@alangrantuk "They all look the same! Not like we have in Europe." Can you imagine if your place looked similar to other places in your neighborhood? Hell on earth!
@LoneStarExiter@SeanTrende@RickEsenberg If you read this thread up to the top, you'll see he isn't saying the median retiree is rich, but that some retirees are. You can discuss the situation for middle and low earners, but he's discussing high earners.
@RunningBear571@SeanTrende@RickEsenberg You're saying that someone with a million dollar home, but no money, isn't a millionaire. He's calling them millionaires. Both takes make a kind of sense, but I don't see why taxpayers need to spend so much to shield empty nesters from maybe downsizing their homes.
@AerospaceJohn 'If a future rich retiree gets a smaller subsidy than currently slated, that's being punished with a penalty.' Gotta make sure the COLA for top recipients is always growing faster than inflation, paid for by the sandwich generation.
@JeremiahDJohns It's worse than 'nobody cares any more.' The primary electorate demands intemperate whackos over reasonable experts, because the whackos 'fight.' Reasonable legislators pass bills that can command majority support, which is caving in to the other side. Voters are awful.
@BrianAcity I remember Jesse Ventura won the Minnesota governor's race, vastly outspent and without party organization, owing greatly to his celebrity. But he was positioned as a fed-up centrist independent. Pratt was too easy to categorize as the GOP choice in a Dem city in a Dem year.
@charlesmurray Like Mao's Great Leap Forward. Maximize national steel production with backyard furnaces. Steel output worked much better as a description of modern economies than as a prescriptive target to meet.
@DamonLinker Seems like an argument for closed caucuses for nominating GOP presidential candidates, rather than primary elections. The voters have given in to demagoguery. Candidates duel, promising no tax on tips, overtime, property tax etc. They care about the price of eggs, not Jan 6th.
@RameshPonnuru The problem isn't the increased payroll taxes, per se, but that they aren't conditionally paired with a cap on benefits for top recipients, and COLA reform. The revenues are part of the solution, but don't suffice on their own.
@RonBrownstein@grahamformaine@SarahLongwell25 Easy to see how an individual can feel that way, but how representative of the median voter is she? She's a 'double hater,' feeling negative about both candidates, but maybe the double haters will break heavily for Platner, regardless?
@walkeri141 You think he's too progressive? Is that just vibes, and he needs to grow a scruffy beard, lose the horn-rimmed glasses and show some tattoos?
@maxtmcc A farce that the state kept announcing a RCV result reveal, and then kept having to move back its own arbitrarily chosen deadlines. Pro tip to Maine: FIRST determine final results, THEN announce when you'll publicize them.
@luckynumrotrece Before the 1990s, grownups would say, 'Kids, go play. I've got a lot I want to do in the house today and I don't need you children under foot.' It was a hands off style, and people had a lot of kids. Helicopter Parent-as-martyr isn't a sustainable model.
@Noahpinion We've been talking a lot about the importance of norms over the last decade. Norms need to be maintained. Social stigma plays a big role. MeToo was great, reinvigorating stigma against bad guys. Just joining the chorus against gamblers and pot-heads is part of the solution.
@MLJK87@ryanburge I've attended the same congregation for over 20 years, sing in the choir every Sunday, attend Bible studies and special services, and give financially/serve on committees according to my means. I'm not a member, and don't plan on becoming one.
@PTBwrites It's hard for anyone to feel good about the country when one feels dreadful about its politics. Governing parties no longer try to own the middle and unite the country.
@winghunt@SeanTrende I can't tell if you think an honest, non-hack analyst would give Biden an A or an F. For a president who wasn't history's greatest monster, but was forced by his own party to not run for reelection, a grade of 'probably below average' seems reasonable, doesn't it?