u.s. politics: now guaranteed to contain no less than 35% u.s. political content

[all swedes are racist]

uh... as you were, i guess 

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

Hey pal, you got your politics in my sports, I didn't get my sports in your politics.

 

[all swedes are racist]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-storm-maria-puertorico-shipping/u-s-denies-request-for-puerto-rico-shipping-waiver-idUSKCN1C12UI

ladies and gentlemen, colonialism in action. seriously, fuck these cunts

[DMC]

14 minutes ago, good chill praxis guy said:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-storm-maria-puertorico-shipping/u-s-denies-request-for-puerto-rico-shipping-waiver-idUSKCN1C12UI

ladies and gentlemen, colonialism in action. seriously, fuck these cunts

That is infuriating and worth all the outrage.

Still, I liked @The Anti-Targ's thread title suggestion.

[all swedes are racist]

7 minutes ago, dmc515 said:

That is infuriating and worth all the outrage.

it's beyond infuriating. if you aren't so enraged to the point where you are at least considering smashing some fucking windows (and at least talking yourself out of it) you are, as we say in the metal world, a fucking false. 

7 minutes ago, dmc515 said:

Still, I liked @The Anti-Targ's thread title suggestion.

don't care

[DMC]

1 minute ago, good chill praxis guy said:

it's beyond infuriating. if you aren't so enraged to the point where you are at least considering smashing some fucking windows (and at least talking yourself out of it) you are, as we say in the metal world, a fucking false. 

That's...a weird litmus test.  I've broken a lot of things over the years, but I try to keep the window in my room  sacrosanct.  Mainly because if it's broken I'll be tempted to jump out of it at times.

4 minutes ago, good chill praxis guy said:

don't care

You're not listening to your constituents!  We Care!

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

18 minutes ago, good chill praxis guy said:

it's beyond infuriating. if you aren't so enraged to the point where you are at least considering smashing some fucking windows (and at least talking yourself out of it) you are, as we say in the metal world, a fucking false. 

/But I will though, see.

[drawkcabi]

18 minutes ago, good chill praxis guy said:

it's beyond infuriating. if you aren't so enraged to the point where you are at least considering smashing some fucking windows (and at least talking yourself out of it) you are, as we say in the metal world, a fucking false. 

don't care

I am infuriated. I am enraged. I think of doing things I would NEVER actually do, but images pop up in my mind every time I see some FUBAR situation, caused or allowed to happen, or exacerbated because of Trumpo the Clown.

On Puerto Rico, I am on a serious budget here. I need to make my money count in everything I do/purchase/pay for. I don't want my money to be given to a scam at worst or even paying for too much red tape causing less aid to get to people in Puerto Rico. Any suggestions who to donate to so that money can do the most good to those who need it in Puerto Rico? Is it still the Red Cross? Is there a better place to give? I know they are desperate for diesel fuel. 

By the way, Mayor Cruz of San Juan I think is doing a beyond belief amazing job with what resources she has. She seems like a genuine leader, someone doing all she can do in the position she's in and I don't think anyone in her place could be more competent.

[DMC]

So, to mention what will be the main topic of conversation tomorrow - Moore defeats Strange.*  And that spells trouble for GOP incumbents.

*Can't help but think of the implications for the GOP as more strange.  Then again, I also presume GOP members are busy finding plenty of strange in the first place.

[denstorebog]

Yeah, let's dig into Moore vs. Strange and what it all means. Is the nomination of Christian Taliban members like Moore good or bad for the country?

• On one hand, it moves the GOP, and thereby the country, further to the right. On the other hand, if there actually still is a Republican center out there, this movement and subsequent infighting may be exactly what's needed for the Democrats to make a sorely needed power grab. It seems all but inevitable now that the GOP will primary itself to pieces over the next year. That means a shitload of money down the drain that won't be used on Democrats. More importantly, Republicans really can't afford to lose any voters at this point, because ...
   
• ... signs continue to point to the blue overperformance continuing. Last night, Democrats stole two new state-level seats from team Red, one in the Florida State Senate, in a district that historically swings red outside of presidential elections. The second one was in New Hampshire House, in a district that went for both Donnie and Mittens by more than 20 points. In perspective, of all Republican-held seats that have been the object of a special election since Trump came into office, Democrats have stolen 30% 
  
  The point being that if Democrats continue to overperform by around 10 percentage points average at all levels in 2018, the last thing the Republicans need is to lose even a few percent of their voters to disgruntled supporters of primary losers. The interesting question here being: Will they lose more votes if establishment candidates go on to the finals and Bannonites have to turn out to support them, or vice versa? Probably the former, given the hateful retoric against people like Strange on Breitbart and similar sites, in which case I guess it's strategically favorable for the Dems if the establishment candidates win.
  
  In any case, Moore's performance in the general is going to be quite interesting, and should be an early sign of whether Bannon's machinations could end up handing Democrats a ton of victories in the end. Honestly, I don't think he gives a shit. He's fine with purging the GOP for now and fighting the Democrats some other year under a blood-red banner of pure insanity.
   
• One last takeaway: Moore's victory shows that Trump is actually not the Messiah or leader of the far-right, or at least not anymore. But that doesn't mean they are going to turn away from him. Moore's victory simply shows that he is more of a figurehead, and that his base is perfectly capable of trying to prop him up according to their desires rather than his own stated wishes. Quite the irony that the president becomes disenfranchised by the wave that he's created himself.

[Fez]

I don't know how much can be read into Moore beating Strange because of the fairly unique circumstances of the race. Strange was an appointee rather than a true incumbent, and it was a strange (ha) appointment at that. Now resigned-in-disgrace Gov. Bentley appointed Strange as an attempt to block Strange's investigation (he'd been the state AG) and this was the biggest political story in Alabama all year. Meanwhile, Moore isn't some random insane far-right insurgent, he's an established insane far-right politician who's been known throughout the state for decades. 

Moore thrives because he's in Alabama and Alabama is...special. At the same time though, the last statewide race Moore had, he beat his random, no-name Democratic opponent by only 4 points. It was the best result any Democrat has had in the state in over 20 years.

[Morpheus]

The Great Pumpkin deleted a bunch of tweets bragging about how his endorsement gave Strange a bump in the polls

https://www.axios.com/trump-deletes-tweets-backing-luther-strange-2490003352.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic

[LongRider]

7 hours ago, dmc515 said:

You're not listening to your constituents!  We Care!

I do not care.

Spoiler

At all.

 

[LongRider]

 

7 hours ago, drawkcabi said:

On Puerto Rico, I am on a serious budget here. I need to make my money count in everything I do/purchase/pay for. I don't want my money to be given to a scam at worst or even paying for too much red tape causing less aid to get to people in Puerto Rico. Any suggestions who to donate to so that money can do the most good to those who need it in Puerto Rico? Is it still the Red Cross? Is there a better place to give? I know they are desperate for diesel fuel. 

Here's some suggestions:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/puerto-rica-hurricane-irma-maria_us_59c7f699e4b06ddf45f89c7a

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, denstorebog said:

On one hand, it moves the GOP, and thereby the country, further to the right. On the other hand, if there actually still is a Republican center out there, this movement and subsequent infighting may be exactly what's needed for the Democrats to make a sorely needed power grab. It seems all but inevitable now that the GOP will primary itself to pieces over the next year. That means a shitload of money down the drain that won't be used on Democrats. More importantly, Republicans really can't afford to lose any voters at this point, because ...

I tend to agree, but a counterpoint is that this might make the left do the same and seek out unelectable candidates who please the base. That said, it will be interesting to see how Republicans react to Moore’s win and if they support him in the general election. The guy’s nuts, a quasi-criminal and holds bigoted views that will be hard to back. I’m not so sure that many national figures will want to wed themselves to him.

[Fez]

Supposedly Republicans are gonna start pushing their tax cut plan today. The supposed topline rates (though not set in stone) would be a corporate tax rate of 20%, a pass-through rate of 25%, and only three individual rates (12%, 25%, and 35%).

The bottom rate of 12% is actually a tax increase, from a current rate of 10%. But the plan would double the standard deduction from $6,000 to $12,000, which probably would cover the increase for most people.

One of the big problems though is that the plan has almost no details of how this cut would be paid for; except that the deduction for state/local taxes would be eliminated. The estimate I saw is that change alone would raise Federal revenue by $1.5 trillion over 10 years (the cuts would cost about $6 trillion though); but that really screws over a lot of people, especially in high tax states. And there are enough House Republicans left in California, New York, and New Jersey (and its not just them, other high tax states with plenty of House Republicans include Wisconsin, Iowa, and South Carolina) to probably sink that plan.

[all swedes are racist]

8 hours ago, drawkcabi said:

I am infuriated. I am enraged. I think of doing things I would NEVER actually do, but images pop up in my mind every time I see some FUBAR situation, caused or allowed to happen, or exacerbated because of Trumpo the Clown.

On Puerto Rico, I am on a serious budget here. I need to make my money count in everything I do/purchase/pay for. I don't want my money to be given to a scam at worst or even paying for too much red tape causing less aid to get to people in Puerto Rico. Any suggestions who to donate to so that money can do the most good to those who need it in Puerto Rico? Is it still the Red Cross? Is there a better place to give? I know they are desperate for diesel fuel. 

By the way, Mayor Cruz of San Juan I think is doing a beyond belief amazing job with what resources she has. She seems like a genuine leader, someone doing all she can do in the position she's in and I don't think anyone in her place could be more competent.

definitley NOT the red cross. the more local, the better, everytime. here are a few
 

ps: also, never ever give to the salvation army, either. horrible organization.

[drawkcabi]

9 minutes ago, good chill praxis guy said:

definitley NOT the red cross. the more local, the better, everytime. here are a few
 

ps: also, never ever give to the salvation army, either. horrible organization.

 

1 hour ago, Nasty LongRider said:

 

Here's some suggestions:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/puerto-rica-hurricane-irma-maria_us_59c7f699e4b06ddf45f89c7a

Thank you for this information. I will take advantage of it.

I donate to my local animal shelters directly every month because I feel it's a better way to make my dollars count towards actual helping than to donate to Humane Society or ASPCA in general. Makes sense it's same logic for this.

 

[Zorral]

9 hours ago, drawkcabi said:

I am infuriated. I am enraged. I think of doing things I would NEVER actually do, but images pop up in my mind every time I see some FUBAR situation, caused or allowed to happen, or exacerbated because of Trumpo the Clown.

On Puerto Rico, I am on a serious budget here. I need to make my money count in everything I do/purchase/pay for. I don't want my money to be given to a scam at worst or even paying for too much red tape causing less aid to get to people in Puerto Rico. Any suggestions who to donate to so that money can do the most good to those who need it in Puerto Rico? Is it still the Red Cross? Is there a better place to give? I know they are desperate for diesel fuel. 

By the way, Mayor Cruz of San Juan I think is doing a beyond belief amazing job with what resources she has. She seems like a genuine leader, someone doing all she can do in the position she's in and I don't think anyone in her place could be more competent.

The best way is to give the cash to a Puerto Rican friend and have her / him get it passed along -- which is also just about impossible to do unless the people of your friend have access to an ATM right now.

I'm so sorry to say that Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez huge relief effort will give the money from the benefit concert, Somos Una Voz to the American Red Cross, which is a sink hole of corruption, existing in order to profit from selling your donated blood, as well as to Reach Out Worldwide, United Way and United for Puerto Rico, with more beneficiaries expected to be announced.

[Zorral]

Back on the previous thread, it seems it was fairly agreed that the violence was that of the Palestinians and provoked by them and useless.  It was mentioned that the solution seemed close for a while in the 90's under Clinton.  Yet not a mention though of the assassination of Yizhak Rabin at the end of 1995, who was the person helping make that solution look likely. But if all this previous violence is the responsibility of the Palestinians, why was it an Israeli who assassinated Rabin?

So I'm asking another question, which violent act of the --thousands committed by now?-- was most significant in terms of ending or postponing the peaceful two-state solution which Israel says cannot be?