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RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Eric the Green - 04-24-2020
(04-24-2020, 05:36 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(04-24-2020, 08:07 AM)David Horn Wrote: You want what can't be. This problem will run its course based entirely on how we all behave, and no politician can change that. NYC stepped up, and that's amazing. The city is full of free spirits who don't take well to authority, but this time they listened. Other places haven't been tested yet. We'll have to see when they are.
The private sector pretty much took over the COVID19 crisis the other day in Minnesota. As I've mentioned before, The State of Minnesota is broke right now and it's going more broke by the day as COVID19 panic continues to drive and influence the priority of the Governor's political team so to speak. You can't govern that way and can't continue inflicting significant losses and taking significant losses the way the State the state has doing it the last few months.
No, according to David Brooks 90% of the people agree that your governor and others are doing the right things. You have got this wrong.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Bob Butler 54 - 04-24-2020
(04-24-2020, 04:23 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(04-24-2020, 03:01 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:I can relate. I've got in trouble over sarcasm quite a few times over the years.(04-24-2020, 01:21 AM)taramarie Wrote: Speaking about poison, apparently trump suggested injecting with disinfectant into veins to combat covid as well as heat. Please guys tell me this is false i beg of you.
I found a BBC account of that press conference. You probably read a blue press version of the briefing, where they went out of their way to look Trump look bad, but he kinda looked bad anyway. He was doing his usual Happy Talk thing, trying to minimize the virus, so he went kinda wild with non main line medical cures. Maybe he deserved to look bad.
Anyway, one article. Form your own opinion. Google ‘Trump disinfection heat’ to pick up a larger variety.
CNN us still pushing that it was not sarcasm. It is typical these days that friendly partisans will give their own people benefit of the doubt, but that hostiles will push.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - pbrower2a - 04-24-2020
(04-24-2020, 08:07 AM)David Horn Wrote:(04-24-2020, 01:48 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(04-22-2020, 07:39 PM)gabrielle Wrote: Well, good for them. Just so you know, though, they do all those things in blue states too. Even in blue cities within red states.
I think we all agree the economy is f--cked. Blues are sacrificing just as much as reds. Unemployment is likely around 15% or more right now, I've read. But I'm not really sure what you expect people to do. The economic crisis we have right now is because of the Covid crisis. The economy is only ever as healthy as the working people driving it. We have to beat this health crisis, and the only way to do that is to trust our health care experts.
It's going take a year or more to beat the COVID19 crisis. My issue with our governor, he talks a lot and dishes a lot information but doesn't give us any definitive information about time lines or goals related to economic recovery or loosening up and lifting restrictions and so forth. I figure the medical professionals, analysts and scientific related professional are going to get a handle the COVID19 crisis related stuff. My guess is unemployment is closer to 20% at the moment and will most likely be higher than that next month. My mother was a nurse for over forty years. I love/trust the nurses, doctors, first response folks and so forth like everyone else. But, the medical folks that we don't see that don't work in hospitals are now getting laid off too due to lack of work right now. So, something's got to give and attention must begin to shift from COVID19 to the economy pretty quick or we can expect to see all kinds of trouble from all the ripple effects that we aren't used to seeing going on all over the place. My governor ain't all that bad for Democratic governor but he needs to get his priorities straight and start setting some goals and objective relating to people's lives and the economy. I don't think virus is that dangerous to the bulk of us at this point.
You want what can't be. This problem will run its course based entirely on how we all behave, and no politician can change that. NYC stepped up, and that's amazing. The city is full of free spirits who don't take well to authority, but this time they listened. Other places haven't been tested yet. We'll have to see when they are.
It will take perhaps a year for COVID-19 to disappear, perhaps as people develop immunity after inoculation or after exposure that they survive (of course if they don't survive...) The virus is forcing changes in life that most people will accept as temporary measures for survival and compromises that will allow the return of near-normal commerce and other essential activities (which include love, schooling, and family formation). COVID-19 doesn't have the stigma that HIV/AIDS has had... I suppose that it could be spread in the same ways as HIV/AIDS (including sex and IV drug use) but it is also far easier to contract. It is also a faster, if less sure kill.
So people will wear masks at work. I expect those masks to even become fashion statements, even to the extent that there will even be "designer" face masks. People will get accustomed to seeing people wear masks while doing public contact work. People will learn to do such things as cut hair and receive haircuts safely.
The big hazard is that much of our commerce involves people making mindless choices in life that are good for business profits. In retail, those are impulse purchases; a merchant puts out attractive goods, a customer walks past them and decides with little thought that he wants it, and buys it. Impulse purchases are getting trickier to induce. People can't pump coins (or electronic credits) into a slot machine if they don't go into the casino.
Gambling? I'm not a gambler. I can hardly imagine a less satisfying way to spend money. So guess what I saw advertised? Horse racing -- if without bettors in the stands. One can watch the horse races on line and bet on them. It might work. People get excited about watching horses run. The Triple Crown (Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont) might run this year, if with only television audiences. The Indy 500 might run much the same way. There will be virtual poker, I suppose, with cameras trained on participants who get to see each other and bet 'virtual' money that goes to winners' bank accounts and leaves losers' bank accounts. (I am well versed in probability and statistics, so maybe I understand gambling better than anyone can without being a participant. I will say little more because I am not in the business. To put it as cynically as possible, the glitz of a casino largely comes from bettors' losses in a zero-sum game in which the House takes a cut).
The big thing is that people will decide after a few months what matters to them and what doesn't. We have a name for that situation: poverty. People might choose whether they want a dog or a car, have a monotonous diet or invite someone into the apartment to share the cost of the apartment, tell a brutal boss that he is the most wonderful person in the world or end up unemployed, his work or his religious values, get his own teeth fixed or get his kids' teeth fixed, medicine or heating -- usually the choice between one deprivation and another, between giving up something precious cheaply and getting an over-priced necessity because one is under-paid, over-taxed, or unfortunate to face monopoly racketeering.
We will adapt. The Governor of Michigan decided today that golf (but not while using golf carts) was safe, and that motorboats are safe. Stores can mandate that people wear masks if they are to enter. In a short time people are going to be able to able to attend religious services, pump coins into slot machines, visit libraries (they may need gloves as well as masks), and get their hair done. They will get to test-drive cars again. People will be making TV shows and motion pictures again. Casual dining and bar-hopping will be slower to return because people must open their mouths to eat and drink. People will go bowling again -- with masks over their mouths, which will make eating, drinking, and smoking difficult. Employers will find out whether people working remotely is compatible with command and control so much the style of management in recent decades -- or whether workers can get away with more entrepreneurial behavior. People will have places to go because there will be things to do in those places, so absurdly-low prices for gasoline will vanish. Above all, kids will be going back to school.
If I have one prediction, businesses already dying before COVID-19 will receive the coup de grace this time. Hint: Sears likely re-opens only for clearance sales. Book, video, and record dealers will be unable to compete with Amazon.com unless dealing in used ones. Casual dining in places that offer food little better than fast-food places will go to a carry-out and fast-food model or perish. Most people will learn what most matters to them and what doesn't. People might learn new interests that change their spending habits. As such they will change their spending habits permanently.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Bob Butler 54 - 04-25-2020
(04-24-2020, 08:07 AM)David Horn Wrote:(04-24-2020, 01:48 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(04-22-2020, 07:39 PM)gabrielle Wrote: Well, good for them. Just so you know, though, they do all those things in blue states too. Even in blue cities within red states.
I think we all agree the economy is f--cked. Blues are sacrificing just as much as reds. Unemployment is likely around 15% or more right now, I've read. But I'm not really sure what you expect people to do. The economic crisis we have right now is because of the Covid crisis. The economy is only ever as healthy as the working people driving it. We have to beat this health crisis, and the only way to do that is to trust our health care experts.
It's going take a year or more to beat the COVID19 crisis. My issue with our governor, he talks a lot and dishes a lot information but doesn't give us any definitive information about time lines or goals related to economic recovery or loosening up and lifting restrictions and so forth. I figure the medical professionals, analysts and scientific related professional are going to get a handle the COVID19 crisis related stuff. My guess is unemployment is closer to 20% at the moment and will most likely be higher than that next month. My mother was a nurse for over forty years. I love/trust the nurses, doctors, first response folks and so forth like everyone else. But, the medical folks that we don't see that don't work in hospitals are now getting laid off too due to lack of work right now. So, something's got to give and attention must begin to shift from COVID19 to the economy pretty quick or we can expect to see all kinds of trouble from all the ripple effects that we aren't used to seeing going on all over the place. My governor ain't all that bad for Democratic governor but he needs to get his priorities straight and start setting some goals and objective relating to people's lives and the economy. I don't think virus is that dangerous to the bulk of us at this point.
You want what can't be. This problem will run its course based entirely on how we all behave, and no politician can change that. NYC stepped up, and that's amazing. The city is full of free spirits who don't take well to authority, but this time they listened. Other places haven't been tested yet. We'll have to see when they are.
Not sure that politicians can’t change how people behave. If Trump had gone with the science early he could have brought a good deal of his base with him, but then changing Trump would be as hard as changing his base.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - gabrielle - 04-25-2020
(04-24-2020, 06:09 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(04-24-2020, 04:23 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(04-24-2020, 03:01 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:I can relate. I've got in trouble over sarcasm quite a few times over the years.(04-24-2020, 01:21 AM)taramarie Wrote: Speaking about poison, apparently trump suggested injecting with disinfectant into veins to combat covid as well as heat. Please guys tell me this is false i beg of you.
I found a BBC account of that press conference. You probably read a blue press version of the briefing, where they went out of their way to look Trump look bad, but he kinda looked bad anyway. He was doing his usual Happy Talk thing, trying to minimize the virus, so he went kinda wild with non main line medical cures. Maybe he deserved to look bad.
Anyway, one article. Form your own opinion. Google ‘Trump disinfection heat’ to pick up a larger variety.
CNN us still pushing that it was not sarcasm. It is typical these days that friendly partisans will give their own people benefit of the doubt, but that hostiles will push.
If he really was being sarcastic about a global pandemic that has taken over 50,000 American lives in a few weeks, that's even worse than if he was sincere.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Eric the Green - 04-25-2020
(04-25-2020, 12:32 PM)gabrielle Wrote:(04-24-2020, 06:09 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(04-24-2020, 04:23 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(04-24-2020, 03:01 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:I can relate. I've got in trouble over sarcasm quite a few times over the years.(04-24-2020, 01:21 AM)taramarie Wrote: Speaking about poison, apparently trump suggested injecting with disinfectant into veins to combat covid as well as heat. Please guys tell me this is false i beg of you.
I found a BBC account of that press conference. You probably read a blue press version of the briefing, where they went out of their way to look Trump look bad, but he kinda looked bad anyway. He was doing his usual Happy Talk thing, trying to minimize the virus, so he went kinda wild with non main line medical cures. Maybe he deserved to look bad.
Anyway, one article. Form your own opinion. Google ‘Trump disinfection heat’ to pick up a larger variety.
CNN us still pushing that it was not sarcasm. It is typical these days that friendly partisans will give their own people benefit of the doubt, but that hostiles will push.
If he really was being sarcastic about a global pandemic that has taken over 50,000 American lives in a few weeks, that's even worse than if he was sincere.
Right. I hope this might knock off a point from his job approval rating. This gaffe is getting a lot of traction; deservedly so. But his base is incredibly obtuse, so I dunno.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Classic-Xer - 04-25-2020
(04-25-2020, 02:44 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Right. I hope this might knock off a point from his job approval rating. This gaffe is getting a lot of traction; deservedly so. But his base is incredibly obtuse, so I dunno.It may be gaining traction among liberals and liberal media outlets but I'd say most people know sarcasm when they see it and don't take it to serious these days.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Eric the Green - 04-25-2020
(04-25-2020, 02:58 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(04-25-2020, 02:44 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Right. I hope this might knock off a point from his job approval rating. This gaffe is getting a lot of traction; deservedly so. But his base is incredibly obtuse, so I dunno.It may be gaining traction among liberals and liberal media outlets but I'd say most people know sarcasm when they see it and don't take it to serious these days.
Yeah, you guys in the Trump base don't take it seriously. You refuse to see what a dolt your support. At least he's not a liberal, you think. He won't give my money to those lazy folks. Never mind that he has exploded the debt beyond what can ever be done about it until the nation collapses.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Warren Dew - 04-26-2020
(04-25-2020, 02:58 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(04-25-2020, 02:44 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Right. I hope this might knock off a point from his job approval rating. This gaffe is getting a lot of traction; deservedly so. But his base is incredibly obtuse, so I dunno.
It may be gaining traction among liberals and liberal media outlets but I'd say most people know sarcasm when they see it and don't take it to serious these days.
I don't know about that. Reports are that there has since been a significant increase in poisonings in New York City.
Given NYC is hard left, I'd say some of the leftists reading those liberal media outlets actually believed it was serious and took the out of context "advice".
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Bob Butler 54 - 04-26-2020
(04-26-2020, 12:04 AM)Warren Dew Wrote:(04-25-2020, 02:58 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(04-25-2020, 02:44 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Right. I hope this might knock off a point from his job approval rating. This gaffe is getting a lot of traction; deservedly so. But his base is incredibly obtuse, so I dunno.
It may be gaining traction among liberals and liberal media outlets but I'd say most people know sarcasm when they see it and don't take it to serious these days.
I don't know about that. Reports are that there has since been a significant increase in poisonings in New York City.
Given NYC is hard left, I'd say some of the leftists reading those liberal media outlets actually believed it was serious and took the out of context "advice".
Looks like one article in one paper and reporting only about asking about the flaky advice, not actually taking it. Apparently the headline writer got a little sensationalist and wrote a headline stronger than the actual article. Extremist like yourself blow it out of proportion.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - David Horn - 04-26-2020
(04-25-2020, 12:32 PM)gabrielle Wrote:(04-24-2020, 06:09 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(04-24-2020, 04:23 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(04-24-2020, 03:01 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:I can relate. I've got in trouble over sarcasm quite a few times over the years.(04-24-2020, 01:21 AM)taramarie Wrote: Speaking about poison, apparently trump suggested injecting with disinfectant into veins to combat covid as well as heat. Please guys tell me this is false i beg of you.
I found a BBC account of that press conference. You probably read a blue press version of the briefing, where they went out of their way to look Trump look bad, but he kinda looked bad anyway. He was doing his usual Happy Talk thing, trying to minimize the virus, so he went kinda wild with non main line medical cures. Maybe he deserved to look bad.
Anyway, one article. Form your own opinion. Google ‘Trump disinfection heat’ to pick up a larger variety.
CNN us still pushing that it was not sarcasm. It is typical these days that friendly partisans will give their own people benefit of the doubt, but that hostiles will push.
If he really was being sarcastic about a global pandemic that has taken over 50,000 American lives in a few weeks, that's even worse than if he was sincere.
He wasn't being sarcastic. He's never sarcastic. He just plays both ends against the middle. His favorite go-to line, "... some people are saying", allows him the freedom to take credit for wins and blame others for failures. He has other similar nonsense lines, intended to carry the same water. The topics themselves are immaterial to him. Just the positioning of DJT in whatever arena he's playing at the moment.
Credit where it's due; none where it's not.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Warren Dew - 04-26-2020
(04-26-2020, 12:21 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: Looks like one article in one paper and reporting only about asking about the flaky advice, not actually taking it. Apparently the headline writer got a little sensationalist and wrote a headline stronger than the actual article. Extremist like yourself blow it out of proportion.
You're looking at the wrong article. Not that headlines aren't always sensationalist these days.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Bob Butler 54 - 04-27-2020
(04-26-2020, 01:56 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:(04-26-2020, 12:21 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: Looks like one article in one paper and reporting only about asking about the flaky advice, not actually taking it. Apparently the headline writer got a little sensationalist and wrote a headline stronger than the actual article. Extremist like yourself blow it out of proportion.
You're looking at the wrong article. Not that headlines aren't always sensationalist these days.
Care to link to the right article? Partisan sites tend to take a obscure whatever and make up lies.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - pbrower2a - 04-27-2020
If people cannot agree on basic ideology they can agree on what makes good character. There is no liberal or conservative version of the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule. There is no liberal or conservative version of the Constitution, the moral principles behind which the federal government ideally operates. Donald Trump is President and we can loathe him or love him and anything in between, but such is opinion.
Reality can have a liberal or conservative bias depending upon which side of the political spectrum is most deluded at the time, but all in all basic truth does not have a partisan bias. The laws of logic and some basic realities of arithmetic, geometry, and physics remain the same, at least as wise people understand them, from antiquity. Thus
Fluffy is a cat
Cats are predators
Fluffy is a predator
is valid. In contrast
Cats are predators
Snakes are predators
cannot lead me to any conclusion except that cats and snakes are both predators. To a mouse, the difference between a cat or a snake is moot; both are to be avoided because both are death. Cats are obviously not snakes and snakes are not cats. We are humans and not mice.
OK, triangles that have the same length of side between two angles just the same are themselves duplicates (as learned by ancient carpenters), and every whole number except one or zero has a distinct set of prime numbers (thus 210 is the product of 2,3,5 and 7 as primes even though 14 and 15 would also work -- but 14 and 15 are not prime numbers). A floating object displaces mass as much of the object in which it floats until it floats in equilibrium.
There have been discoveries of basic reality since Euclid and Archimedes, even as late as 1905 (general relativity based upon the rigid reality of the velocity of electromagnetic radiation in a vacuum) -- but those basic discoveries have been irrefutable. The Nazis hated Einstein for being Jewish and even put a price on his life, and disparaged relativity for its association with a Jew and even came out with a pamphlet called "A Hundred Against Einstein" to which Einstein retorted, "One (proof to the contrary) would be enough".
Only fools think that they can refute basic reality, and if they claim to do so for religious reasons they defy God Almighty. If God created the Universe or allowed it to come into being, then He certainly established the mathematical and physical laws by which the universe operates. The Universe makes some sense. Lying does not after it gets exposed to the burning truth.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Eric the Green - 04-27-2020
I see some dangers of deviance from truth and reality, if any version of the truth is claimed to be absolute. That does not mean we can't discern truth, and that there aren't fools. But there is some basic ambiguity and mystery about our existence. So mathematics applies with certainty, but only within a certain range of inquiry and application, according to the Godel theorem and other analyses. Within the rules of the game, mathematics works. But measurements are only relative, because no exact measurement can be made. The universe makes some sense. But mathematical and physical laws do not describe how the universe operates, outside of a certain frame of reference or set of assumptions, because the universe is not physical nor an operation. God is that aspect of the universe that is also spiritual. Life is spontaneous, and thus not subject in any absolute sense to calculation or mechanical cause and effect.
Although I would not make an absolute out of science and mathematics, they do have very useful applications, within the range of the uncertainty principle and the basic mystery of life. We need to apply these tools of knowledge, rather than depend on fantasy and speculation. But is there a definite, absolute difference between fantasy and reality that can be applied to define the difference? I expect so, with the proviso that they depend on the frame of reference. It may take some careful consideration to develop such a definition.
For one thing, if someone makes a claim that something is happening, and claim that this is "objective truth that can be verified by any observer," then science and mathematics should be able to verify that claim better than partisan bias or speculative fantasy about a conspiracy. Despite the basic mystery of life, there seems to be something called good sense. Lawyers and judges can discern whether a defendant is competent to stand trial, and juries can decide beyond a reasonable doubt if a person is guilty. Mistakes are made, but we need to do the best we can.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Bob Butler 54 - 05-04-2020
(04-27-2020, 01:17 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(04-26-2020, 01:56 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:(04-26-2020, 12:21 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: Looks like one article in one paper and reporting only about asking about the flaky advice, not actually taking it. Apparently the headline writer got a little sensationalist and wrote a headline stronger than the actual article. Extremist like yourself blow it out of proportion.
You're looking at the wrong article. Not that headlines aren't always sensationalist these days.
Care to link to the right article? Partisan sites tend to take a obscure whatever and make up lies.
No? Figures.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Classic-Xer - 05-04-2020
(04-27-2020, 11:41 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: If people cannot agree on basic ideology they can agree on what makes good character. There is no liberal or conservative version of the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule. There is no liberal or conservative version of the Constitution, the moral principles behind which the federal government ideally operates. Donald Trump is President and we can loathe him or love him and anything in between, but such is opinion.Is Fluffy a domestic cat or a feral cat? If Fluffy is a feral cat then what you stated above about Fluffy the cat directly applies. I had a domestic cat named Buddy that wouldn't harm a fly.
Reality can have a liberal or conservative bias depending upon which side of the political spectrum is most deluded at the time, but all in all basic truth does not have a partisan bias. The laws of logic and some basic realities of arithmetic, geometry, and physics remain the same, at least as wise people understand them, from antiquity. Thus
Fluffy is a cat
Cats are predators
Fluffy is a predator
is valid. In contrast
Cats are predators
Snakes are predators
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Eric the Green - 05-05-2020
50 years ago today, students resist militarism and 4 of them become martyrs to the cause. The Kent State killings contributed to the rise of polarization.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/opinion/kent-state-shooting-protest.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage&fbclid=IwAR31VBaf5MmJQ9jZXHcBAH0F6bFjCSFOiSD5grvNVgh8Sko1_ftNFF5IvrY
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - pbrower2a - 05-06-2020
(05-04-2020, 10:12 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(04-27-2020, 11:41 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: If people cannot agree on basic ideology they can agree on what makes good character. There is no liberal or conservative version of the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule. There is no liberal or conservative version of the Constitution, the moral principles behind which the federal government ideally operates. Donald Trump is President and we can loathe him or love him and anything in between, but such is opinion.Is Fluffy a domestic cat or a feral cat? If Fluffy is a feral cat then what you stated above about Fluffy the cat directly applies. I had a domestic cat named Buddy that wouldn't harm a fly.
Reality can have a liberal or conservative bias depending upon which side of the political spectrum is most deluded at the time, but all in all basic truth does not have a partisan bias. The laws of logic and some basic realities of arithmetic, geometry, and physics remain the same, at least as wise people understand them, from antiquity. Thus
Fluffy is a cat
Cats are predators
Fluffy is a predator
is valid. In contrast
Cats are predators
Snakes are predators
My family had a pet cat who was best described as tame inside the house but feral outside. Once outside our cat showed beyond any doubt what a cat is. Except for size:
![[Image: 220px-Leopard_%28Panthera_pardus%29.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Leopard_%28Panthera_pardus%29.jpg/220px-Leopard_%28Panthera_pardus%29.jpg)
(OK, our cat had tiger-like stripes instead of spots, but unlike a tiger it was a good climber and was scared of water). He specialized in birds, using our suburban shrubs as a blind for ambushing any small bird that ventured too close. We have a declawed mini-tiger in our house, and he caught a mouse.
Your cat may live on a diet of 100% cat food if he stays inside at all times, which is best for birds. But cat food is meat, as cats are obligate carnivores as are all snakes.
For viciousness that rivals that of tigers, just think of a rat tiger -- excuse me, rat terrier.
... Fluffy would probably kill a mouse, grasshopper, or small bird that it got a chance to dispatch. Cats are supreme killing machines, and all that keeps a domestic or feral cat from killing and eating you is its small size.
RE: The Partisan Divide on Issues - Eric the Green - 05-15-2020
Today, there's red and blue America. People in some social media realms often tend to think red and blue are both wrong categories in some way, but these realms are not most people. Most Americans have lined up behind Democrats and Republicans, including most independents, even though those two parties are not monolithic in their opinions. It is getting that way however, especially Republican. This is our national divide, and could end up literally dividing the former USA.
Generally speaking, Blue America is closer to the blue waters and the borders. They are connected to the world and to information. They are aware of science and accept it, including ecology and global warming, and may be spiritual but are not part of the fundamentalist religious-right political faction. They support gun control and regulation/taxation of big business and the wealthy. They are often urban and employed in high tech or service occupations, and they are often college educated. Blue America is racially-diverse and accepting of immigrants. Younger and more-diverse people are trending strongly blue.
Generally speaking, Red America is part of the religious right and promote the culture war, concerned over problems like abortion. They want people to have guns. They are more rural, parochial and provincial, often restricted in their sources of information to radio talk shows and Fox News. They are often skeptical of science and global warming. They tend to work in declining industries or farming and are less educated. They agree with trickle-down economics, and value self-reliance rather than taxes and welfare spending. They oppose immigration and tend to be white and older, though not exclusively, and they often want America to be white again.