natural-gas production, he says, endangers hundreds of thousands of good-paying American jobs and would make the U.S. dependent on some of the world�s worst actors to supply our energy. Its stigmatization of law enforcement�calls to defund the police, or abolish Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or slash the budget of the U.S. Border Patrol�invites an era of lawlessness and violence and death, particularly along the southern border. These two issues alone, Hurd says, explain why Latino voters are rapidly disaffiliating with the party.

Read: The Texas Republican asking his party to just stop

�When I was in Congress, I was the only Republican on the entire U.S.-Mexico border. Now there�s the potential that three of the five [Texas] border seats are going to vote Republican. The border district in Arizona is probably going to flip too. Why?� Hurd tells me. �Because you have Democratic mayors and sheriffs and county judges that are sick and tired of national Democrats talking down to them. For those Latino communities, border security is a public-safety issue. Oh, and by the way, most of those folks on the border know somebody who works in the energy sector. So they feel like Democrats aren�t just putting them in danger; Democrats are trying to dismantle their way of life.�

That said, Hurd saves his harshest commentary for his own party.

Republicans have become comfortable �saying or doing anything to win an election,� Hurd writes. The party of family values champions cruel policies and hateful politicians while lecturing the left on morality. The party of fiscal discipline and personal responsibility blows holes in the budget, then blames Democrats for their recklessness. The party of empowerment and opportunity systematically attempts to disenfranchise voters who are poor and nonwhite. The party of freedom and liberty keeps flirting with authoritarianism.

Hurd�s most pressing concern for his party is that it�s become an agent of disinformation. This is not a uniquely Republican phenomenon, he emphasizes�the book contains a blistering critique of Democrat Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, for leaking faulty information regarding Trump colluding with Russia�but it�s the Republican Party�s embrace of lies and propaganda that most immediately threatens our system of government. Hurd says that watching the January 6 assault on the Capitol, just three days after his retirement from Congress, felt like he was watching a sequel to 9/11�extremism infiltrating America in a new form.

It was �an example of the kinds of internal threats many of our military leaders have cautioned our political leaders to take as seriously as external threats,� Hurd writes. �To prevent future manifestations of this threat from materializing, the Republican Party must drive out those who continue to push misinformation, disinformation, and subscribe to crackpot theories like QAnon.�

But that�s not happening. Just as Hurd was shipping his book to the printer, the Republican National Committee met in Salt Lake City. Its 168 members�three from each of the 50 states and six territories, elected at the local level by party activists�adopted a resolution censuring the two House Republicans working on the January 6 investigation. The resolution also called the insurrection �legitimate political discourse.�

Hurd was dumbfounded. He believed that Trump deserved to be impeached�not just for inciting the violence at the Capitol but also for his recorded phone call with the Georgia secretary of state, in which the president asked a top election official to falsify ballots. (Hurd says these circumstances differ from Trump�s first impeachment, which he agonized over and ultimately voted against, because there was �a clear violation of the law� in the run-up to January 6.) Letting Trump off the hook, Hurd says, was bad enough. For the Republican National Committee to gather more than a year after the insurrection and pass a resolution justifying the death and destruction at the U.S. Capitol was a �new level of crazy��and, to him, proof that the party needs an intervention.

The irony, I tell him, is that these are the people�the best-connected local Republican leaders�who will play an outsize role in determining whether an intervention is successful. These are the people who do the most influencing and organizing and favor-trading in their state parties. These are the first hands he�ll have to shake in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina if he decides to run for president.

Hurd stares at me blankly. Finally, he arches an eyebrow. �Why?�

Because, I explain to him, these are the gatekeepers to the presidential process. Even Trump, who ran the most unconventional campaign in modern history, had to kiss some rings and grease some palms.

Hurd is still blank-faced. �That�s how things have always been done in the past,� he says. �But why does it have to be that way?�

I ask Hurd what he would propose instead.

�Look, there�s some people I�m not going to appeal to�the right-wingers. That�s okay. But there�s more of the other people. The normal people. And I�m going to find them,� he says. �It will be hard. The cost per acquisition of those voters is higher than it is for the traditional Republican primary voter�you know, the people who have voted in the last four primaries. That�s why most people don�t bother trying to find them or turn them out.�

Wouldn�t it be easier, I ask, to just concentrate on wooing those existing likely voters?

�Maybe,� he says. �But if you want to change the party, you need to change the primary electorate. This isn�t rocket science. If you want to get back to normal, you need to get more normal people to vote in primaries.�

It�s a provocative notion. Hurd isn�t just hinting at a campaign against Trumpism; he�s suggesting an assault on the structural realities of the Republican Party.

Contemplating this sort of insurgency is one thing when the GOP is locked out of power. But come November, Republicans are likely�based on all the available evidence�to rout Democrats in the midterm elections. If that happens, the loudest and most radical elements of the Republican Party will be emboldened, and any incentive to moderate the party�s identity will seem lost.

Hurd acknowledges this. But if past is prologue, he says, Republicans will do little with their newly won power in 2023. Congressional leaders will struggle to corral their rambunctious majorities; the party will succeed in frustrating Joe Biden�s agenda but fail to provide any governing vision for the country; and by 2024 the country will be forced to choose between two dug-in, do-nothing parties.

�At that point,� Hurd says, �Maybe people will feel like it�s time to get off this crazy train.�

It�s possible, Hurd tells me, that such continuing dysfunction will push voters deeper and deeper into their partisan silos. His hope rests on a belief that they�ve been pushed too far�and that sooner or later, they�ll push back.

�Look, if you�re a left-wing nut or a right-wing nut, you�re probably not going to smell what I�m cooking,� he says. �But most people aren�t nuts. They want to solve problems. They want to make this century an American century. They are normal people who want normal leaders.�

Hurd is putting the pieces in place. His friends say he wants to run for president in 2024. He may not have universal name recognition or a behemoth political operation, but he does have a vision. He has a loyal and growing donor base. He has the biography and the charisma and the God-given political chops to put the Republican Party�and the rest of the country�on notice.

People close to Hurd thought he was crazy to abandon a future corner office at the CIA to run for Congress. (Bob Gates, the former defense secretary and CIA director, lobbied furiously to keep Hurd from leaving the agency; then, pitying his former Texas A&M pupil, Gates did something he�d never done in his life: He wrote a campaign check.) The young candidate said the same thing to every donor and party official he met: �You don�t need to think I can win; you just need to think it�s not crazy.� That�s the same approach the 44-year-old bachelor envisions taking in a campaign for national office.

Hurd is the definition of a boom-or-bust candidate. He could go all the way to the White House; he could also go nowhere fast. Everything we know about politics in the Trump era suggests that the second outcome is far likelier than the first. But Hurd says he�s not worried about that. Because the only thing worse than being defeated is being desperate.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/will-hurd-2024-book/629398/

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Mar 29, 2022

# ? Mar 29, 2022 03:22

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# ? May 20, 2024 21:05

Fritz the Horse: Dec 26, 2019; ... of course!

Kristi Noem is 100% going to run for VP and imo has a very good shot at it.

# ? Mar 29, 2022 03:28

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > US CE Spring 2022: I'm convinced it's useless which is why I argue about it all day every day

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