Prelude to the Apocalypse

[Stevens]

I guess Rhee wasn't shitty enough, he went and got us Betsy Devos.

A woman with no education background and no teaching experience.

How 'bout that, another Dubya leftover - drain that swamp, boys, drain that swamp!

After a fair bit of research it seems she can actually do less damage as the SoE than she could at the state level.

[Durandal]

So Trump'll be draining the swamp... by turning to the military and considering hiring retired generals.

[BulletMagnet]

Again, I ask you why virtually all of the richest people in the world donated to Hillary's campaign, while Trump received a fraction of her total campaign funds from numerous small donors.

Same as you or anyone else I can only guess, but my best attempt at it is the "uncertainty" that they, particularly in the financial sector, always like to wring their hands over - whatever her wavering, Clinton was much more consistent than Trump when it came to her stances on most issues, so I'd imagine that a fair amount of moneyed interests decided to back the devil they knew (that, and the upper-end tax hike she was proposing was very modest and very limited). Now that the dust is starting to settle and it's getting clearer that Trump is sticking very close to the party line when it comes to coddling the rich, well, you already noted, with pride, that the markets don't exactly seem worried. Again, just a guess, but feel free to try to do better.

He's eliminating federal income taxes for the $40k and under bracket. While a good portion of this bracket doesn't pay taxes anyways, it's a good gesture towards those who are making an honest living and paying in to the system.

Too bad the social services he's gutting or eliminating outright will dwarf the pittance they save in taxes by a colossal margin (and pretty much all of the leftover capital in their wake goes to...guess who?) - hell, if they end up getting thrown back to the wolves on health care (fun fact: as bad as the news has been when it comes to Obamacare's costs rising faster than expected, the rest of the health care sector has consistently ballooned even faster), that all by itself will immediately gobble up the pocket change Trump threw them in tax cuts, and keep on ripping and tearing for a good long time after that.

So the US admitting its role in the Arab Spring everywhere else is a-okay, but suddenly involvement in Syria is out of the question?

I'm pretty sure nobody, myself included, has claimed that the US didn't have a hand in what happened in Syria and elsewhere, but most everything I've read on the matter states that the Obama administration didn't, in any meaningful sense, ignite the various upheavals against the various regional autocrats but rather chose to react to what was already happening by mostly supporting those efforts; there's a difference. Feel free to argue that Obama and company made the wrong choice in how they reacted to these events, but placing the administration ahead of Assad in terms of blame for the country's current state? Come on.

I can continue this at another time because there's a lot to go over, but in any case, I would like to see Assad step down. He has even been receptive to the idea, but only once stability is restored in the country.

I would be incredibly surprised if Assad ever steps down voluntarily, especially once he and Putin crush the opposition (and anyone or anything else in the vicinity) completely, but time will tell, I suppose.

Maybe we will see some jobs come back, after all?

I stand by what I said in my previous post: there won't be many, they won't pay anywhere near as well as the ones that left (not that those greedy proles ever deserved what they were making anyway, of course!), and whatever boost to the economy they might provide will be more than cancelled out by the big wet kiss the Trump administration gives them, at taxpayer expense, just to get them to stay in the room.

If she was with the UAW, they were a large part of the reason GM went under.

Not as large as folks looking for an easy scapegoat like to claim they were...why does it seem that whenever things are going well at a corporation it's completely due to the strategic genius of the handful at the top (the overcompensated troglodytes in the trenches are just along for the ride, of course), but as soon as things go south it must be a bottom-up problem?

I say this as someone who typically supports unions.

Again, assuming you're not just messing with me, I'm intensely curious to find out what manner of union activity, and which union accomplishments, you "support", especially when most of your other statements on economic matters have been extremely anti-worker, or at least pro-management, in nature.

I'm glad he's listening to Mattis, dude.

That'll be just fine and dandy until someone you don't like manages to get his ear and suddenly he wheels around again...

...that is, it would be, but as it turns out whichever editor at the NY Times summarized the paper's meeting with Trump must have been on drugs, because for some reason they decided to leave out the latter part of his statement in response to Mattis, in which he says "I was impressed with his answer, but he didn't change my mind when it comes to torture."

So, we're kinda back where we started: Trump gains back a few points for consistency but loses them on both strategic competence and human decency.

I think the more glaring case of cognitive dissonance is the silence over Obama's drone strikes and his role in the Middle East (can't tell you how many times we've "pulled out" from Iraq).

Plenty of liberals, myself included, fault Obama, out loud, for failing to resist a plethora of the Bush administration's worst impulses, but when this pretty much sums up the alternative, before you even get into economics or any other area outside of foreign policy, what else is anyone supposed to do, exactly?

After a fair bit of research it seems she can actually do less damage as the SoE than she could at the state level.

The five-dimensional chess game goes on.

[ED-057]

I'm pretty sure nobody, myself included, has claimed that the US didn't have a hand in what happened in Syria and elsewhere, but most everything I've read on the matter states that the Obama administration didn't, in any meaningful sense, ignite the various upheavals against the various regional autocrats but rather chose to react to what was already happening by mostly supporting those efforts; there's a difference. Feel free to argue that Obama and company made the wrong choice in how they reacted to these events, but placing the administration ahead of Assad in terms of blame for the country's current state? Come on.

So let's say that a few foreign countries decided to "help" the DAPL protestors by sending them a pile of weapons and some extra manpower. Whatever transpired afterward would be Obama's fault first and foremost. Right?

[BulletMagnet]

Considering that if not for Assad's (and his father's to boot) long history of aggression against his people there wouldn't have been such immense protests to begin with, I honestly find it difficult to decisively "finger" anyone else first when it comes to blame for Syria's current state; it's certainly possible that without support from the US and elsewhere Assad would have simply smashed the whole thing under his heel for the thousandth time as the "America first" crowd cracks open its well-worn copy of Adolf the Wolf for the millionth time, but the fact that he sits on top of the lid in hopes of keeping it all inside doesn't make him any less responsible for overstuffing the powder keg to begin with, at least in my view.

To pivot back to Medicare for a moment, even if Trump truly did mean what he said when he promised not to touch it all those months ago (though, as has been established, his official platform now contradicts that), how eager does anyone truly think he is to call off the dogs, now that they've smelled blood?

[BryanM]

Ben Garrison is a fascinating little guy. Our current political situation is as thus:



After getting kicked by the left foot for eight years, let's get kicked around by the right one. Things will be different this time!

Ben, of course, loves Trump. Not in the proper manner of an accelerationist, but as someone who believes in him as the perfect messiah. Why, only stupid people could understand why. Ben understands the banks are fucking us. He was given an opportunity for the first time in decades to vote against them back in March. Aaaaaaand..... he chose to vote for them, once again.

Hand on the forehead. Deep sigh.

Ben Garrison cartoons are very popular on 4chan. With the tiniest, gentlest of edits, they're full blown racist. Replace a pyramid with the Happy Merchant. Add some black people catching the "free" friend chicken Colonel Bernie Sanders is throwing out. "Zyklon" Ben has done it again.

[quash]

Edit or original? You decide!

[BulletMagnet]

Don't jinx yourself.

There's always more and it's always worse.

Terrifyingly, you were right.

[MaXXX]

Ben Garrison cartoons are very popular on 4chan. With the tiniest, gentlest of edits, they're full blown racist. Replace a pyramid with the Happy Merchant. Add some black people catching the "free" friend chicken Colonel Bernie Sanders is throwing out. "Zyklon" Ben has done it again.

If you change the "Broccoli" in "I hate Broccoli" to "Jews" then it sounds racist. Great point there, friend. Really made me scratch my noggin.

[BryanM]

Jesus, so much going on last week. Let's recap.


Castro

Cuba has always been a cartoonish example of how insanely greedy our overlords are. Here's this tiny ass island out in the middle of nowhere, GDP of $68 billion, a mere rounding error of their total wealth..... and they're absolutely furious they're not allowed to own it. So much so they were willing to tempt a nuclear fucking war with Russia over it. All over a fraction of 68 billion dollars a year.

You tell me that isn't extreme or insane.


Mitt Romney

As you know, this man is on the list.

Mitt Romney is a disgusting little animal. He condemned Trump during the primary, but now that he's being "considered" for Secretary of State, he's "considering" an apology to the god emperor.

My intuition here is he's getting played like Christie - if he apologizes he'll get nothing for it.

The public humiliation these kind of Mi-Go bastards will get, are really the only consolation prize we'll get from Trump winning. I intend to savor these moments for all they're worth.


Corporate Media

Still completely insane.

Weird ass shit like "We shouldn't normalize Trump!" Uh... you already normalized Trump. Thoroughly. In 2015. We're completely inoculated now. Good job, guys. So why are you talking about what you did in the long-forgotten distant past?

Much more worrisome is the "fake news" fake news. I told you they need to crack down on the internet, because it's causing them to lose control. Let's hope this doesn't go someplace that's full Orwell.

These guys are not the kind of guys who'll go away silently in the night.


Obama

He's not satisfied with turning the democratic party into a smoking ruin. Oh no. He wants to smother it in the crib so it has no chance of coming back to life.

He opposes Keith becoming DNC chair. If Keith doesn't become the chair, the odds of getting eight years of Trump goes up dramatically.


Self driving trucks

Last month was the first commercial shipment by automated truck in history. Next week, Otto will start conducting tests in Ohio.

Kasich is of course very supportive of research into this productivity-blasting technology.

What's kind of interesting is that Uber is trying to do the same thing Netflix did to Blockbuster Video. But, to like, truck drivers. What's a mere blip today can turn out to be a tsunami later on.

Edit or original? You decide!

Look at those goat heads on those torch racks. Real craftsmanship and effort was put into this. Man definitely deserves employment in the industry.

Unlike the hack frauds who draw a single crude racist caricature on a colored background and call it a day. If you put in less thought and effort into something than a damn Garfield cartoon, you don't deserve to be a cartoonist.

Terrifyingly, you were right.

A not uncommon occurrence. Falwell Jr. is far, far from the absolute bottom this well goes.

The concentration camp thing isn't a joke or hyperbolic hysterics. If we keep buying into lesser evilism, they are an inevitability. I'd say we got off very lucky indeed if Trump is the nadir of our generation... .. maybe.

If you change the "Broccoli" in "I hate Broccoli" to "Jews" then it sounds racist. Great point there, friend. Really made me scratch my noggin.

Yep! Propaganda that calls banks parasites while only ever naming Jewish guys by name while mysteriously ignoring the John Boltons of the world is popular with broccoli racists.

[Durandal]

it's Kickstarter all over again

[Rob]

Ain't called the Green Party for nothing. Go fleece 'em, Jill.

[system11]

I can't work out if Jill Stein is simply a bad loser or trying to scam people. Is it both? Is there a $4.5 million stretch goal where 100 people get to help with the counting and get a "I wasted my fucking time and everyone elses" t-shirt?

[BryanM]

It's mainly a scam. In this case she's ripping off wealthy Clinton supporters, so it's o-k.

There's a kind of serene delusion in these 3rd party people. Why are they running guys for president? If they want to win and have actual power, all they have to do is win in the Dem or Rep primary. It's not hard to just show up and run. Bernie and Donnie did it.

If all they want to do is protest or talk about their ideas, that's a better route for them, too. I'm pretty sure Stein could manage the 1% to get into the debates. Nobody gave two poops about O'Malley, and the man got dozens of hours of airtime he didn't really deserve, wasting everyone's time. More people know who Lincoln Chafee is than Stein, I'd bet you.

They keep talking about the formation of the Republican party as "an example" of how a 3rd party rising to power could happen. Which doesn't make a bit of sense. I think they just want to complain on the internet about how Bernie Sanders isn't rubbing his ballsack over the faces over everyone who voted for Clinton. About how the guy wants to actually, ya'know, win elections.

[Mischief Maker]

I would have sooner voted Bernie as a write-in than Jill Stein.

She had four years to learn from her 2012 mistakes yet still couldn't manage to cobble together the organizational apparatus necessary to get her name on the ballot in all 50 states.

On top of that, the only government experience she had was one and a half terms on the town council of wealthy Lexington MA. Jill Stein is not in the same league as Bernie Sanders, or Ralph Nader, or Elizabeth Warren, or even Hillary Clinton. The only presidential candidate less qualified than her this election was... Donald Trump.

All that said, Republicans spent eight years of nonstop obstructionism in the name of delegitimizing President Obama. What's good for the gander is good for the goose. Keep it up, Jill!

[BulletMagnet]

Off to the side, for all the people who insisted that Hillary's connections with Goldman Sachs all but disqualified her for the presidency, I sure hope you're enjoying how many GS alums are RSVP'ing their invitations to Trump's cabinet!

[Rob]

The most gilded, anti-establishment cabinet.

[Mischief Maker]

Off to the side, for all the people who insisted that Hillary's connections with Goldman Sachs all but disqualified her for the presidency, I sure hope you're enjoying how many GS alums are RSVP'ing their invitations to Trump's cabinet!

And for those who say they should "lock her up" for mishandling classified documents, now he's floating Petraeus for secretary of state.

[BryanM]

Yeah we're ruled by criminals whatcanyado

can't blame me, I voted for Kodos

She had four years to learn from her 2012 mistakes yet still couldn't manage to cobble together the organizational apparatus necessary to get her name on the ballot in all 50 states.

This is absolutely one thing I do not criticize her and the Green party on.

It's goddamn hard to get on the ballot in every state. The democrats and republicans made it that way. The Green Party achieved a personal record access for themselves this year. Maybe in 10 or so years, they'll net all 50.

The libertarian party barely got the grail this year. The last time a 3rd party candidate managed that was Perot back in 1996.

It's damn hard to just get on the board.

[Domino]

Castro

Cuba has always been a cartoonish example of how insanely greedy our overlords are. Here's this tiny ass island out in the middle of nowhere, GDP of $68 billion, a mere rounding error of their total wealth..... and they're absolutely furious they're not allowed to own it. So much so they were willing to tempt a nuclear fucking war with Russia over it. All over a fraction of 68 billion dollars a year.

You tell me that isn't extreme or insane.

You forgot Sugar man, Sugar. SUGAR love USA, kicking out all the US companies off Cuba from Sugar. We had a similar situation where Sugar plantations fucked up so much it made a group of people vote for Donkeys always for a me love you long time.

Mitt Romney

As you know, this man is on the list.

Mitt Romney is a disgusting little animal. He condemned Trump during the primary, but now that he's being "considered" for Secretary of State, he's "considering" an apology to the god emperor.

My intuition here is he's getting played like Christie - if he apologizes he'll get nothing for it.

The public humiliation these kind of Mi-Go bastards will get, are really the only consolation prize we'll get from Trump winning. I intend to savor these moments for all they're worth.

Clinton is also a disgusting little animal for condemned Obama during the primary, and later became Secretary of State.

Corporate Media

Still completely insane.

Weird ass shit like "We shouldn't normalize Trump!" Uh... you already normalized Trump. Thoroughly. In 2015. We're completely inoculated now. Good job, guys. So why are you talking about what you did in the long-forgotten distant past?

Much more worrisome is the "fake news" fake news. I told you they need to crack down on the internet, because it's causing them to lose control. Let's hope this doesn't go someplace that's full Orwell.

These guys are not the kind of guys who'll go away silently in the night.

Drudge Report is jizzing all over Trump. Huff Post is shitting on trump. Still insane and shitty as always.

Obama

He's not satisfied with turning the democratic party into a smoking ruin. Oh no. He wants to smother it in the crib so it has no chance of coming back to life.

He opposes Keith becoming DNC chair. If Keith doesn't become the chair, the odds of getting eight years of Trump goes up dramatically.

"We want be the most diverse party of everyone, regardless of gender, race, and sex. But the catch is we want to have White people continue having power. Voters are too scared to have a Black Muslim to be the DNC Chair, oh nos!"

And most likely Nancy Pelosi will be leading the Donkeys in the House again, ewwwww take your rich white people money and join the Republicans.

Off to the side, for all the people who insisted that Hillary's connections with Goldman Sachs all but disqualified her for the presidency, I sure hope you're enjoying how many GS alums are RSVP'ing their invitations to Trump's cabinet!

GS alums would still RSVP if Clinton would had won. Wouldn't make a difference.

[quash]

CNN is completely losing it. I am currently watching a segment on how Trump gets his news from Infowars and the panel guests keep harping on how much he's lied, how fake news is spreading, etc.

I'll say the same thing I've been saying: look in the fucking mirror. A candidate like this does not come from nowhere.

Also, Turkey is now all but officially at war with Syria. Good thing we have someone entering office who won't use the excuse of NATO membership to jump headfirst into a self destructive war.

[Mischief Maker]

All this talk of "fake news" is just an attempt at softening up the public for the end of net neutrality.

[Opus131]

Ben Garrison cartoons are very popular on 4chan. With the tiniest, gentlest of edits, they're full blown racist. Replace a pyramid with the Happy Merchant. Add some black people catching the "free" friend chicken Colonel Bernie Sanders is throwing out. "Zyklon" Ben has done it again.

If you change the "Broccoli" in "I hate Broccoli" to "Jews" then it sounds racist. Great point there, friend. Really made me scratch my noggin.

If you could shop an happy merchant face on the broccoli you'd have an hit.

[BryanM]

The happy merchant is happy because he's gonna get the monnnney.

Clinton is also a disgusting little animal for condemned Obama during the primary, and later became Secretary of State.

Oi, she totally did call him an inexperienced little boy that couldn't answer a phone. And started the Kenyan Muslim birtherism stuff through her agents.

It's no wonder people hate politics. Phony bullshit mudmatch between mudmen man. Obama has said some dumb insensitive/out of touch things, but at least he's not a total slime monster when it comes to his PR.

"We want be the most diverse party of everyone, regardless of gender, race, and sex. But the catch is we want to have White people continue having power. Voters are too scared to have a Black Muslim to be the DNC Chair, oh nos!"

This literally is an argument some of them are really using. They're totally inclusive, as long as it helps them and their friends get that seven figure lobbying job later down the line.

But the most common one is "we're in so much trouble, we need to make the DNC chair a full time job!!!" Which is really infuriating if you follow politics even semi-seriously: the democrats have been sliding further and further off the map when it comes to state legislatures for decades now. The Clintons and Obama have destroyed the party through abuse and neglect, and that was blatantly obvious years before November 2016 came along.

Polling on this matter shows how little people were aware of this - through the primaries republicans were a little worried that their party was divided. But democrats were in this la-la land bubble where they thought the party was doing fine.

Barely hanging on by sometimes holding the white house is not "fine".

[quash]

All this talk of "fake news" is just an attempt at softening up the public for the end of net neutrality.

I knew there had to be something we see eye to eye on. Most people are concerned with their ISPs throttling their Netflix and completely ignore the way more important aspect of a neutral internet.

[BulletMagnet]

GS alums would still RSVP if Clinton would had won. Wouldn't make a difference.

Tell that to Trump's supporters; "no, no, it'll be different with him! We know it will be!" Mind you, it was bleedingly obvious which direction he was headed if you paid even a fleeting amount of attention to his actual proposals insofar as they actually existed, but only silly sheep do that.

While we're here, to anyone who declared Clinton's potential conflicts of interests with her family foundation as disqualifying, I'm sure you're writing to Trump every day insisting he divest from his businesses or place them into a blind trust so as to avoid this very same pratfall, right?

[quash]

The issues with the Clinton Foundation don't even start at a conflict of interest with the Clinton family.

As long as Trump keeps pissing off all the right people (Saudis, the people currently working at GS, the Fed, etc.), I'm fine with it.

Make no mistake, though: I do want to see some serious change, particularly in regards to foreign policy. If I see his administration veer away from what I wanted out of it, you'll be the first to hear it.

[brokenhalo]

On today's episode of "Guess the Shmup Farmer"....

[MaXXX]

I'm sure you're writing to Trump every day insisting he divest from his businesses or place them into a blind trust so as to avoid this very same pratfall, right?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38155141

ButthurtMagnet status: BTFO

[Bananamatic]

wtf i love trump now