U.S. Politics 2017: He's Good Enough, He's Smart Enough, and GODDAMMIT AL, WTF WERE YOU THINKING?

[Martell Spy]

1 hour ago, GAROVORKIN said:

Soon, we will al be living in the world of Max Headroom. 

This does seem like yet another Trump dystopia moment, although not quite as good as the moment when Trump was trading nuke threats and they were trying to strip tens of millions of healthcare all at the same time.

At this current moment, the President of the United States is trying to get a pedophile put in the US Senate by not denouncing him, which would pretty much torpedo Moore's campaign. And of course which any other President of either party would do in a second. At the same time he is busy having trouble deciding if we need to make elephants extinct faster or not. 

Meanwhile, Congress of course is seeking to transfer huge amounts of wealth to the super rich, and forcing the middle class and younger people to pay for it. And coming up are huge spending fights, in which Republicans will be forced to deal with Democrats to get anything done, all while entering this in a belligerent and aggressive stance on virtually everything.

[drawkcabi]

38 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

Indeed. And if you need someone to cover it up, well Tony Perkins is your man it appears...

Conservative Activist Perkins Reportedly Covered Up Sexual Assault Against Teenager

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/11/18/conservative_activist_tony_perkins_reportedly_covered_up_sexual_assault.html

https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/tax-bill-senate-house-hurdles/?lo=ap_e1

Tax reform: 7 Key players and how they could stop the bill

What a psycho.

[Martell Spy]

Political Corruption Enters a New Golden Age
A series of high-profile prosecutions have ended in failure or been overturned by courts, while high-profile leaders model bad behavior publicly.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/a-golden-age-for-corruption/546143/

[Lily Valley]

And New Orleans has a woman mayor.  May God Have Mercy on her Soul.  First one in 300 years.  

[GAROVORKIN]

13 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

Political Corruption Enters a New Golden Age
A series of high-profile prosecutions have ended in failure or been overturned by courts, while high-profile leaders model bad behavior publicly.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/a-golden-age-for-corruption/546143/

Welcome to political reality television where anyone can become an instant star. No particular talent required. 

[Fragile Bird]

I see the new Republican narrative is HRC lost the election because she was Bill's enabler, as bravely brought out by The Donald.

[Ormond]

49 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I see the new Republican narrative is HRC lost the election because she was Bill's enabler, as bravely brought out by The Donald.

Maybe "bravely brought out by The Donald" is new, but the first part of that has been around for decades.

[Martell Spy]

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/18/robert-reichs-saving-capitalism-is-conservative-but-conservatives-will-never-admit-it/

Robert Reich’s “Saving Capitalism” is conservative, but conservatives will never admit it
Robert Reich has made a documentary that is ultimately modest in its proposed social reforms

[Morpheus]

The Republican narrative has always been that Hillary is evil and responisble not only for her own deeds, but the deeds of anyone in proximity to her whether it be Bill or Weinstein. Donald Trump, however, is never responisble for anything, a modern Christ, victimized and saddled with the sins of others.

 

[BloodRider]

On 11/16/2017 at 7:01 PM, Darth Richard II said:

Eh, Rick and Morty? Really? I mean, I don't know much with regards to season 3 but the rape stuff in hmmm wait ok no never mind I just remembered a bunch of stuff.

I think the people who cried foul over the Love Potion episode missed the entire point of it though.

Rick and Morty has two hyper abusive relationships that it constantly absolves.  I am not saying I don't like the show for other reasons, but that part of the show really makes me uncomfortable.  And the part that gets me?  The MRAs who defend this show (not saying that's anyone here, so don't wad up your tighty-whiteys Mr. hypothetical keyboard warrior) don't see that the two really abusive relationships are ones where men (or a man and a boy) are on the receiving end.  Oh irony.......

[IamMe90]

53 minutes ago, BloodRider said:

Rick and Morty has two hyper abusive relationships that it constantly absolves.  I am not saying I don't like the show for other reasons, but that part of the show really makes me uncomfortable.  And the part that gets me?  The MRAs who defend this show (not saying that's anyone here, so don't wad up your tighty-whiteys Mr. hypothetical keyboard warrior) don't see that the two really abusive relationships are ones where men (or a man and a boy) are on the receiving end.  Oh irony.......

Why does that make the show problematic? The relationships are clearly supposed to be one sided and abusive in nature. That's party of what it makes it absurd, and funny. Do you think the show is trying to impart a moral lesson that abusive relationships are acceptable? I'm genuinely curious. 

[Fragile Bird]

2 hours ago, Ormond said:

Maybe "bravely brought out by The Donald" is new, but the first part of that has been around for decades.

Oh I know, but it's like every Republican got a faxed a list of talking points:

- Franken (spell check immediately does Frankenstein, does Twitter not have spell check?) is an admitted sexual predator

- Clinton should have resigned

- HRC has no right to run for public office as a predator enabler, and she should be investigated for that

- none of this applies to Trump, all those women are liars

- Franken admitted he's a criminal!!!

- of course Trump has talked about Moore, he should stand down if it's true, but no proof has been been offered. None at all! And it was 40 years ago!

[Martell Spy]

Collins: Senate tax bill 'needs work'

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/19/collins-senate-tax-bill-needs-work-247984

Mulvaney: White House ‘OK’ pulling individual mandate repeal from tax bill

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/19/mulvaney-obamacare-tax-bill-248110

[LongRider]

Sorry Sean, you're a shithead.  It is known.

 

[LongRider]

Forbes isn't impressed with 'tax reform.'

Quote

...........There's no economic justification whatsoever for a tax cut at this time. U.S. GDP is growing, unemployment is close to 4 percent (below what is commonly considered "full employment"), corporate profits are at record levels and stock markets are soaring. It makes no sense to add any federal government-induced stimulus to all this private sector-caused economic activity, let alone a tax cut as big as this one.

~~~~snip~~~~

In other words, the GOP tax bill may be enacted without anyone who votes for it having any understanding of the damage it could do to the economy. They have wishes, hopes and prayers but in reality nothing beyond the economic equivalent of pagan superstition.

 

[The Anti-Targ]

A bit of banter at our Prime Minister's first face to face contact with Trump.

Quote

Ms Ardern said she found Trump "consistent".

"What you see is what you get, both in the public domain in and in the private."

Ms Ardern confirmed she exchanged friendly fire with Trump over the election.

Mr Trump told a person standing beside the Prime Minister: "This lady caused a lot of upset in her country", referring to the election.

She told the US President: "No one marched when I was elected," according to Newsroom.

Speaking to The AM Show on Monday, Ms Ardern said it was all in jest.

"I have to admit, as much as everyone thinks it was a burn, I didn't really think about it from his perspective, until I walked away about five minutes later.

"We were both having a laugh, I definitely know he didn't take it personally."

Ms Ardern said she was "not sure" whether Trump understood her joke.

 

[LongRider]

More from the Forbes article:

Quote

The real economic insanity of the GOP's tax bill will be felt in future years. Consider the following.

• The $1 trillion a year budget deficit will not be the result of cyclical changes that will be reversed when the economy improves. These will be permanent structural deficit increases.
• The tax hikes that will be needed to resolve the structural imbalance between federal spending and revenues will be impossible for political reasons.
• Whenever the U.S. economy grows more slowly than expected or there's a downturn, an annual deficit of $2 trillion could easily become the norm.
• The federal government will have far less ability to respond to economic downturns unless previously unimaginable and politically intolerable deficits, tax increases or spending cuts suddenly become acceptable.
• Reduce the national debt? As they say in New York, fuhgeddaboudit at least in the next decade.
• Much more national debt plus rising interest rates means interest on the national debt will be the fastest growing part of the federal budget.
• Without massive cuts in Social Security, Medicare and the Pentagon, it won't be possible to reduce federal spending enough to do more than tweak the deficit.
• Washington's ability to invest in anything new that will improve the economy (think infrastructure, education and medical research) will be far less given the already-high deficits.
• Even though the limits to monetary policy became obvious the past few years, the Federal Reserve will be the major economic policy maker in Washington over the next decade.

 

[The Anti-Targ]

11 minutes ago, Nasty LongRider said:

Sorry Sean, you're a shithead.  It is known.

 

Eh, Hannity wins with his viewers either way, and it doesn't prevent the revictimisation. He either interviews a victim and tries to tear them to shreds, in which case his viewers all cheer him for exposing the lies about the good Mr Moore. Or there's no interview and Hannity gets to claim, with no rebuttal, that the "so called victims" are hiding because they know they are not telling the truth.

There is really no winning with these people, so I guess not subjecting yourself to a direct on air attack is the better option.

[Sivin]

19 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Eh, Hannity wins with his viewers either way, and it doesn't prevent the revictimisation. He either interviews a victim and tries to tear them to shreds, in which case his viewers all cheer him for exposing the lies about the good Mr Moore. Or there's no interview and Hannity gets to claim, with no rebuttal, that the "so called victims" are hiding because they know they are not telling the truth.

There is really no winning with these people, so I guess not subjecting yourself to a direct on air attack is the better option.

Unless my lawyer said it would create actual legal problems, I'd appear on his show and answer every question "I do not recall"

[Darth Richard II]

5 hours ago, IamMe90 said:

Why does that make the show problematic? The relationships are clearly supposed to be one sided and abusive in nature. That's party of what it makes it absurd, and funny. Do you think the show is trying to impart a moral lesson that abusive relationships are acceptable? I'm genuinely curious. 

It's not so  much the show I think as how some of the fans interpret it. Although the creator did go off on the MRA fanboys in an interview and it was pretty glorious.