I'm pretty sure it's going to involve a bunch of butthurt white guys with AR15s and a point to make. We'll see how quickly the Republican Party has a change of heart towards firearm regulation when THEY are in the sight. If you listen at all to the AM gasbags and grievance merchants, the dog whistles and implications seem to me to be trending in that direction.beantownbubba wrote:I don't know where this country is heading but I'm seeing fewer and fewer potential scenarios that don't involve violence before we get wherever we're going. I've never wanted to be more wrong about anything but the world has already gone to hell in a hand basket and I don't know what the next level(s) is other than it can't be good.Flea wrote:I'm thinking much worse than that.
The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Now it's dark.
- cortez the killer
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Flea wrote:I'm pretty sure it's going to involve a bunch of butthurt white guys with AR15s and a point to make. We'll see how quickly the Republican Party has a change of heart towards firearm regulation when THEY are in the sight. If you listen at all to the AM gasbags and grievance merchants, the dog whistles and implications seem to me to be trending in that direction.beantownbubba wrote:I don't know where this country is heading but I'm seeing fewer and fewer potential scenarios that don't involve violence before we get wherever we're going. I've never wanted to be more wrong about anything but the world has already gone to hell in a hand basket and I don't know what the next level(s) is other than it can't be good.Flea wrote:I'm thinking much worse than that.
You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
I saw this commercial late night during South Park. I literally almost threw up. I kind of live on that edge a lot but this was beyond the pale. Be afraid....
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9qv8RSreIM[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9qv8RSreIM[/youtube]
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
I don’t see the problem, chuck. It’s one of those rare opportunities to own a piece of history. Plus, cozy, flag-themed blanket!! Win(ning)! Win(ning)!
You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Yes, because the first 2 words that come to mind when I think "donald trump" are "warm" and "cuddly."
Love this phrase, cortez:
Love this phrase, cortez:
cortez the killer wrote:It’s one of those rare opportunities to own a piece of history.
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
I too saw the commercial about a month or so ago while watching South Park, I really thought it was some sort of skit that they slipped into the show. I then went on the internet and found that it is a real thing, mind blowing stuff there.
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
I understand that reasonable people can disagree about the appropriate treatment of Captain Crozier. I understand the Navy's issues and I think they're serious. I would like to think that there might have been a lesser level of discipline that could have satisfied the Navy's objectives, but what do I know? I know that the Captain understood the risks of what he was doing and chose to do what he thought was right anyway. That's admirable imho but the consequences were part of the deal and if that's all there was I could live w/ it without being happy about it.
What I can't understand is Modly's speech to the crew. Once again, I hope that "our" veterans can weigh in on this. It seems to me to be a failure at every level but I am very aware that I never served and would really appreciate that perspective. Par for the course? To be expected? Motivating or appropriate in ways a landlubber like me can't understand? Or as bad as I think it was; totally demotivating and insulting to captain and crew as well as incredibly whiny, wimpy and self-serving?
What I can't understand is Modly's speech to the crew. Once again, I hope that "our" veterans can weigh in on this. It seems to me to be a failure at every level but I am very aware that I never served and would really appreciate that perspective. Par for the course? To be expected? Motivating or appropriate in ways a landlubber like me can't understand? Or as bad as I think it was; totally demotivating and insulting to captain and crew as well as incredibly whiny, wimpy and self-serving?
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
When I first heard about the remarks, I looked Modly up and discovered he was a graduate of the Naval Academy, so I was inclined to believe he was a professional. Then I read the remarks. I've heard an academy graduate describe a proper ass-chewing; by comparison, this was a sorry performance.beantownbubba wrote:I understand that reasonable people can disagree about the appropriate treatment of Captain Crozier. I understand the Navy's issues and I think they're serious. I would like to think that there might have been a lesser level of discipline that could have satisfied the Navy's objectives, but what do I know? I know that the Captain understood the risks of what he was doing and chose to do what he thought was right anyway. That's admirable imho but the consequences were part of the deal and if that's all there was I could live w/ it without being happy about it.
What I can't understand is Modly's speech to the crew. Once again, I hope that "our" veterans can weigh in on this. It seems to me to be a failure at every level but I am very aware that I never served and would really appreciate that perspective. Par for the course? To be expected? Motivating or appropriate in ways a landlubber like me can't understand? Or as bad as I think it was; totally demotivating and insulting to captain and crew as well as incredibly whiny, wimpy and self-serving?
The sooner we put those assholes in the grave&piss on the dirt above it, the better off we'll be
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
And now Trump has virtually untrammeled access to the better part of TWO TRILLION DOLLARS. This will not end well for the rest of us.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Thank Nancy for that. And no it won't.beantownbubba wrote:And now Trump has virtually untrammeled access to the better part of TWO TRILLION DOLLARS. This will not end well for the rest of us.
Don't hurt people, and don't take their stuff.
Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Did Nancy fire all of the IG's (aka the people whose job is to provide oversight)??LBRod wrote:Thank Nancy for that. And no it won't.beantownbubba wrote:And now Trump has virtually untrammeled access to the better part of TWO TRILLION DOLLARS. This will not end well for the rest of us.
And I knew when I woke up Rock N Roll would be here forever
Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Nancy is in charge of the spending.Zip City wrote:Did Nancy fire all of the IG's (aka the people whose job is to provide oversight)??LBRod wrote:Thank Nancy for that. And no it won't.beantownbubba wrote:And now Trump has virtually untrammeled access to the better part of TWO TRILLION DOLLARS. This will not end well for the rest of us.
Don't hurt people, and don't take their stuff.
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Right. So Nancy made a deal to supervise that spending. The deal got broken. IMHO Nancy bears some of the blame for not anticipating that but how much is a very good and open question. It could be a lot, but I'd have a hard time with all. However much blame one assigns to her, to me her bigger (or maybe at least as big) mistake was losing control of the bill in the early stages so she was always fighting from a rear guard, reactive position.LBRod wrote:Nancy is in charge of the spending.Zip City wrote:Did Nancy fire all of the IG's (aka the people whose job is to provide oversight)??LBRod wrote: Thank Nancy for that. And no it won't.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
But if she kept control it would be fine to spend 2 trillion more when we are already running trillion dollar deficits?
Don't hurt people, and don't take their stuff.
Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Are you arguing against emergency stimulus?LBRod wrote:But if she kept control it would be fine to spend 2 trillion more when we are already running trillion dollar deficits?
And I knew when I woke up Rock N Roll would be here forever
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Honestly? I really don't know. An adult lifetime of education tells me that it's completely nuts. An adult lifetime of experience tells me that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures and these measures are certainly extraordinary. Similar measures certainly made a difference in the 2009ish era and the conventional wisdom is, I think, that even more would have been better. Another impossible to measure (for me, anyway) trade off is the almost certain amelioration of significant immediate pain that the stimulus will bring in the short term and the likelihood that it will make the recession shorter and less severe than it otherwise would be (which in turn will bring some relief in the form of higher tax receipts) versus the impossibly heavy debt load we will force on generations to come, who will not only have to repay the debt but whose choices and flexibility will be severely limited by this albatross.LBRod wrote:But if she kept control it would be fine to spend 2 trillion more when we are already running trillion dollar deficits?
I believe for sure that a smaller, better targeted, better controlled stimulus would surely be the right thing to do at this time so now we're just talking a matter of (a) degree and (b) the geometric rise in opportunities for fraud, abuse, corruption and waste as the amounts get larger. Within those parameters or concerns I really don't know where the sweet spot is but I do believe that doing nothing is not an option and I do believe that lack of oversight is far worse than legitimate, adequate oversight.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
I agree with lots of that, Bubba. Something must be done. This is something, therefore it must be done. I have given up on big government action making any sense.beantownbubba wrote:Honestly? I really don't know. An adult lifetime of education tells me that it's completely nuts. An adult lifetime of experience tells me that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures and these measures are certainly extraordinary. Similar measures certainly made a difference in the 2009ish era and the conventional wisdom is, I think, that even more would have been better. Another impossible to measure (for me, anyway) trade off is the almost certain amelioration of significant immediate pain that the stimulus will bring in the short term and the likelihood that it will make the recession shorter and less severe than it otherwise would be (which in turn will bring some relief in the form of higher tax receipts) versus the impossibly heavy debt load we will force on generations to come, who will not only have to repay the debt but whose choices and flexibility will be severely limited by this albatross.LBRod wrote:But if she kept control it would be fine to spend 2 trillion more when we are already running trillion dollar deficits?
I believe for sure that a smaller, better targeted, better controlled stimulus would surely be the right thing to do at this time so now we're just talking a matter of (a) degree and (b) the geometric rise in opportunities for fraud, abuse, corruption and waste as the amounts get larger. Within those parameters or concerns I really don't know where the sweet spot is but I do believe that doing nothing is not an option and I do believe that lack of oversight is far worse than legitimate, adequate oversight.
Don't hurt people, and don't take their stuff.
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Just for yucks, let's take a look at some of what's already approved:LBRod wrote:Something must be done. This is something, therefore it must be done. I have given up on big government action making any sense.
There seems to be widespread agreement that direct payments to individuals is the best short-term action we can take. That means one of 2 things: Either we're on to something really smart, or if there's that much agreement something's gotta be wrong with it. Let's assume the former. So where are we? Not a penny has been distributed yet and it's pretty clear that the money is gonna be distributed much more slowly than intended or the theory requires for maximum impact. There will inevitably be thousands of mistakes, snafus, fuck ups, what have you. So while well intended and maybe even right, it's not likely that this will have the full impact desired and at least imho, we're already past the point at which this can be considered "fast acting".
The small business loan program (PPP) is to my way of thinking surprisingly clever by government standards in aiming to incentivize desirable decisions and actions by a fairly carefully targeted audience. But I can see already that this program is not going to work in practice, at least not nearly to the necessary level. Too much money being spent too fast by a system ill equipped to handle it and with too many loopholes and opportunities for wiseguys to take advantage of it. If the intent can be boiled down to keeping business payrolls high and people employed for the key April/May period, I very much doubt that will happen as a matter of timing for sure and because I think it unlikely that the necessary overwhelming majority of recipients will use the funds as intended.
The $500 Billion big business bailout. Gimme a break. This is nothing but an unsupervised slush fund and a pit of corruption so deep and wide as to be unprecedented. Poorly designed, without clear objectives or properly designed incentives, it's a trough for the biggest, fattest, loudest and best connected pigs to feed at and as far as I can tell, likely to be a very large waste of money.
Not too encouraging. Let's hope I'm being too pessimistic. In particular, it's possible that if the direct payments roll out more smoothly than I anticipate, the impact could be large and more or less as intended.
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
You don't want this scumbag from New York as your President elect.
https://nypost.com/2020/04/09/stop-the- ... iety-show/
https://nypost.com/2020/04/09/stop-the- ... iety-show/
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
did he ever say he was going to run?Howlinwolf wrote:You don't want this scumbag from New York as your President elect.
https://nypost.com/2020/04/09/stop-the- ... iety-show/
I don't know very much about his political history in NY, but i will say it's been night and day to compare his pressers to Trump's. He's prepared, he knows the data, he bases future actions against projections and adjusts course as needed. pretty much what you'd expect a leader to do.
Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
At this point I'll take any non-Republican who can beat Trump. And Biden isn't a good candidate. I shudder at the thought of Biden trying to hold his own in a debate against Trump----Biden often can't hold his own in just making a speech. If more folks would vote for Cuomo than Biden and Cuomo could somehow get in, I'd be all in for Cuomo.Howlinwolf wrote:You don't want this scumbag from New York as your President elect.
https://nypost.com/2020/04/09/stop-the- ... iety-show/
Since Cuomo isn't running and Biden is the only person left, maybe (hopefully) Biden will prove me wrong.
Let the outside air in
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Huh.Howlinwolf wrote:You don't want this scumbag from New York as your President elect.
https://nypost.com/2020/04/09/stop-the- ... iety-show/
Let me say right up top that my impression of Andrew Cuomo pre-virus was vague and neutral to slightly negative. If I was trying to be snarky I probably would have dismissed him as a pale version of his father.
As far as I know, Andrew Cuomo is not running for president. And as far as I'm willing to bet, he will not be the Democratic nominee in 2020. But there's an awful to unpack from that article anyway.
Here's the thing: There are very few moments in life that really count. I figure that we each will face a couple, no more than a handful, of key moments that will define us and the same goes for public figures. Either we step up or we fall down. Fair or not, that's just the way it works and it applies to all parts of the political spectrum. Just for example,these are the two moments (in chronological order) that I would put in that category: (i) being forced to make a very weighty and important decision at work w/ many millions of dollars and perhaps the future of the company on the line where I figured doing the right thing (as I saw it) would get me fired; I chose to do the right thing and got fired. (ii) Helping and supporting my son through his cancer ordeal.
Trump and Cuomo are both facing that kind of moment. It's the kind of thing that can literally erase all that came before: If Trump stepped up, he could have shattered 3 years of horribly negative stuff and turned himself into a hero. He is falling down and reinforcing and increasing the negative impression many have of him. Cuomo is stepping up and is erasing a lot of negativity. Giuliani post 9/11 is the obvious comparison. So scumbag or not (as to which I am agnostic), like it or not, it appears that Cuomo will emerge from this trying time with his stature considerably enhanced.
Somewhere along the line, hard questions became confused with "gotcha questions." Just because the true answer would be embarrassing to the president doesn't make the questions "gotcha." I don't watch the "press briefings" but my understanding is that Trump regularly insults and belittles the press and individual reporters. If some of them sometimes respond in kind (with e.g. a question aimed to embarrass or to make a point) that doesn't seem surprising and does seem to me to be the fault of both sides. Let me state the obvious just in case: It is the job of the press to ask hard questions and to dig hard if they feel they are being lied to or if information is being withheld. That can create situations where "hard" and "gotcha" questions becomes a mighty fine line but the line exists and, again, the mere fact that questions are hard or that the answers might be embarrassing does not automatically make them gotcha.
Again, I don't watch, but my understanding of the Cuomo Brothers "show" is that it is not presented as journalism per se but as more of a human interest story. On that basis, and with the relationship between the brothers disclosed, it may bug Andrew's detractors that he gets that free fuzzy screen time, but it doesn't seem wrong or problematic to me. To the extent that it is presented as journalism and/or the relationship is not disclosed then that would indeed be a problem. As I say I don't watch so I have no opinion on that I'm just repeating what I've read.
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Thanks BTB for your excellent feedback. Appreciate your many fine points, but as a current resident of Manhattan, it is painful to to witness day in and day out of exactly what is going on here. Just google the cover of today's NY Daily News and you'll get the idea.
I guess DeBlasio ( our Mayor ) and Cuomo have been battling it out for years and if given a choice between the two, I'd go for Cuomo as well. He definitely provides more direction, but like yourself, I'm not watching these pressers either ( or Trumps )
Have faith we will all pull through this and move forward - be safe y'all
I guess DeBlasio ( our Mayor ) and Cuomo have been battling it out for years and if given a choice between the two, I'd go for Cuomo as well. He definitely provides more direction, but like yourself, I'm not watching these pressers either ( or Trumps )
Have faith we will all pull through this and move forward - be safe y'all
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
(cutting the rest of the post for page brevity)beantownbubba wrote: Trump and Cuomo are both facing that kind of moment. It's the kind of thing that can literally erase all that came before: If Trump stepped up, he could have shattered 3 years of horribly negative stuff and turned himself into a hero. He is falling down and reinforcing and increasing the negative impression many have of him.
Great post, BTB
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Thanks!schlanky wrote:(cutting the rest of the post for page brevity)beantownbubba wrote: Trump and Cuomo are both facing that kind of moment. It's the kind of thing that can literally erase all that came before: If Trump stepped up, he could have shattered 3 years of horribly negative stuff and turned himself into a hero. He is falling down and reinforcing and increasing the negative impression many have of him.
Great post, BTB
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Those with negative opinions of him don't need any reinforcement.
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
What makes Andrew Cuomo a "scumbag"?
You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
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Re: The Neverending Thread for Political Shit
Be a resident of New York and you will get the picture