Of course Trump would be in favor of the government defaulting. He's the self-proclaimed King of Debt and has filed bankruptcy how many times? Being financially obligated means nothing to this moronic yahoo.
Thought One: Everyone entering congress should have to convert all of their investments into US Treasury Bonds. This would end what amounts to insider trading and also we would never have to do this stupid debt ceiling thing again (I realize it will never happen).
Thought Two: The Kiosk thing is less insane than it sounds if you've actually worked in a retail environment and seen what "loss prevention associates" have to deal with. While the flash mobs robbing Nordstrom's don't need wrap around services, the vast majority of shoplifters at your average big box store (which is where most shoplifting actually occurs) are high or crazy or both, which leaves employees at these stores open to assault. Working in a Walmart, management didn't want employees pairing up because it's a "waste of man power", but essentially employees have to for safety's sake. If this approach is really paired with an increased police presences (fingers crossed) and Eric Adam's has already loosened standards for involuntary commitment (which is what a lot of these people really need) it looks less like bleeding heart liberalism to me (they are gonna be mad about the involuntary commitment BTW) and more like a targeted measure rooted in reality.
That's my perspective of as former Walmart employee, not an "elite". Unlike Clarence Thomas, I know how dicey the parking lots of Walmart's really are...
The most absurd thing about the Chuck Todd exchange is that anyone is surprised, given that "because I'm not in power" is nothing more than a pure distillation of Mitch McConnell's governing philosophy. I'm only surprised that they're surprised.
You forgot about your old friend Paul Ryan. Do not leave him off the list of former Trump supporters who have FAILED to speak up as this tragedy unfolds around us.
In regard to Stoddard's piece, why aren't former Administration officials Speaking up? The answer is obvious and Tim Miller lays it all out in his book. The better question, I think, is, If they were to speak up, would it matter? And this dovetails nicely with Longwell's piece, because the answer is a resounding "NO."
35% of the GOP, at least, is Fifth Avenue Republicans. Nothing is going to get these people off of Trump short of him going on a campaign in all fifty states leading vaccination drives. And the thing is, even if Trump did that, Trumpism would persist. Trump is no longer needed. As long as he's around and he plays along, and he will as long as there is grift to be had and potential prosecutorial immunity that's bestowed by the office of the Presidency, the base will ride him and he will gleefully feed the monster. But the monster is here to stay. No mass resignations, no former officials speaking out, are going to change that. For the perpetual victim, the eternal martyr, any shots fired are just further confirmation of his status. We see it as his popularity climbs as his legal peril accelerates.
What's going on now is a continuation of the Tea Party invasion. 35% of the party wants what it wants, Trump was their path in, and now that they're there, they will shove their white nationalism down everyone's throats as a matter of principle. Will their nominees win general elections? Not in any remotely competitive areas. But they do not care. If they can't win the general with the most opprobrious asshole in the primary, they're ok with that. They just don't want a nominee who's a 2015 Republican. They may hate Paul Ryan even more than they hate Joe Biden, and Paul Ryan doesn't even know it.
Alas, cowards who bent the knee for the MAGA mob indirectly via their fealty to the Orange God King did not stop being cowards after they left the Trump administration. Their cowardice defines the whole of their beings. It is the the leitmotif of their characters, the Alpha and Omega of their personalities, and the moral dumpster where, like rats, they will be scurrying about in the trash, looking for their rewards of food morsels while staying safely hidden in the darkness.
Why would the lies-for-profit right-wing infotainment complex stop selling lies when they are still making profits hand over fist? What we learned from the Dominion suit still stands: Murdoch & Friends fear losing their audience to other lying-for-profit right-wing infotainment outlets more than they do losing money in lawsuits. With false advertising laws being so lenient against outlets who can claim they speak the truth on one hand while defending their lies as part of their "entertainment" product on the other, they are incentivized to keep doing what they are doing. The lies and omissions of truth will continue until public accountability for "journalism" improves via legislature.
The NY Post is allowed to lie its ass off because the federal and state governments don't have any laws saying they're not allowed to do that. Ditto for the supplement sales community that is allowed to sell snake oil without having to prove to anybody that it actually works. We let so many industries get off with false advertising because we don't have rules against it, and "journalism (infotainment) is just another venue. You either force companies to prove their products are factual or you end up living in conspiracy theory land where there is no objective truth and everything revolves around subjectivism, bullshitting, and omission. The only way through this problem is through new regulations that force news orgs to do more due diligence and subject them to lawsuits if they publish things that are simply false.
David Jolly (R-Fl) made a comment a few weeks back that stuck with me and is pertinent to debt ceiling. Essentially he sees McCarthy as fully complicit with DJT and his chaos monkeys, not simply their hostage. In his remarks about said crisis, Trump has made it crystal clear that his legislative zombies should blow everything up to satisfy him, and him alone. Which makes him the shadow Speaker of the House. Am I giving him too much credit...or McCarthy too little?
Re: Classical liberal democracy: George Soros has spent billions of dollars and his whole life fighting for liberal democracy and against totalitarianism of both the Left and the Right. For that, he is the Deplorable's number one villain.
"We have no clue as to why anyone would do such a thing."
If it weren't for Sarah Longwell's excellent piece, I'd totally make a dumb blonde joke about Laura Ingham. But you can't make a blonde joke immediately after reading an examination of misogyny written by a smart blonde woman.
The woman who blamed Stormy Daniels for tfg's sexist behavior toward her reminds me of an interview I saw during kavanaugh's confirmation hearings with a focus group of R women. The one woman literally said, and I remember it clearly because it struck me as so toxic, "What's the big deal? He just put his hand down her pants." I was flabbergasted that a woman could say that. These women have internalized the misogyny so much.
So, what bubble are people living in? After voting for Biden , and the events of January 6 unfolding for the whole country to see, why would anyone decide to vote for Trump again? I mean, they voted for Biden in 2020, right? I think people in focus groups lie.
I admit that it sounds dumb on the surface, and perhaps is, but I'm not sure what is served by just tossing the news of them out there and then mocking them without an examination.
Presumably someone in the Mayor's office has some form of justification for why that idea might work. Maybe it is pure idiocy, but oftentimes we run across things in life that sound dumb, but work, or things that sound smart, but don't. Why not see what that justification / theory is? And I'm certainly open to the idea that they have no good rational, in which case I'm prepared to think even less of them than my kneejerk reaction, but I've learned not to trust kneejerk reactions when better options are available.
I’m curious whether or not the hotels themselves had already initiated steps signally litigative actions. I bet Fox got a letter that essentially just said “please stop” and its legal shit their pants and snorted a bottle of Xanax.
Of course Trump would be in favor of the government defaulting. He's the self-proclaimed King of Debt and has filed bankruptcy how many times? Being financially obligated means nothing to this moronic yahoo.
Thought One: Everyone entering congress should have to convert all of their investments into US Treasury Bonds. This would end what amounts to insider trading and also we would never have to do this stupid debt ceiling thing again (I realize it will never happen).
Thought Two: The Kiosk thing is less insane than it sounds if you've actually worked in a retail environment and seen what "loss prevention associates" have to deal with. While the flash mobs robbing Nordstrom's don't need wrap around services, the vast majority of shoplifters at your average big box store (which is where most shoplifting actually occurs) are high or crazy or both, which leaves employees at these stores open to assault. Working in a Walmart, management didn't want employees pairing up because it's a "waste of man power", but essentially employees have to for safety's sake. If this approach is really paired with an increased police presences (fingers crossed) and Eric Adam's has already loosened standards for involuntary commitment (which is what a lot of these people really need) it looks less like bleeding heart liberalism to me (they are gonna be mad about the involuntary commitment BTW) and more like a targeted measure rooted in reality.
That's my perspective of as former Walmart employee, not an "elite". Unlike Clarence Thomas, I know how dicey the parking lots of Walmart's really are...
The most absurd thing about the Chuck Todd exchange is that anyone is surprised, given that "because I'm not in power" is nothing more than a pure distillation of Mitch McConnell's governing philosophy. I'm only surprised that they're surprised.
You forgot about your old friend Paul Ryan. Do not leave him off the list of former Trump supporters who have FAILED to speak up as this tragedy unfolds around us.
In regard to Stoddard's piece, why aren't former Administration officials Speaking up? The answer is obvious and Tim Miller lays it all out in his book. The better question, I think, is, If they were to speak up, would it matter? And this dovetails nicely with Longwell's piece, because the answer is a resounding "NO."
35% of the GOP, at least, is Fifth Avenue Republicans. Nothing is going to get these people off of Trump short of him going on a campaign in all fifty states leading vaccination drives. And the thing is, even if Trump did that, Trumpism would persist. Trump is no longer needed. As long as he's around and he plays along, and he will as long as there is grift to be had and potential prosecutorial immunity that's bestowed by the office of the Presidency, the base will ride him and he will gleefully feed the monster. But the monster is here to stay. No mass resignations, no former officials speaking out, are going to change that. For the perpetual victim, the eternal martyr, any shots fired are just further confirmation of his status. We see it as his popularity climbs as his legal peril accelerates.
What's going on now is a continuation of the Tea Party invasion. 35% of the party wants what it wants, Trump was their path in, and now that they're there, they will shove their white nationalism down everyone's throats as a matter of principle. Will their nominees win general elections? Not in any remotely competitive areas. But they do not care. If they can't win the general with the most opprobrious asshole in the primary, they're ok with that. They just don't want a nominee who's a 2015 Republican. They may hate Paul Ryan even more than they hate Joe Biden, and Paul Ryan doesn't even know it.
Alas, cowards who bent the knee for the MAGA mob indirectly via their fealty to the Orange God King did not stop being cowards after they left the Trump administration. Their cowardice defines the whole of their beings. It is the the leitmotif of their characters, the Alpha and Omega of their personalities, and the moral dumpster where, like rats, they will be scurrying about in the trash, looking for their rewards of food morsels while staying safely hidden in the darkness.
Lying and mock outrage are integral parts of the NewsCorp brand. They are utterly incapable of acting in a honest and responsible manner.
Why would the lies-for-profit right-wing infotainment complex stop selling lies when they are still making profits hand over fist? What we learned from the Dominion suit still stands: Murdoch & Friends fear losing their audience to other lying-for-profit right-wing infotainment outlets more than they do losing money in lawsuits. With false advertising laws being so lenient against outlets who can claim they speak the truth on one hand while defending their lies as part of their "entertainment" product on the other, they are incentivized to keep doing what they are doing. The lies and omissions of truth will continue until public accountability for "journalism" improves via legislature.
The NY Post is allowed to lie its ass off because the federal and state governments don't have any laws saying they're not allowed to do that. Ditto for the supplement sales community that is allowed to sell snake oil without having to prove to anybody that it actually works. We let so many industries get off with false advertising because we don't have rules against it, and "journalism (infotainment) is just another venue. You either force companies to prove their products are factual or you end up living in conspiracy theory land where there is no objective truth and everything revolves around subjectivism, bullshitting, and omission. The only way through this problem is through new regulations that force news orgs to do more due diligence and subject them to lawsuits if they publish things that are simply false.
David Jolly (R-Fl) made a comment a few weeks back that stuck with me and is pertinent to debt ceiling. Essentially he sees McCarthy as fully complicit with DJT and his chaos monkeys, not simply their hostage. In his remarks about said crisis, Trump has made it crystal clear that his legislative zombies should blow everything up to satisfy him, and him alone. Which makes him the shadow Speaker of the House. Am I giving him too much credit...or McCarthy too little?
Re: Classical liberal democracy: George Soros has spent billions of dollars and his whole life fighting for liberal democracy and against totalitarianism of both the Left and the Right. For that, he is the Deplorable's number one villain.
"We have no clue as to why anyone would do such a thing."
If it weren't for Sarah Longwell's excellent piece, I'd totally make a dumb blonde joke about Laura Ingham. But you can't make a blonde joke immediately after reading an examination of misogyny written by a smart blonde woman.
The woman who blamed Stormy Daniels for tfg's sexist behavior toward her reminds me of an interview I saw during kavanaugh's confirmation hearings with a focus group of R women. The one woman literally said, and I remember it clearly because it struck me as so toxic, "What's the big deal? He just put his hand down her pants." I was flabbergasted that a woman could say that. These women have internalized the misogyny so much.
So, what bubble are people living in? After voting for Biden , and the events of January 6 unfolding for the whole country to see, why would anyone decide to vote for Trump again? I mean, they voted for Biden in 2020, right? I think people in focus groups lie.
On the Kiosk's:
I admit that it sounds dumb on the surface, and perhaps is, but I'm not sure what is served by just tossing the news of them out there and then mocking them without an examination.
Presumably someone in the Mayor's office has some form of justification for why that idea might work. Maybe it is pure idiocy, but oftentimes we run across things in life that sound dumb, but work, or things that sound smart, but don't. Why not see what that justification / theory is? And I'm certainly open to the idea that they have no good rational, in which case I'm prepared to think even less of them than my kneejerk reaction, but I've learned not to trust kneejerk reactions when better options are available.
I’m curious whether or not the hotels themselves had already initiated steps signally litigative actions. I bet Fox got a letter that essentially just said “please stop” and its legal shit their pants and snorted a bottle of Xanax.
"Jim Mattis is off living his best life—getting married to a physicist he met in a bar at a Vegas ceremony"
So you're telling me that a Marine general is still a Marine?