Example: NetFlix has renewed Disenchantment for two more seasons!

"I'm almost there, myself..."

https://i.redd.it/z8njrw4he9i11.jpg

Thanks for the link, I will check it out!

Don Harris [10-12] -

Blah blah blah.

nypoet22 [13] -

Good point: "Easy as pie!"

TheStig [35] -

Amen.

I'm almost there, myself...

-CW

See 7. Thanks for vividly illustrating my take on your approach to promoting OD.

I propose a deal. If all the regulars at CW.com declare that OD is the most brilliant political idea since The Bill of Rights and that you are a genius exceeding any founding father, will you declare victory and go away?

As an old political pro once said, "Paris is worth a mass." Ralph says hi.

My Tamper Monkey is routinely set to filter out DH, but I will override it if a comment about something DH wrote catches my eye in the unfiltered feed. Sort of like your sarcasm switch.... And where can I get one of those .... Amazon electronics department?

Lately, DH has been the only source of cuckoo bannas for my Tamper Monkey. It's not a very nutritious diet, mostly cheap filler and ash. I fear for my poor monkey. Off to Amazon.

of course i didn't invent pie. you did not invent small campaign donations. however, i did come up with the idea of using pie as the primary criterion to vote for candidates for office. as it happens, my idea is more practical than yours, and in ten days has garnered more support and interest than yours has in ten years.

you're uncomfortable with that state of affairs? okay then, change your idea to make it more practical. change your methods to make your venture more accessible. change your attitude so people who are trying to help aren't turned off by your toxicity.

or don't. keep doing what you've done, and keep getting what you've gotten. your demands are tiresome, and pie is awesome. Enjoy!

JL

A. Nobody tries to steal it.

OD is like that mangy old couch you see out on the curb.

cw's column is about the midterm election. yes, there's plenty of global news to be concerned about, and i'm also curious to hear his take on it.

@don,

more ad hominem insults, a transparent excuse to avoid the issue afoot. i realize it upsets you that someone came up with an idea that's more workable (and more popular) than yours currently is, but hurling insults at the competition won't win you support. pie is currently a better strategy than OD, because it can accomplish just as much in november, and it tastes a lot better.

JL

While the election has already distracted Americans with its quadrennial orgy of navel-gazing, enemies of the US (including some Trump administration officials) have been using Trump's naiveté and distaste for formal internationalism to wreak havoc on the current world order.

Saudi Arabia is poised to get away with murder of a citizen overseas without any incurring any significant sanction, pretty much the same as Russia did last year.

And speaking of Russia, Putin got good news recently when Trump announced that the U.S. would be pulling out of the IMF treaty, the last remaining hurdle that Putin had to deploying Intermediate Missiles to threaten Europe with.

Putin was positively giddy this week, talking about the 'end of American hegemony' and America's 'declining role' in the world, and in nearly the next sentence, about how much he liked the fact that Trump 'listens' to him. Then, adding insult to derision, he made fun of an American symbol - the 'Great Seal' that has the eagle with arrows and olive branches clutched in its talons - with John Bolton sitting right next to him.

Did Bolton, famously quick to rage, express outrage at Putin's behavior? No, of course not. He laughed, and added later that Russian meddling 'didn't affect the election'.

When did Bolton become a Russian toadie? About the time that Putin and Trump agreed to a renewed arms race, I suppose.

All of this worries me, but if everyone else wants to debate Don's absurd ideas, or pie, or some other abject nonsense, then be my guest.

if ralph nader says that he in fact likes pie, can i then use that information to convince others that pie is the way forward politically?

Anyone not already smart enough to know that pie is the only way forward politically shouldn't be allowed to eat or vote.

if someone says ralph nader once said it, it must be true.

That's "King Ralph" to you, Little Jack Horner! ;)

(check your history on that one)

most people who eat pies buy them. carl sagan said that if you want to make a pie from scratch, first you have to invent the universe. inventing the universe is a tall order for any voter, but not all politicians are for sale, and there's no proven correlation between corruption and the size of the maximum donation one's campaign is willing to accept. some politicians can't be corrupted by millions, while others could just as easily be corrupted by pie. possibly moreso.

JL

does ralph nader like pie? i bet he does.

Stalk him until he answers.

Your ranting is tiresome. It is cuckoo.

Hey, pal: "You somehow completely missed comment 4 where Ralph Nader said that my [Don's] idea should be heard." Why aren't you hanging on Don's every comment? /sarcasm off

Your web site is dead.

Yes, sir... in the exact same manner as the proverbial dead horse that he keeps flogging and expects that he is owed something for his "determination" (his term)… also known as near daily trolling.

And you somehow completely missed comment 4 where Ralph Nader said that my idea should be heard.

So it was you... well, I rest my case. Also, just to state the obvious: In your "comment 4," you don't exactly say that you were the fucking lunatic stalking Ralph Nader, but it sure did sound like you.

Oh wait. This where you say who listens to Ralph Nader anymore after he cost Al Gore the 2000 election?

Oh, wait. This is the part where Don provides further proof that he is a fucking lunatic by claiming to read the mind of TS, and I rest my case yet again. :)

The inestimable Barry Ritholtz skewers them (again) in an article he just published:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-10-24/what-minimum-wage-foes-got-wrong-about-seattle

Great article. I used to genuinely believe that a $15 minimum wage could be darn near catastrophic in certain areas of the South, but the more time passes and inflation goes ever higher, it's becoming a darn near necessity. :)

Interesting moment on Washington Journal this morning with Ralph Nader as the guest.

Ralph apologized and asked the man to send the information again and said that anyone with the determination the man has demonstrated deserves to have their idea heard.

Then when the program concluded, Ralph phoned law enforcement to let them know there was a fucking lunatic who had admittedly been stalking him for multiple years. Sounds like you, Don. #Pathetic

don's ranting is not cuckoo, it's just not as good as pie.

JL

One of the big issues that Democrats can gain support with in the next two years is a push for a $15 minimum wage.

When Seattle introduced their the right wing was ablaze with predictions about the economic horrors that would befall small business and impact employment. As the plan rolled out there were trumped up claims about the impact, however these same people have gone silent for a very good reason: to wit, all their predictions were wrong.

The inestimable Barry Ritholtz skewers them (again) in an article he just published:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-10-24/what-minimum-wage-foes-got-wrong-about-seattle

The conversation about OD has been going on in the comments section for years now. Reader responses to your idea range from meh to very negative. You don't address specific criticisms from the community, you just keep repeating the same arguments, which boil down to:

There is nothing wrong with your idea and everybody else is too stupid and/or craven to see its obvious appeal.

Your ranting is tiresome. It is cuckoo.

Your web site is dead.

"I personally have never put much stock in "prediction models" (sorry, Nate Silver) which attempt to mathematically predict odds to a precise percentage. I discount them because they are essentially meaningless."

I don't think the models are essentially meaningless - the message from the models is that US politics is fundamentally chaotic (in a mathematical sense)and even the best and brightest are going to be wrong a lot. Your quantum mechanics analogy is spot on.

The fundamental problem with political prognostication isn't so much a question of "meaning" as it is of "useful." What do you do with a probability? Well, if you are of a Bayesian you might place a monetary bet, or better still hedge the future with a bunch of bets. For the average John or Jane Q voter, the only obvious means to bet money on an election is with a bookie. This is somewhat difficult in the USA and is any case unlikely to make you rich.

However, if are a very wealthy individual you might look at your wagers differently. You give money to many political causes to hedge your bets for the next to 2-6 years, not so much to make you rich, but to keep you (and your heirs) rich. Political donations as a form of wealth and power insurance....or maybe better viewed as a "political futures market." I have no hard evidence this actually "a thing" among our mega wealthy, but I strongly suspect it is.

The most obvious client for prognosticators offering credible (if imprecise) is politicians themselves, who need to decide whether the benefit of running for office is worth the cost. I think that this is probably what finances most of the political polling shops.

Dude, you really are becoming quite tiresome.

More Democratic candidates than ever before are pledging to accept no PAC money whatsoever.

How is that a bad thing? I mean, really...

Sure there are still some entrenched in the old system, but must you really see things as "my particular way or the highway" always?

Can't improvements towards your ultimate goal be celebrated, or at the very least applauded?

I mean, do you foresee one giant leap forward where everyone meets your standard of purity, or can you see that there may be a path towards that goal that needs to be walked?

Sigh. It really does get tiresome, dude.

-CW