US Politics: Flaming the Flamenco Flamingo

[Which Tyler]

2 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

[pedant] There were 4 Koch brothers and 3 are still alive and kicking [pedant]

Yes, one of the politically active ones died. But the organizations were backed by the Koch brothers, plural. Does one now say ‘the organizations were backed by the Koch brothers’ as if they once were and are no longer  backed up by a Koch? Does one say the organizations are backed up by a Koch brother, singular, when they were backed up by the brothers plural and are doing what they do because of the brothers, plural?

Do you not think the dead brother has a foundation that is continuing to support his pet projects for decades to come? Does one have to start saying ‘a Koch brother and a Koch foundation’? 

I think I’ll stick with the Koch brothers.  

We could just use the shorthand "a bunch of Kochs"

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

[pedant] There were 4 Koch brothers and 3 are still alive and kicking [pedant]

Yes, one of the politically active ones died. But the organizations were backed by the Koch brothers, plural. Does one now say ‘the organizations were backed by the Koch brothers’ as if they once were and are no longer  backed up by a Koch? Does one say the organizations are backed up by a Koch brother, singular, when they were backed up by the brothers plural and are doing what they do because of the brothers, plural?

Do you not think the dead brother has a foundation that is continuing to support his pet projects for decades to come? Does one have to start saying ‘a Koch brother and a Koch foundation’? 

I think I’ll stick with the Koch brothers.  

This forum has already established one zombie, BIRD! Please don’t create another unless he has a three sick enough to save Team USA.  

 

[Zorral]

15 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

The question is, who wants to get rid of the the California emissions standards? Not the car manufacturers.

It seems the Koch brothers have been behind many attacks on energy efficiency. Hey, vehicles should burn more gas! 

The Koch brothers are also apparently behind an organization asking that Energy Star be defunded. The reports on 25 different appliances are months behind schedule. The EPA wants to get rid of energy efficiency regulations. Manufacturers say the government wants 20 year old inefficient technology back in America’s kitchens.

Is it coincidence that bedbug's in CA, doing massive fund raising from the likes of the Kochs (even though at least one of them is dead?) and announces this assholery?

Is it a coincidence that the price of crude was drastically falling and West Texas shale field corps were shutting down extraction because of falling prices due to 'over capacity' and an attack on the Saudi's and the Middle East's largest refining oil facility at the same time?  (Ya ya They Say Iran, but can anybody believe a word that comes out of the mouths of the Sauds or D.C.?)

Also, must get homeless off the streets of CA's cities because they 'drag down the value of the city brand," also sheer coincidence?

[Kalbear]

The most obvious thing is probably true - this fucks over California and Trump is punishing them. That's all it is. Car makers aren't asking for it, Cali isn't asking for it, lobbyists aren't asking for it, oil companies aren't asking for it. 

Trump is just doing his version of bargaining, just like he has with China and Europe and Iran. This is what he does. 

[Zorral]

21 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

The most obvious thing is probably true - this fucks over California and Trump is punishing them. That's all it is. Car makers aren't asking for it, Cali isn't asking for it, lobbyists aren't asking for it, oil companies aren't asking for it. 

Trump is just doing his version of bargaining, just like he has with China and Europe and Iran. This is what he does. 

And ... and ... AND! don't leave out the concluding section which is his subverting, ignoring and corrupting all the institutions federal and local and LEGAL, does drags down the US brand and destroys individual, personal lives all around the world, not just within the US and all of its states, and brings us closer to global, national and local total destruction environmentally and socially, and all out war of group against group.

 

 

[Kalbear]

This is a guy who sat down at a charity event that he didn't even donate at, took the seat of a kid from the charity and spoke at it because he wanted to. Of course his brand is destruction for the sake of self-aggrandizement. It's far easier to have the mental model of Trump as someone who will simply strike back when people oppose him in whatever way he can. Remember before how he wanted to drop migrants off in San Francisco because it's a sanctuary city? 

The cruelty is the point. There are other actors who care about things like the price of oil and the like and are manipulating things, but this isn't them. 

[Jace, Extat]

1 hour ago, Kalbear said:

This is a guy who sat down at a charity event that he didn't even donate at, took the seat of a kid from the charity and spoke at it because he wanted to. Of course his brand is destruction for the sake of self-aggrandizement. It's far easier to have the mental model of Trump as someone who will simply strike back when people oppose him in whatever way he can. Remember before how he wanted to drop migrants off in San Francisco because it's a sanctuary city? 

The cruelty is the point. There are other actors who care about things like the price of oil and the like and are manipulating things, but this isn't them. 

And his base loves it. Dems should retaliate by rolling back federal subsidies for things like food stamps and Medicaid. Let the fuckers try to austerity their way out of that.

They won't though, because I have a habit of siding with weak willed losers.

[DMC]

37 minutes ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

They won't though, because I have a habit of siding with weak willed losers.

Yeah!  Not wanting to force poor people off food stamps and Medicaid totally makes you a pussy!

[Jace, Extat]

19 minutes ago, DMC said:

Yeah!  Not wanting to force poor people off food stamps and Medicaid totally makes you a pussy!

Want has nothing to do with it. The enemy keeps escalating. At some point liberals will just give up as the deck becomes increasingly stacked against them. 

So excuse me if I find little sympathy in my heart for the red necked fucks in Kentucky who would suddenly have all those sweet sweet heretical Californian tax dollars stop propping up their failed theocracy. Put SNAP and Medicaid funding on the table and lets find out just how much Mitch likes the Grim Reaper moniker.

I mean this is all academic anyway. I don't think I should have to make that qualification, but the times we live in and all that.

[Rippounet]

This counts as US politics, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5ykNZl9mTQ

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, Kalbear said:

This is a guy who sat down at a charity event that he didn't even donate at, took the seat of a kid from the charity and spoke at it because he wanted to. Of course his brand is destruction for the sake of self-aggrandizement. It's far easier to have the mental model of Trump as someone who will simply strike back when people oppose him in whatever way he can. Remember before how he wanted to drop migrants off in San Francisco because it's a sanctuary city? 

The cruelty is the point. There are other actors who care about things like the price of oil and the like and are manipulating things, but this isn't them. 

I've maintained for some time that Trump is a sadist. He doesn't perfectly reflect the symptoms like he does with NPD, but it's not a stretch to say it's a part of his personality. 

1 hour ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

They won't though, because I have a habit of siding with weak willed losers.

Damn Jace, why you got to subtweet @Jaime L like that?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Bolt On!:

Quote

John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s fired national security adviser, harshly criticized Trump’s foreign policy on Wednesday at a private lunch, saying inviting the Taliban to Camp David sent a “terrible signal” and that it was “disrespectful” to the victims of 9/11 because the Taliban had harbored al Qaeda.

Bolton also said that any negotiations with North Korea and Iran were “doomed to failure,” according to two attendees.

All the North Koreans and Iranians want to do is negotiate for relief from sanctions to support their economies, said Bolton, who was speaking before guests invited by the Gatestone Institute, a conservative think tank.

“He ripped Trump, without using his name, several times,” said one attendee. Bolton didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bolton also said more than once that Trump’s failure to respond to the Iranian attack on an American drone earlier this summer set the stage for the Islamic Republic’s aggression in recent months.

At one point, Bolton, a previous chairman of Gatestone, suggested that had the U.S. retaliated for the drone shootdown, Iran might not have damaged the Saudi oil fields.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/18/bolton-trump-foreign-policy-1501932

I, for one, am shocked that he said these things. 

[DMC]

30 minutes ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

I find little sympathy in my heart for the red necked fucks in Kentucky

There are plenty of minorities on food stamps and Medicaid in red states.

31 minutes ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

I mean this is all academic anyway.

Well, of course it's academic.  It's never gonna happen because it's ridiculous, only hurts the wrong people, and politically is an absurdly stupid move.

[Jace, Extat]

 

48 minutes ago, DMC said:

There are plenty of minorities on food stamps and Medicaid in red states.

 

And?  

[DMC]

Joe Kennedy is ready to officially announce he's challenging Markey's seat.  Markey's gonna be tough, but the polls look pretty good for Joe as long as he doesn't fuck it up.  So after a whole decade in the wilderness, Massachusetts will likely have a Senator Kennedy once more, and the world can rest easy.

[Jace, Extat]

8 minutes ago, Triskele said:

This whistleblower story that's been hanging out there is really intriguing in the sense that one can easily imagine that what they're trying to get out there is something enormously damaging to Trump.   

On the other hand, how the fuck with an overwhelmingly Dem House can it be so difficult to get to the bottom of this?  

Because it doesn't matter? Have you ever had a job? How hard did you work when your boss gave you a menial task that would accomplish nothing in the broader scheme of your life and employment? 

I think some if y'all are too hard on House Dems sometimes. It's gotta be really hard to find out that you're just an impotent beta cuck capable of nothing and that that lobbying job you're gonna get in 3 years may pay millions but that's not even a real status symbol anymore.

These are real humans who have real problems to grapple with. This obsession with the internecine corruptions of Trump and the U.S. government helps no one.

[argonak]

11 hours ago, Triskele said:

This whistleblower story that's been hanging out there is really intriguing in the sense that one can easily imagine that what they're trying to get out there is something enormously damaging to Trump.   

On the other hand, how the fuck with an overwhelmingly Dem House can it be so difficult to get to the bottom of this?  

Nothing much actually damages Trump at this point.  He's going to go down in history as the real Teflon Don.  He could shoot Nancy Pelosi in the middle of the Capitol Building on live TV and his followers would applaud while his stooges in the Justice department would decline to prosecute because she was "coming right for him."

The most important thing for the democrats to do is mobilize people who wouldn't otherwise vote.  Trump's base continues to be loyal to the bitter end and beyond..

[Zorral]

The Dems are terrified to use the force they are vested with to arrest persons who break the law by refusing to comply with judicial orders.  They are probably shaking in their bespoke loafers and designer pumps that if they did what they are legally entitled and charged to do that they'll be shot by one of the millions of trigger happy white supremacists who just can't wait to start the civil war (the sort of war about which there is literally nothing 'civil'  -- but then no war involves civil behavior, do they?).  There simply cannot be any other explanation that they continually allow the traitor in chief to continue blatantly and boastfully to break every law of goddess and man.

 

[Ice Queen]

4 minutes ago, Zorral said:

The Dems are terrified to use the force they are vested with to arrest persons who break the law by refusing to comply with judicial orders.  They are probably shaking in their bespoke loafers and designer pumps that if they did what they are legally entitled and charged to do that they'll be shot by one of the millions of trigger happy white supremacists who just can't wait to start the civil war (the sort of war about which there is literally nothing 'civil'  -- but then no war involves civil behavior, do they?).  There simply cannot be any other explanation that they continually allow the traitor in chief to continue blatantly and boastfully to break every law of goddess and man.

 

Lewandowski should have been arrested on the spot and tossed into the nearest cell indefinitely. 

[Jace, Extat]

2 minutes ago, Zorral said:

The Dems are terrified to use the force they are vested with to arrest persons who break the law by refusing to comply with judicial orders.  They are probably shaking in their bespoke loafers and designer pumps that if they did what they are legally entitled and charged to do that they'll be shot by one of the millions of trigger happy white supremacists who just can't wait to start the civil war (the sort of war about which there is literally nothing 'civil'  -- but then no war involves civil behavior, do they?).  There simply cannot be any other explanation that they continually allow the traitor in chief to continue blatantly and boastfully to break every law of goddess and man.

 

Do you remember that part in Game of Thrones when Cersei rips up Robert's last testament? 

Words on a piece of paper, that's all a constitution or a law or a judicial decree is. If someone has no respect for those things... Seriously, I know I went on a bit of a sober rant and all last night but what do you people want from Democrats? It doesn't matter what they do or don't do. Republicans won. And they'll win in 14 months and 48 months after that. Democrats in the House are about as empowered as a gimp in a truck stop.