What a GREAT Day for election results!

What's happening to the liberal agenda?

Even Illinois? A Repo Governor? Who'd a thought?

If those some of those same states go Red in 2016- then we'll get somewhere.

WI being a prime example

Take this crap to SA (PA). You would be more welcome there.

+1

crap? Either you are one of the many uninformed voters, you don't vote and don't care, or you do and have sour grapes.
Which is it?

Since our state amendment 2 didn't pass, i guess I'll have to smoke all this stuff really fast.

*yawn*, sorry Todd did you say something?

Let Todd flog his dog while typing with the other hand. Reality will soon set in and he'll be back to spraying his monitor with spittle with the caps lock key fully engaged.

Control of Congress doesn’t grant absolute power and in many cases, it will shift the divide, not eliminate it. The Senate’s procedural rules that require 60 votes for most legislation, as well as the presence of Obama in the White House, will limit what Republicans can do.

Obama can veto any bill, and it would take two-thirds of the members in both chambers to override him. If the president maintains support among congressional Democrats, Republicans will have to negotiate with him rather than stampede over him.

The veto is the key: Senate Republican leadership will undoubtedly face pressure from Ted Cruz and his minions to pursue reconciliation and perhaps even eliminate the filibuster, steps that would allow Senate Republicans to easily pass legislation with a simple majority. But even if they get their way, they can't change the fact that President Obama wields the veto pen and without assembling a two-thirds majority in both chambers, they won't be able to override his vetoes.

Way to go Todd . . . . . you kiss

Crawl back in your hole too!

WOW, those grapes sure seem sour!

Oh wait, didn't Dirty Harry eliminate the 'filibuster'?

Uh oh

Lighten up Phillip...

Like voting, you have a choice and that is not to read this thread or put Todd ignore....

Even with Todd on ignore the political threads do pop up and distract from what is relevant.

Could we have a: Thread ignore function?

Rolf, I understand your feeling about these political popups.

But why don't you look at this forum as a beachbar where catsailors as a sort of apres-ski talk open-hearted and spontaniously about what keeps them busy.
That is ofcourse mostly catamaran business, but sometimes, in unspoken mutual consent, it can also be politics, religion, sex, whatever.

And mutual being divided is part of the game. As is the venom and the humour.

As a Dutchman, I live in a small country which is political governed by atleast 10 miserable and irritant political parties. Listening on this forum how an outspoken left/right two party sytem really affects the society, is interesting.

In a bar I would not have those political muppets come into my face repeatedly shouting their agenda of the week. If they did, I could deal with that in many ways to stop them from doing so.

But this is not a bar. It is a catsailor form and what I asked for is an "ignore thread" function. Compare it to having the bouncer of a bar throwing out drunk obnoxious idiots.

Threads like this detracts from the other good threads in this forum. E.g. the ongoing trailer thread. I will now try my best to forget all about this thread and mentally ignore it forever.


(and you need a crash course in norwegian bar "culture" )

I believe threads like these are a reason that participation in this forum has dropped off significantly in the last year. These threads have nothing to do with the topic of the website and are acidic to the site community.

The problem, as I stated many times before, is that when you (subscribe to emails) to this forum (Open Forum/Discussions), you receive a separate email for each and every post. The "ignore" DOES NOT WORK! I practically begged Rick to set up a political forum away from and not included in the open/discussion forum, but the obvious request and wishes of many here, are ignored.

Like Jake said, people get fed up and leave. Participation is dwindling. This topic was addressed a few years ago but nothing happened. It's hard for Rick to really believe that this is happening when he sees over 12 million views come from a thread like "Drill Baby". Most of those views are simply the result of a google search for "Drill Baby Drill" sending non-sailing people here who immediately realize it's not at all what they were searching for. The content is forced down our throats, and I doubt that more that an isolated few want to have Todd and Mike's psychobabble sent to their email inbox.

A simple fix that will please all, is to move non sailing related topics into a specific folder labeled (i.e. Politics) in the root Forums tree, which isolates the subscription protocol. This request IS A WIN/WIN for all, but will continue to be ignored unless other members here speak up. Maybe then Rick will get it. The "win" for him would be increasing his viewership with the political trolls, and most importantly, keeping the multihull community happy.

Todd, you can create this root folder yourself. Regurgitate your political keyboard vomit until your fingers bleed, all the while, giving Mikey all the ammunition he could ever dream of to assassinate you with his quick and stylist prose.

Philip, but then you end up with a deadly dull, pure technical, open forum.

We are all mature men/women and are more than just only catsailors.

Don't subscibe for emails and skip the posts that you are not interested in when you log in.

Which might actually be interesting to learn about as well, in sort of a geopolitical compare/contrast way.

I would venture a guess that there are many common themes in the larger spectrum (health/wellbeing, security, money, sex, power...) which might provide some different solutions...?

Being a catsailor or over the age of 40 doesn't mean you handle yourself maturely

The rehtoric that is thrown around here (almost exlusivly around politics) is about the same thing i hear in 5 year old kindergardeners

You're party is stupid
No you are
Oh yea? my party is smarter than you!
no huh


Take it elsewhere

Ronald

"Philip, but then you end up with a deadly dull, pure technical, open forum."

Well lets see.... the issues facing the sport are..
What to do about the decline in young people sailing cats for recreation.

Should the rank and file sailor make more effort in recruiting racing sailors from your clubs pool of c420 sailors.

What should be an elite high performance program for top juniors in standard Yacht Clubs.

Does the nacra 15 work. If ISAF Youth Worlds were in the US... what would happen to 20 Nacra 15s to be sold here. What about in Scandanavia or Great Britan.

Do we need safety standards for distance racing for non catamaran OA's to run our races.

Is handicap racing a way to get critical mass at regional regattas.

How will the progress in flying boats play out for the sport... do we grow... or do we shrink yet again?

National Sailing Federations are charged with running the international competitions... (Olympics... ISAF youth worlds etc) Does that money grow the sport that we engage in.

What is the value of non class championships (alter cup) to sailors and the sport.

So... that is not a set of technical issues. They require consenus forming and buy in from the rank and file.

Where have clubs taken sailors who start on a Hobie wave or getaway moved up in performance to at least a Hobie 16 or faster? How did that happen... can we bottle that magic.

How do we get more racers... not just sailors.

How do we get dinghy sailors to play with multi's.

etc etc etc


The one thing about sailing.... is that you don't need anyone else to put your sail up... and sail away...

The questions I posed speak to the community issues in sailing. Something IS ADDED when you organize into clubs, fleets and races. That is what this forum is about. Anything that detracts from the community aspect of sailing... should be pruned.

I agree with P.M..... move the crap to it's own forum....
Vent your opinions in the proper place... the open forum works for sailing politics...AND the technical issues like... best way to seal my mast..

YMMV

I would advice you to not learn anything from us.

Not only in my small country it's a mess at this moment because of an impossible co-operation between the two major left and rightwing parties. It's a mess in whole Europe at this moment and it's all worsening by the financial crisis. And the renewed "coldwar" with Russia.

In Europe countries have been fighting against each other in the last 20 centuries with many wars. And now the governments have chosen to use one monetary unit: the euro. The big argument was that from now on there would't be any wars anymore in Europe.
Well there aren't now but it's all going down and at one moment this europe union will explode.

You in the 52 states have united yourselves (with big problems between the Southern and the Northern). We are still far from that. And I think it will turn out to be impossible, because we have too different cultures here on this side of the ocean.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

I hear catamarans are kinda fast

Last time I looked, this is Rick Whites Forum.
We've asked him for a political forum- that's his decision.

But I gotta tell ya,- How Hilarious! Have you read the things ya'll are saying?

Now we have non Americans- upset about and discussing USA politics- huh?

Have you read my firsst few posts that started this thread?
Have you?

'Crawl back in your hole?' oh yea, real grown up there

Who is the one that needs to get a life?

Yup, must be fall/winter. Time to get out the popcorn.

Idle hands are the devil's workshop!

huh? huh? Are you discriminating me???????

Since when plays the fact that I'm non-american a part on this forum?



Look, I thought that the basic starting-point for a forum is freedom of speech for everyone. With the rule to show respect to each other. (This last is now and then violated in the heat of the discussion, even in this topic).

But anyway, this freedom of speech means in this forum freedom of placing posts and freedom of opening topics. With one exception: spam. And yes, its a catsailor forum, subjects are primary connected to catsailing.

But when for instance this forum started to discuss extensively the change in healthcare cost legislation, I heard nobody complain, nor the word "crap".
Or discussions about airplane-accidents, etc,etc.

The outcome of a US election which shifts the political balance is news from the same caliber. nothing more, nothing less. I would be very surprised if it was not mentioned in a topic here.

Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret

I do not think he was referring to you Northsea.

Sunday beer sales were voted in our sailing clubs county, thats a sailing related win there!

The liberal agenda is being held up by the republican party in many areas now Todd. You just don't understand that they are out to screw you, no matter what party you align yourself with. It's a corrupt and broken system, I promise, a few states changing colors will not change that.

same circus, different monkeys....

Until we get rid of career politicians, lobbyist, and corruption, we will have the same problems no matter who is in office.
When Obama was elected the country spoke.
When this election happened the country spoke.
It was screwed up with the republican party, its screwed up with the democratic party. Not that the Tea party will fix it either, we need a clean sweep of all the politicians with people who really represent Americans and American interest, not just their own pockets and their "lifetime benefits".
Say what you want but our political system is broken no matter who is in office.

Same thing, different year. At least they're not attacking US Sailing or other cats this time.

Mark raises some good points, all of which we've been discussing with US Sailing under the Multihull Racing Committee. If anyone here is interested in doing something more constructive with their off-season time, we'd love to have your help.

Mike

Yup. Throw them all out! And don't "RE" elect anybody!

Check out P.J. O'Rourke's books on politics, in particular his "Parliament of Whores" and "Don't vote, it just encourages the bastards!"

From Parliament of Whores:


Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history mankind has been bullied by scum. Those who lord it over their fellows and toss commands in every direction and would boss the grass in the meadow about which way to bend in the wind are the most depraved kind of prostitutes. They will submit to any indignity, perform any vile act, do anything to achieve power. The worst off-sloughings of the planet are the ingredients of sovereignty. Every government is a Parliament of Whores. The trouble is, in a democracy the whores are us.

—Parliament of Whores

http://www.pjorourke.com/
Funny stuff but dead on accurate.

Grow up?? Have you read some of your's and your buddy's past post's. You two should get a room and get it over with.

Why don't you two exchange e-mail addresses so you can pummel each other in private?

Aren't there enough places out there to have these talks? Why don't you two start your own website and talk politics all day. Let us know how it goes.

Do you really think either one of you are going to change each others minds or anyone else's?

The pendulum has swung the other way. It will swing back so temper your joy until something real actually happens.

Grow up, LOL, Why don't you "WISE" up.

No sir, and I wasn't referring to you.
You have every right- my apologies.

NorthSea Junkie- when I read your posts, look at your videos, etc.
What comes to mind regarding you, is I want to repeatedly bow down,
and keep repeating 'I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy,...

Thanks, apology accepted, no need to bow at all.

You sound a bit damaged and emotional. That's fully understandable after this full load of sh.t which some members ment to dump over you. They must have reasons for that in their perception; which I definitly don't want to know.
I found these utterances crossbordering and really not suitable for repetition.

Like I stated before: a forum can only prosper if there is freedom of speech combined with respect between the members.(A bit like in a normal civilized society).

But in defense for everybody; this is on a catsailor forum maybe a hard principle.
Catsailing, in its core, is not so much a sport of controlled nuances. I mean: you tack or don't, you jibe or you don't, you capsize or not. When I sail at see, I take every second a decision: do I take this wave yes or no, do I steer upwind or downwind, yes or no, etc.

Eventually your mind can be influenced by this yes/no surrounding with the risk of ending up with a short fuse. Combine that with the large ego that sailors in general have and you see the reason for trouble.


I know, this is pure psychology from the cold ground (like we say in dutch). Shoot me.

You've shown us that you're quite the political prognosticator (no, not proctologist) Todd. As the 2016 elections are closing in can you rank the following potential candidates?

Jeb Bush
Dr. Ben Carson
Chris Christie
Ted Cruz
Joni Ernst
Louie Gohmert
Trey Gowdy
John Huntsman Jr.
Bobby Jindal
Peter King
Steve King
Sarah Palin
Rand Paul
David Perdue
Rick Perry
Mitt Romney
Marco Rubio
Paul Ryan
Rick Santorum
Jeff Sessions
Donald Trump
Scott Walker
Allen West

Please insert any of your favorites I may have missed.

You are correct Ronald. I would only add that freedom of speech should not mean absence of discretion. Criticize ideas, not people

And if we throw out all the career politicians, who the heck will run for government office?

You have to appreciate a political snake in the grass for what he/she is: an effective tool to advance your agenda.

What seems to make people upset is they don't have the means/ability to get that snake to work for THEM...

I suspect if we upset big business (who likely control the snakes anyway) enough then they'll move elsewhere?

But yes, it's more interesting to follow sailing and work on all those issues...

GOPLifer sez:

The missing story of the 2014 election

Few things are as dangerous to a long term strategy as a short-term victory. Republicans this week scored the kind of win that sets one up for spectacular, catastrophic failure and no one is talking about it.

What emerges from the numbers is the continuation of a trend that has been in place for almost two decades. Once again, Republicans are disappearing from the competitive landscape at the national level across the most heavily populated sections of the country while intensifying their hold on a declining electoral bloc of aging, white, rural voters. The 2014 election not only continued that doomed pattern, it doubled down on it. As a result, it became apparent from the numbers last week that no Republican candidate has a credible shot at the White House in 2016, and the chance of the GOP holding the Senate for longer than two years is precisely zero.

For Republicans looking for ways that the party can once again take the lead in building a nationally relevant governing agenda, the 2014 election is a prelude to a disaster. Understanding this trend begins with a stark graphic.

Behold the Blue Wall:



The Blue Wall is block of states that no Republican Presidential candidate can realistically hope to win. Tuesday that block finally extended to New Hampshire, meaning that at the outset of any Presidential campaign, a minimally effective Democratic candidate can expect to win 257 electoral votes without even trying. That’s 257 out of the 270 needed to win.

Full Article

hate the game, not the playa'

we love/hate the AC for almost the same reasons...