I think that post hits some likely valid points, but I'm compelled to ask for statistics and sources on all claims. It seems to have none, so my thoughts are limited. I love to share my anecdotes about the prejudices I've seen in life as much as the next person, but they are just stories without something to back them up.
My favorite part of all of this is that Ron Paul has the most annoying and blindingly loyal fans, yet has won nothing.
I have a few FB friends that are staunch RP supporters. I haven't seen any posts by them in a while. The last one I saw as a rant post about how "GUYS, IT'S OK! I GUESS I WILL LET THE GOVERNMENT STOMP ON OUR LIBERTIES! I SHOULD JUST GO GET A CORPORATE JOB! Blah. Blah. Blah."
My favorite part of all of this is that Ron Paul has the most annoying and blindingly loyal fans, yet has won nothing.
I have a few FB friends that are staunch RP supporters. I haven't seen any posts by them in a while. The last one I saw as a rant post about how "GUYS, IT'S OK! I GUESS I WILL THE THE GOVERNMENT STOMP ON OUR LIBERTIES! I SHOULD JUST GO GET A CORPORATE JOB! Blah. Blah. Blah."
That is hilarious. Yes, it's the government that is stopping your cartoon character from becoming a real candidate. It's not at all related to his ideas being fucking awful.
Things can get ugly at a brokered convention, with a lot of confusion and political maneuvering going on. It means that the primary race will go all the way to the convention, giving us five more MONTHS of republican hilarity, and the only result will be a Republican ticket that literally nobody likes and everyone in the party comes out looking bad.
It will come as close too making the election as sure a win for Obama as anything else that has happened so far.
My favorite part of all of this is that Ron Paul has the most annoying and blindingly loyal fans, yet has won nothing.
Probably because they don't realize that Upvotes on reddit don't equal votes in real life. Nor that they don't win anyone over by viciously attacking anyone with a bad word to say about Paul, or by screaming conspiracies every time he predictably fails.
That is hilarious. Yes, it's the government that is stopping your cartoon character from becoming a real candidate. It's not at all related to his ideas being fucking awful.
It probably doesn't help that he's been caught doing a lot of dodgy shit, like the newsletters, extremely homophobic behavior in the past, double-dipping his travel reimbursements, frequent meetings with neo-nazis and frequent interactions with the leaders of that community, the fact that his worth as a doctor is extremely questionable, and much more.
It's funny, actually - first, the media ignores him, because he's not going anywhere, and doesn't look like he's going to win anything - so they scream that the media is ignoring him, and censoring him, to try and keep him out of the presidency.
Then they start paying attention when he gains a few poll numbers, when it's early in the race, and then when the media immediately finds all these horrible things he's done, they start screaming about a Mainstream media conspiracy to make these things up to keep him out of the presidency.
If he doesn't get votes, they scream fraud and conspiracy. Doesn't get poll numbers in polls which are not easily-flooded online polls, they scream conspiracy. They scream conspiracy because he's only ever had one bill pass in his entire 50-ish year career as a congressman.
Basically, everything that makes EMPEROR PRESIDENT DOCTOR PAUL DOCTOR 4000 BABIES DOCTOR GOD LIBERTY WAFFLES PAUL out to be less than a paragon of perfection and wonder, the pinnacle of human achievement, they start screaming conspiracy and go on the attack.
I think they're actually just a really complex botnet with some very good scripts powering it.
On a more serious note, what the hell is up with Santorum's popularity? What would actually happen if we got a Santorum nomination and he went up against Obama?
I don't think he'd ever be able to win over the independents with the stuff he's said already, but what if his strategy is just to try to mobilize the Religious Right in massive numbers, to simply outvote rationality?
What would a Santorum presidency actually look like?
What would a Santorum presidency actually look like?
I'd say it'd be pretty bad. If he could get a GOP majority to back and pass his policies (and I'd wager that's possible), you likely see pretty large-scale emigration from the US on the part of intellectuals who would begin to see themselves as a persecuted minority with meaningless strictures imposed on their research. America would likely lose a lot of power in the biotech fields as innovators move their operations elsewhere so as to not be subject to bullshit theocratic faffing.
What would a Santorum presidency actually look like?
I'd say it'd be pretty bad. If he could get a GOP majority to back and pass his policies (and I'd wager that's possible), you likely see pretty large-scale emigration from the US on the part of intellectuals who would begin to see themselves as a persecuted minority with meaningless strictures imposed on their research. America would likely lose a lot of power in the biotech fields as innovators move their operations elsewhere so as to not be subject to bullshit theocratic faffing.
But as we've discussed before, emigration to European countries is incredibly difficult. I wonder if we would see immigration laws go a little lax go a little lax over there to get some of the US' brainpower in.
Personally, I think I'd be screwed as I can't emigrate elsewhere, although I'd hope that none of the laws would really touch me personally.
Immigration can be difficult, yeah, but there are "exceptional talent" statutes for just about every EU nation that say that people with doctorates, exceptional athletic talent, or expertise in obscure fields stand a very high chance of visas being granted. Also, if a business relocates, it can gain the ability to sponsor work visas and move its workers over.
Yeah, it's hard to get into the EU if you don't have a degree and a lot of experience (or a job offer), or a doctorate. That's mainly due to the US market being pretty good for research right now. But if our companies left and universities couldn't lock down grant money due to archaic strictures imposed by the willfully ignorant of America, other nations would fill the gap and accept Americans to study and work there, in the interest of their own economies. If you want an example of this happening IRL, look at how the US poached all of the leading German missile scientists post-WWII for use in the Space Race. It's a different circumstance, but a very similar case of a nation showing a preference for someone else's skilled laborers while rejecting most anyone else who would want to come over when their nation of origin is in a bad way.
They did the did a similar thing with some of the Japanese scientists. There was a massive grab at the end of the war by the US and the Soviets for german and japanese scientists.
Immigration can be difficult, yeah, but there are "exceptional talent" statutes for just about every EU nation that say that people with doctorates, exceptional athletic talent, or expertise in obscure fields stand a very high chance of visas being granted. Also, if a business relocates, it can gain the ability to sponsor work visas and move its workers over.
Yeah, it's hard to get into the EU if you don't have a degree and a lot of experience (or a job offer), or a doctorate. That's mainly due to the US market being pretty good for research right now. But if our companies left and universities couldn't lock down grant money due to archaic strictures imposed by the willfully ignorant of America, other nations would fill the gap and accept Americans to study and work there, in the interest of their own economies. If you want an example of this happening IRL, look at how the US poached all of the leading German missile scientists post-WWII for use in the Space Race. It's a different circumstance, but a very similar case of a nation showing a preference for someone else's skilled laborers while rejecting most anyone else who would want to come over when their nation of origin is in a bad way.
True, so there might be opportunities. The real problem, in our situation at least, has to do with licensing and student loans with my fiance's degree. Being a veterinarian (a very skilled job that she has 6 years experience doing), she has to be licensed to practice wherever she works. This means that she would have to get a license (most likely) for whatever country she was working in. A lot of times, it's hard to get these licenses without being a resident of that country, simply due to travel expenses. In addition, we have $3k of student loan payments to make each month. These wouldn't go away with immigration to a different country, and she would basically be making about half of what she makes now in any different country, as the US pays the best for veterinarians.
So even if we could get sponsored for immigration based on her (or my) talents, she would have to get licensed (taking a very difficult exam remotely, a lot of the exam being practical application) and we would have to secure employment that gave us a total of $3k/month above and beyond what we would need to live. This is without considering how difficult it would be for her to work in a country whose language she didn't speak, while being in a very customer-facing job. Picking up the language as you go while working in a technical, customer-facing job would be very, very difficult. It's hard enough to explain concepts like a urinary tract infection requiring anti-biotics to be taken every day to people when you speak the language fluently.
It fucking sucks. I think the only hope would basically be migrating to an English speaking country.
EU countries require recerts on US vet degrees? That's strange. A US MD is a golden ticket to practice anywhere on Earth. Same with PhDs, but for research.
She got her vet degree in Ireland, and I'm pretty sure she'd have to get a license for any country she practices in. She needs a different license for any state in the US, too (more or less). There are a lot of localized animals/diseases that have to be accounted for.
Wow. Moving to a non-USA country is becoming the Godwin's Law of this forum. As a thread lengthens, the probability of WUB giving visa advice approaches 1.
Wow. Moving to a non-USA country is becoming the Godwin's Law of this forum. As a thread lengthens, the probability of WUB giving visa advice approaches 1.
Hope the fact that I'm giving advice based on my knowledge of the situation isn't an annoying or bad thing, but I agree with your general statement.
She got her vet degree in Ireland, and I'm pretty sure she'd have to get a license for any country she practices in. She needs a different license for any state in the US, too (more or less). There are a lot of localized animals/diseases that have to be accounted for.
If she's licensed for Ireland, why not move to Ireland? You could get a dependent visa pretty quick.
Lots of folks threatened (or promissed based on your opinion of them) to leave if Bush won and they never left.
Rick Santorum makes George W. Bush look like FDR. I'm going to start a "Far-Right Fund" when I get home that would allow me to immediately get access to plane tickets and housing for myself and at least one other person, in the event that someone like Santorum ever takes power in the States.
Wow. Moving to a non-USA country is becoming the Godwin's Law of this forum. As a thread lengthens, the probability of WUB giving visa advice approaches 1.
Hope the fact that I'm giving advice based on my knowledge of the situation isn't an annoying or bad thing, but I agree with your general statement.
Not going to lie, but it's super predictable by now, and a bit tired.
Wow. Moving to a non-USA country is becoming the Godwin's Law of this forum. As a thread lengthens, the probability of WUB giving visa advice approaches 1.
Hope the fact that I'm giving advice based on my knowledge of the situation isn't an annoying or bad thing, but I agree with your general statement.
Not going to lie, but it's super predictable by now, and a bit tired.
Duly noted. I'll stop. You guys could've just said something sooner.
Lots of folks threatened (or promissed based on your opinion of them) to leave if Bush won and they never left.
I threatened to leave the country if Kevin Rudd was elected. We know how that turned out.
Bonus - He actually got knifed by his own party the day I got back.
Figuratively, our politics are not quite that nasty yet.
The story goes as such - there was a small leak, through a staffer to the media, about speculation that a leadership challenge would be attempted. A few hours after the story broke, Rudd was furiously checking around, and found he'd lost support of all the Labor faction leaders, and announced a leadership ballot for the following morning, and promised he would fight for the top job, and he would contest the challenge. When the meeting rolled around, it became very clear that practically nobody in the labor party was backing him, so he took the less-damaging-PR-wise option, and reneged on his promise to contest the challenge, and thus installing Julia Gillard as prime minister. All in less than 24 hours.
Oh, and this is in his first term - Mostly because the party hated his leadership style(micromanaging, abusive, clueless, foolish, tyrannical, megalomaniacal, agressive and rude were all both words used to describe it at various times, and descriptions very contrary to his sweet-nice-and-competent teddy bear of a guy image that was given to the public), and his poll numbers were nosediving hard after he fucked up pretty much everything he promised, and everything he attempted. The only thing he didn't get bent over the table for was removing Workchoices(a particular bit of industrial relations legislation), but he did that in such a half-assed fashion that it actually removed a lot of protections that were in place from before the legislation was enacted.
Napolitano pulled a "Fuck you, I'm out," on Fox Business. He delivered this piece and was fired as soon as the broadcast ended. His last show airs tonight. Other than the Ron Paul fanwank, his rhetoric was pretty admirable-- it was like a condensation of Chomsky's Media Control into a three minute diatribe.
Comments
It will come as close too making the election as sure a win for Obama as anything else that has happened so far.
It's funny, actually - first, the media ignores him, because he's not going anywhere, and doesn't look like he's going to win anything - so they scream that the media is ignoring him, and censoring him, to try and keep him out of the presidency.
Then they start paying attention when he gains a few poll numbers, when it's early in the race, and then when the media immediately finds all these horrible things he's done, they start screaming about a Mainstream media conspiracy to make these things up to keep him out of the presidency.
If he doesn't get votes, they scream fraud and conspiracy. Doesn't get poll numbers in polls which are not easily-flooded online polls, they scream conspiracy. They scream conspiracy because he's only ever had one bill pass in his entire 50-ish year career as a congressman.
Basically, everything that makes EMPEROR PRESIDENT DOCTOR PAUL DOCTOR 4000 BABIES DOCTOR GOD LIBERTY WAFFLES PAUL out to be less than a paragon of perfection and wonder, the pinnacle of human achievement, they start screaming conspiracy and go on the attack.
On a more serious note, what the hell is up with Santorum's popularity? What would actually happen if we got a Santorum nomination and he went up against Obama?
I don't think he'd ever be able to win over the independents with the stuff he's said already, but what if his strategy is just to try to mobilize the Religious Right in massive numbers, to simply outvote rationality?
What would a Santorum presidency actually look like?
Personally, I think I'd be screwed as I can't emigrate elsewhere, although I'd hope that none of the laws would really touch me personally.
Yeah, it's hard to get into the EU if you don't have a degree and a lot of experience (or a job offer), or a doctorate. That's mainly due to the US market being pretty good for research right now. But if our companies left and universities couldn't lock down grant money due to archaic strictures imposed by the willfully ignorant of America, other nations would fill the gap and accept Americans to study and work there, in the interest of their own economies. If you want an example of this happening IRL, look at how the US poached all of the leading German missile scientists post-WWII for use in the Space Race. It's a different circumstance, but a very similar case of a nation showing a preference for someone else's skilled laborers while rejecting most anyone else who would want to come over when their nation of origin is in a bad way.
So even if we could get sponsored for immigration based on her (or my) talents, she would have to get licensed (taking a very difficult exam remotely, a lot of the exam being practical application) and we would have to secure employment that gave us a total of $3k/month above and beyond what we would need to live. This is without considering how difficult it would be for her to work in a country whose language she didn't speak, while being in a very customer-facing job. Picking up the language as you go while working in a technical, customer-facing job would be very, very difficult. It's hard enough to explain concepts like a urinary tract infection requiring anti-biotics to be taken every day to people when you speak the language fluently.
It fucking sucks. I think the only hope would basically be migrating to an English speaking country.
Bonus - He actually got knifed by his own party the day I got back.
The story goes as such - there was a small leak, through a staffer to the media, about speculation that a leadership challenge would be attempted. A few hours after the story broke, Rudd was furiously checking around, and found he'd lost support of all the Labor faction leaders, and announced a leadership ballot for the following morning, and promised he would fight for the top job, and he would contest the challenge. When the meeting rolled around, it became very clear that practically nobody in the labor party was backing him, so he took the less-damaging-PR-wise option, and reneged on his promise to contest the challenge, and thus installing Julia Gillard as prime minister. All in less than 24 hours.
Oh, and this is in his first term - Mostly because the party hated his leadership style(micromanaging, abusive, clueless, foolish, tyrannical, megalomaniacal, agressive and rude were all both words used to describe it at various times, and descriptions very contrary to his sweet-nice-and-competent teddy bear of a guy image that was given to the public), and his poll numbers were nosediving hard after he fucked up pretty much everything he promised, and everything he attempted. The only thing he didn't get bent over the table for was removing Workchoices(a particular bit of industrial relations legislation), but he did that in such a half-assed fashion that it actually removed a lot of protections that were in place from before the legislation was enacted.