Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Flashack 2008: Obama Wins Ohio - It's Over

Checking out Somethingawful's Freep forum, I randomly found this. It's interesting to see how little has actually changed. The main thing is that Free Republic is now like what was once the peak of their hysteria all the time:

NavVet expected Communism:
If true than that’s it. Break out the little red books and report to the NBP party headquarters for reeducation in the morning. God save us, because we sure aren’t capable of saving ourselves.
Nowhere Man regretfully becomes racist:
I'm glad there are Blacks here on FR who do "get it" and I'm not trying to paint them with the wide brush we are using here, but wen I go out in the hinterlands and see things happening, I'm afraid the stereotypes and prejudices do have a lot of truth behind them. It's doesn't affect the Blacks only but the young as well.

I'm having bad thoughts, I'm trying to suppress tem but seeing the gimmee crowd as well as the idea of making history as the first Black President over substance and the war or terror makes me ill.

I'm praying for God to comfort me, right now, even that is a tall order, I don't doubt His powers but I'm so jaded and cynical now.

I think if this has an effect on level headed me, I'm afraid this will set race relations back decades because the backlash will blind people. We need the backlash but we must keep our focus on the target, Barak the Communist, not the race, but some will not be that way. I am sad that I am writing this but I have to be honest. I can't ignore what I see.
LibFreeUSA also makes with the 'blacks made me racist' theme:
Agree. This election did not 'advance' race relations - to the contrary - I think it reversed race relations back almost half a century. NOTE, I don't mean "rights", I mean "race relations"!

I am not prejudiced in ANY way, and want all to have equal rights. I don't paint anyone or any group with a 'broad brush', but black people brought - and enthusiastically PAINTED onto themselves with a BROAD BRUSH a pure and unabashed RACIAL vote component to this election that was utterly disgusting and appalling.
arderkrag is the angriest optimist:
THE SKY IS FALLING THE SKY IS FALLING! IT'S OVER BEFORE THE PRECINCTS ARE EVEN COUNTED!

Seriously, you people buying into this calling the state before the votes are counted stuff are the worst kinds of trolls.
mvpel knows what time it is:
Do you really need that new car, the flat screen, the satellite TV service? Do you really need a big house and big house payments and big tax bills? Do you really need to put in 60 hours a week at a W-4 salary job, or can you get by working for cash and living modestly and frugally on your savings?

Who is John Galt?
Wonder how that worked out?

dokmad:
Me too. Talking with my 401K folks today. Time to cash out. Money is safer under a mattress anyway. I call upon "True Americans" to protect their assets and income from thievery. Be VERY tactful and imaginative when doing tax returns. And make as much "under the table" money as you can......
'tactful and imaginative'

P-Marlowe's prediction seems not to have come true...
With double digit inflation likely in the next 4 years, your money in the mattress will soon be worth less than the straw you took out to make room for the money.
xzins was playing about the same tune in 2012.
I, too, will resign as a Republican. There is no way that the Rinos will be driven out. They proved this campaign that they run the place. I say let them have it. It’s old and decrepit, anyway.

A new party is probably the best course. Although, we should go read the Constitution Party platform. It really is a reasonable first step to see what they are trying to do.

These parties keep trying to gain notoriety from the top down...they always run for President.

I would favor instead running from the bottom up: county commissioners, trustees, common judges, attorneys general, state-level reps, senators.
I have a prediction about 2016....

OCC also sounds familiar:
3 words... massive voter fraud. Unfortunately McCain will concede early and the investigations will go on for years.

17 comments:

  1. Poor Dokmad. Pulled his money out of the market near the bottom and missed out on a 177% gain over the last five years.

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    1. Depends what you went in to.

      I made a tidy bundle on S&W and Ruger (those were no brainers, but the bubble lasted way longer than I wanted to risk. Could have made much more, but it had all the feel of a classic bubble.). Oil trended up, but per barrel prices didn't really show up in the share value. Holding some of that, on the expectation that the next president will be Repub. (It's pretty likely at present, just from the historical two terms and out thing.) If it doesn't happen, it's not a huge holding and it won't lose value.
      Went into green energy stock early (back in very early 08, when it was obvious that the Dems would take the White House - sorry, either first woman president or first black president against some old white guy? Total no brainer) and sold up the last of it in 2010, before the bankruptcies drove the market through the floor.

      Gold - screw that. If you can get it for cheap, the actual metal, not certificates, you have a chance to make bank in a panic situation, but for long term holding - just no. You want to play in metals (it holds little interest for me) look at copper, aluminum, steel (China and Russia only, the Indian market is over saturated) and, of course, lithium.

      This is one of the reasons I follow politics. You see what each side is afraid of and pick your investments accordingly. Wife and I play a game. We started off with roughly $1000 each back in '94. (She had a bit of money put by, I had an inheritance and no, neither of us went in to Apple or Microsoft and we still kick each other over that rather frequently!) Right now, she's winning. :)

      Hey - sounds cold, but I have 6 children and 13 grand children. Sort of want to leave them more than two teaspoons and a couple faded pictures when I kick it.

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    2. As a younger and thus far unmarried guy, I invest as much for fun as anything.

      At the moment, I like vulture capitalism, where I wait until a disaster and buy associated stocks during the initial irrational downturn.

      After a few months, they're back to the normal price and I sell for a pretty hefty profit.

      I spend a decent amount if time sitting on my money waiting for bad news, but its fun and reasonably effective.

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    3. Nothing wrong with doing it as a hobby. It can be interesting and fun. Just do the right thing - if you can't afford to lose it, don't risk it.

      For vulturing, you need the timing and a feel for the trends. If I got the time stamps right, I'm about 5 hours ahead of you, which gives me an advantage - assuming I am paying attention on that day. Don't particularly like tying money up for months while the market rebounds though. It's effective, but as is the way with cash, when you need it it's locked away somewhere, and shoving it in the bank is worse than shoving it under the mattress!

      There is one thing we will not do. We will never buy foreclosed houses. Houses, yes. Foreclosed, never. It is part of our game, and something we never had to even talk about. I did buy a woodland tract once for dirt cheap (pretty much back taxes only - it was a protected habitat for some very nondescript sort of bird and the owner was basically giving it away. It's got two picnic tables made from local wood, parking for 4 cars, gets coppiced and the undergrowth thinned once a year and people enjoy it. They'll park up, picnic, take their trash away (usually, I'll check it once a month and do the cleaning). Long term investment, that one. :) It pays for itself right now, and in 50 years or so we'll have some sweet old growth hardwood still to harvest (I'll be dead, who cares. It's in trust). Take out about one tree a year - you'd be amazed how much oak goes for here, and the unsellable bits feed our fireplace all winter.

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  2. Claiming that the African-American vote for President Obama was grounded in racism (even though similar super-majorities voted for Kerry, Gore and Clinton) is akin to claiming that the only reason Utah overwhelmingly voted for Mitt Romney is because of Mormonism.

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  3. The 2008 hysteria was somewhat tempered by the feeling that Obama's election was a one-off (there was no way in hell he could ever win re-election) and a general lack of enthusiasm for McCain (except for the outside hope that he'd croak and leave the presidency for Palin).

    The true crumbling of mental stability on FR came with Obama's re-election in 2012.

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    1. Gonna disagree. FR screwed itself, badly, in 2012.

      Most of them are decent enough people, more Jack Lemmon than Clint Eastwood though. Go along to get along. Spines optional. Tell us what to think.

      It makes me sad.

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    2. Hasn't it been going crazy for a lot longer? Hannity said he visited the site but gave up around 2005 according to this link (which isn't loading on my end today)

      http://www.politisink.com/2010/08/the-not-so-secret-history-of-freerepublic-com/

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    3. Can't comment about '05 or '06. I was somewhat without computer access during those two years. Smart phones haven't been around all that long ;)

      But thinking about it - there was a distinct tone change between '04 and '07. '04 and before - there was, I dunno, a demand for accountability? A legitimate "We are fucking pissed off here and you WILL answer to us." When I got back - well, there was a huckster selling his wares. Throwing red meat to his groupies, to keep their teeth sharp and keep the money rolling in. It was like night and day and has simply gotten worse.

      To take the glory days - Rathergate, the Clinton impeachment (not that I liked that - it was fucking tacky) FR actually did something. Gave a place for both serious analysis and good investigative work.

      Gone now. Most of the smarter and more educated posters have been zotted, or simply moved on. Before '05, the odd liberal would show their face. Debates got fierce at times, but it was a debate. Not beating someone over the head with "received wisdom".

      Can laugh at what they have become, but do mourn it slightly. Sorry - that was slightly depressing.

      Yet I do think there is a need for a new FR. Skip the Stormfront light and the racist bullshit for a second - it was originally a place to hold the media to account. It'd be nice to have someplace like that again - left or right, don't give a crap, but someplace where people poked holes in the evening news.

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    4. FR's best outcome would be for JimRob to sell the site and have the new owners almost start from scratch (reboot it, per se) with a new site and new intent (say, something like it was in the Clinton era, minus the conspiracy theories)

      Honestly, if FR was just another conservative website, I wouldn't pay attention to blogs like these. But since FR was a big deal back in the dial-up days, I find amusement in the crazy posted here.

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    5. He'd never sell. Even with the puffed up grift reporting, where else can a retired ex-navy dude in a wheel chair pull down 320k per year for doing absolutely nothing?

      Have toyed with the idea of setting a forum up for real discussion between left and right, but it's like oil and water. They don't mix at all, never mind well. Insults will be cast, strawmen will be flamed, no one will ever admit to being wrong. Happened at TBR, TBL, LP. The old newsgroup listserve (lost the name of it for the moment - it died in about '99).

      Most folk don't want to talk and maybe learn something - they want to be told they are right. Validation, not Education. :P

      Besides, it's be a right pain to moderate.

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    6. You see why I can't be assed to do it?

      Or is irony not accompanied by a picture of you in your dictionary so you can recognize the word?

      I do thank you for proving my point.

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    7. That article about the history of FR was fascinating reading. The part about the Freeper campaign of harassment against the bartender who busted one of the Bush daughters for underage drinking in 2001 was new to me. It really adds new meaning to how they refer to Obama as a "usurper". Freepers evidently really do see Republican presidents as kings, whose person is sacrosanct and whose actions (and even those of their family members!) are above any human law.

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  4. "Although, we should go read the Constitution Party platform. It really is a reasonable first step to see what they are trying to do."
    I could see Freepers supporting the Constitution Party because they're further right than the GOP has been or ever will..

    Establishing Christianity as the religion of the US? Yup.
    Abolishing the IRS? Yes.
    Removal of compulsory school attendance laws? Yes.
    Allowing states to secede? Yes.
    Outlawing "homosexual behavior?" Yes.

    (More: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Constitution_Party )

    Of course, there's plenty of paleoconservative ideas that would get them banned from FR.

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    1. "Establishing Christianity as the religion of the US? Yup."

      Can't support and won't support.

      "Abolishing the IRS? Yes."

      Seriously - you think no one is going to go for that? Don't care which side you are on, your first audit makes that a vote winner!

      "Removal of compulsory school attendance laws? Yes."

      Why not?

      "Allowing states to secede? Yes."

      Definitely yes. The balance has got out of balance, and what other recourse is there? Quebec has played that game for years - threatens to leave in return for favors. Sure, they are French, but you get the idea."

      "Outlawing "homosexual behavior?" Yes."

      Fuck off.

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    2. And that's why the Constitution Party doesn't go anywhere.

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    3. Bang on.

      I respect the constitution. It was the product of a lot of very bright, intelligent and widely read men aimed at trying something new.
      Mostly, it works. Follow it as originally written (with three exceptions - I'd not let anyone with no skin in the game vote, but sex, race, color, orientation were rightly removed from the voting requirements.)
      While I am on the wish list - how about two small changes to eligibility? Any presidential candidate should have previously been a two term state Governor - you have a clear track record there to actually look at, and most of the recent good presidents worked up that way. And any Federal agency must be headed by an elected Representative. I'd not pick Senators for the job - their job should be oversight.

      A guy can dream ....

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