I must be great then because I got what I deserved. But seriously you don't think gov't finances are worse than they were 30 years ago? I am 51. That we don't have larger unfunded liabilities than 30 years ago?

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Yeah, it has been endlessly spun it that way, but Bernie/Hillary was a standard liberal Dem/moderate Dem fight (like Jackson/Kennedy/Kusicnich/Nader/etc.). At some point, when the liberal wing wins the nomination for a couple of cycles a new "moderate" Dem or Rep or independent will rise against the "establishment". (John Anderson/Perot/Bloomberg fit that description). Populism requires an "anti-political" persona that is just as false as the political persona that Tibbsy hates.

Who is to say after he went through a political meat grinding season where nobody comes out unscathed.

I'm about the same age you are. But I would have to say that our finances, while marginally not as good as the 80's, aren't what worry me.

What worries me is that we've got certain problems that we aren't capable of solving -- that we aren't even capable of TRYING to solve. Also, we are soooooo far apart on so many issues that our political discourse comes down to a battle of silly cliches. We never get to the serious thinking and solving part -- and, yes, that includes when Barak was President. This extends to almost everything. If the Pubs implement something you can be rest assured it will be without input from the Dems and vice-versa. Any chance to fix something is really just a chance to flip it entirely to the other side's way of thinking -- just stupid on both sides.

FYI, my list of the problems we aren't solving are the spiraling costs of the following American mission-critical elements...

1.) Education
2.) Infrastructure
3.) Housing
4.) Health Care

Trump won. The game is forever changed. Actions are meaningless in America. Who is on your team and which of them has the most draw. That is what matters. The West Wing was a lie.

Do you mean "liabilities" or "present value of future liabilities?" There's a big difference. Because all present liabilities are funded in the sense that the Federal government hasn't missed a debt payment, ever (afaik).

Drama queen.

We have the government we deserve. Politicians are the symptom not the disease. The disease is an electorate who can't discern between ideology and reality, strength and posturing, knowledge and hubris, merit and privilege, character and self-righteousness.

Amen

So vitus was right. You hate people except those that serve your purposes.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

I don't think you're reading that correctly.

I read Tibbsy writing, "I hate humanity."

The exceptions seem to be those members of humanity who serve his emotional needs.

I don't think it is necessarily charitable for me to suppose that he is just immature. In that case, I'd say, people are flawed; people collectively are flawed; there is no utopia; so grow up or take it to the Cry Me A Biatch thread.

To hate humanity is wrong.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

That's not quite how I read it. He used the term "as a group we are shit."

So I don't read that as him giving exceptions to anyone. He may love people who serve his emotional needs, but acknowledge that their collective behavior as part of a group is bad for humanity.

But, on the one hand, I agree with you on the maturity front, per my "drama queen" comment above.