USCE 2023: Please let them shove a camera up your butt

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USCE 2023: Please let them shove a camera up your butt

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Still seems nuts to a non-American that you guys all have to file your own taxes instead of that burden being on your employers, but I guess not being gouged for the right to do the busywork is a step forward

# ¿ May 16, 2023 16:29

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 11:55

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Gyges posted:

Lifetime appointments made a lot more sense when to become a doctor you just had to start referring to your self as one, and the height of medical technology was better ways to bring your humors into balance.

also if you felt strongly enough that another toff was a bad actor you could duel them to the death

# ¿ May 19, 2023 09:14

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

I AM GRANDO posted:

Let’s hope Desantis gets upstaged by Tina Turner dying right in the middle of his announcement. Not that she was in the room but, you know.

Wait, what?

Edit: gently caress

# ¿ May 24, 2023 20:07

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Byzantine posted:

The Romans didn't consider themselves part of "the white race" with their equals the Germanic tribes, destined to dominate "the slave races" of Africa. Roman slavery was widespread and often brutal, but it wasn't based on "everybody of this color is automatically a slave". Likewise there were no demands for birth certificates when guys from Africa or Arabia rose to become Emperors.

In the medieval era, religion was the driver of conflict. The Ethiopians were treated as equals on the few occasions there was contact, Genghis Khan was hailed as a hero until people realized The persecutions of Jews were religious in nature, and the Crusades hammered into whoever was a heretic or infidel regardless of their skin color.

I realize this seems like splitting hairs - what does it matter if the angry mob burning your house down is technically doing it because you worship god wrong, not because you're too brown. But I think it does matter because racism as we know it is not inherent to humanity. It is about 500 years old and it was conjured up so some rich people could get richer. It's not a demon unable to be exorcised, it is something we can beat.

I'd argue that the Romans were absolutely, explicitly racist in many many ways. While you had guys who became emperor despite not being from Italy (Iberia and Illyria producing some of the best later emperors), you also had guys whose "barbaric" origins meant that they could never be emperor despite having the biggest army in the empire under their control (EG: Stilicho), so had to put puppet emperors of the "correct" origin in place to rule through.

Just because the Romans believed they could "civilise the savage barbarians" and turn them into Roman citizens doesn't stop them being massive racists. Sure, it wasn't more modern "skin colour" racism, but it was absolutely racism.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2023 09:59

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Captain Oblivious posted:

They were cultural chauvinists, yes. That is not racism. The concept of a theory of race came much much later. You are projecting a comparatively modern idea backwards.

Eh, "so and so can never be emperor, he's a Vandal, we need someone from Italy" seems pretty slam-dunk racist to me.

And all the exterminations of entire tribes seem pretty bad too

# ¿ Jun 19, 2023 10:57

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Byzantine posted:

Hello.

This is John the Golden Mouth erasure and I for one will not stand for it

# ¿ Jul 20, 2023 19:29

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

You can kind of see the logic though - if the country-wide Democratic party threw substantial resources at Texas and Florida they'd get criticised for "chasing obvious no-hoper states in this, the most important election that has ever happened"

# ¿ Aug 7, 2023 14:04

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Herstory Begins Now posted:

Pardon?

It's funny seeing Americans (even non-Republicans) talk about "socialized medicine" when here in the UK it's the "National Health Service" and is referred to as nationalised healthcare.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2023 13:29

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Who funds Laura Loomer?

# ¿ Sep 5, 2023 14:05

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

haveblue posted:

There�s a different episode in which Scotty admits he always vastly inflates the initial estimate so when Kirk orders him to do it in 1/3 the time it�s actually feasible

You wonder how many dumbasses like Elon Musk use poo poo like that episode to come to the conclusion they can just demand the impossible because engineers always overestimate what's required

# ¿ Sep 21, 2023 14:27

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

socialsecurity posted:

Agreed let's get all the current people in the seats of power to vote something to limit that, what's that their 85% Dinosaurs?

I always thought the way to get age limits passed would be to have a retirement age of 75, but it doesn't apply to any incumbents. Eventually they'll die or lose reelection, and you'd have all under 75s from that time onward.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2023 14:01

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Gotta love the staffers who were like, "Oh, she's fine, never been better" when she was literally days away from death

# ¿ Sep 29, 2023 14:04

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

God, Laphonza Butler is less than half the age of the senator she's replacing

# ¿ Oct 2, 2023 15:31

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

This doesn't feel like a "race" to be speaker at all

# ¿ Oct 25, 2023 00:08

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

He was competent enough to manage to get the job when nobody else was. He will probably continue to be more competent than all the chucklefucks he beat.

Probably also will continue to be a right wing nut job which contains its own set of limitations.

Getting elected and achieving things once elected are very different skill sets and motivations

# ¿ Oct 26, 2023 19:58

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Neurolimal posted:

Pretty much. By design Leftism in the West has been constructed to be extremely divisive, fragmented, terrified of success, and without a history. That its ideas have as much support as it does is a testament to how enduring those ideas are, even when they're watered down and delegitimized. It's been built around make-work solutions and stripped of understanding of what actually makes change happen; Threat.

leftism in the West is 30% secret policemen by weight which also doesn't help

# ¿ Oct 31, 2023 12:54

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Misunderstood posted:

Do you have a citation for this?

And no, anecdotes about the Cold War CIA don't count. It's 2023.

In any case, we know for a fact that Feds embed themselves in far right groups (remember those idiots who went along with a "kidnap Gretchen Whitmer" plot some FBI guy roped them into?), and it doesn't stop the far right from being politically effective.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/oct/15/undercover-police-spies-infiltrated-uk-leftwing-groups-for-decades

quote:

The list so far compiled, however, suggests police spies overwhelmingly monitored leftwing and progressive groups that challenged the status quo, with only three far-right groups infiltrated � the British National party, Combat 18 and the United British Alliance.

Undercover officers spied on 22 leftwing groups, 10 environmental groups, nine anti-racist campaigns and nine anarchist groups, according to the database.

They also spied on campaigns against apartheid, the arms trade, nuclear weapons and the monarchy, as well as trade unions. Among those spied on were 16 campaigns run by families or their supporters seeking justice over alleged police misconduct.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2023 13:18

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

"leftism in the West" is what was discussed. But I'm sure there's plenty of similar stuff in the US.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2023 13:27

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

CBS might have answered your question almost as soon as you asked it.

They say the White House has indicated that it would accept 2.5 out of the 4 extreme border demands Republicans have made with promises to never use some of the detention powers the law gives them (but, they would be ready and waiting for Trump if he became President or for any other future President).

Seems like a pretty bad deal, but we'll see what the specifics are and if Republicans and Senate Dems are on board with it.

https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1734679769155785071

This feels like what CIA slush funds are for.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2023 17:39

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Sounds like a grocery subsidy is in order

# ¿ Jan 17, 2024 15:50

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

BonoMan posted:

$10k yearly UBI for all families + Federal penalties for reducing wages (cuz you know that poo poo would happen as soon as any sort of UBI hit)

Well, it sounds like Americans hate the economy if grocery prices are high regardless of how rich they actually are, so UBI's pointless, just make groceries all cost what they did in 1980 and you're golden.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2024 16:04

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

I was expecting to see that Delaware had zero corporate taxes or something, but it's actually 8% or so while other states have none.

That seems like kind of a big benefit to be passing up, are the nebulous "they have a good corporate court" and "inertia" reasons really that compelling?

# ¿ Jan 31, 2024 13:23

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 11:55

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

It's mainly the Delaware Chancery Court and that they have corporate laws and infrastructure that make it incredibly easy and fluid to do business/legal work there. Things like clear and limited liability rules for corporations and franchise fees are also very attractive to businesses that own a lot of other businesses or franchise out.

Delaware used to be very tax -friendly for banks and credit card companies, but they have been undercut by South Dakota and some other states. So, they are less appealing for tax purposes.

In my personal experience, I've had filings in Delaware Chancery Court get processed in 30 minutes when it takes other states days. If you do basically any kind of civil or corporate legal cases, then you are probably going to have to interact with the Delaware legal system.

Delaware basically reorganized itself in the 1970's to be the sort of pre-eminent legal space for businesses where everyone knows the rules, it works fast, and has legal flexibility. It used to have somewhat low taxes too, but a lot of modern states have 0% (or even negative) corporate tax rates now that weren't a thing in the 70's. That is why South Dakota of all places has so many banks, payday lenders, and credit card companies headquartered there now.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/13/why...0legal%20cases.

Rigel posted:

ooh, tax guy here, I can answer this one.

The only thing Delaware is guaranteed to receive is the annual franchise tax, which I believe can be as low as $175. You may need to file a tax return in DE, but every state has something called apportionment, where you not only tell that state how much you made that year, but also how much business (in terms of sales, employees residing in that state, assets you own in that state) you did in their state.

So, if you incorporate in DE but literally do no business there at all, then you pay them their franchise tax fee and send them a return showing that once again, you owe them no money this year because you did all your business in other states. Apportionment can get complicated where if you do a lot of business in a state that has no tax, then other states may insist that state shouldn't count and so they also should get their share. States can fight you on the apportionment you believe they are due, but regardless if you do no business in a state, you owe them nothing.

Thanks for these excellent answers.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2024 16:08

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USCE 2023: Please let them shove a camera up your butt