Tom Cotton
 

I would love to beat this man to a living pulp.

That is all.

TM

Re: Tom Cotton
 

Frank Bruni:

She died before he released the hold.

Re: Tom Cotton
 

This isn't helping me stifle my violent urges.

TM

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

I think people are overdoing it on the left. There's good reason to be pissed (immigration, sessions). Surgically, being indefensible, those are worthy targets. The general "He's going to explode the world and must go now!!!" thing bugs me.

A scalpel would serve the Left well. This wave of flailing anger will burn itself out with little to show.

Russian collusion is already looking like giant nothing burger. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. This is shaping up to be a boy who cried wolf of epic proportions.

you may not be pro-Trump, but you are definitely anti-anti-Trump
 

That's the Sebby we know! Welcome back. It's hard to care about what the right is doing, isn't it? It's much more fun to talk about how the left is overdoing it.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

For the record, I disagree almost 100% with Trump on:

Environment
Sessions (everything-- the man, his policies, his repugnant essence)
Trade
Immigration

I like:

Likely lack of tax increases under him
Lack of govt expansion generally
Probable lending relaxation
Infrastructure emphasis (if he can stop tripping over his dick)

The last bit, infra, is well structured right now. He plans to force local govts and private partners to create and launch projects to ensure value and feasibility, at which point Feds will then reimburse or otherwise subsidize. Not just giving money away. Surprisingly smart.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

Yes, I believe the economy is a zero sum game. I've never heard of growth.

I also believe in a god.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

When I said "none of that," I was referring to the stuff that Adder had just mentioned, which did not include the economy or your god.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

You suggested that I believed other people being kept down would fortify my status.

Putting aside how silly that is on its face, as no sane person could believe that, you realize I am just a garden-variety white male. My social status, if any, is middling at best. And I think you know me well enough to know I'm far more libertine than social aspirant.

Quite honestly, in my perfect world, I would have a shit ton of money, spend my days getting my ya yas out and traveling, and be left alone by almost everybody but friends. Desiring status is understandable, but a hollow life. You've seen the guys who live for the brass ring. It's usually a sucker trade.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

No, I said that was the case. Not sure whether you believe it or not, and you might prefer not to think about it.

You seem to be missing what I was saying. Adder described a bunch of stuff that Trump's government is doing that affects people's lives. And my point was, it doesn't affect your life, as a garden-variety white male. And to the extent that what Trump is doing makes life harder for a bunch of people who are not you, but not for you, it actually puts you in a better position vis-a-vis those people who are not garden-variety white males. (It privileges you, if I can use that verb without setting you off.) Since status is not an absolute thing, but a relative thing, it improves your social status.

Re: Underdog v. Those Whose Hearts Are Filled with Greed
 

Worth watching.


By the way, I always enjoyed Underdog, but I think Sebby's orange-haired buddy bears more resemblance to the Overcat. Everybody cheer, Overcat is here!

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

The suggestion I don't care because the policies at issue harm others but not me (or worse, that they somehow help me) is inescapable, whether you intended it or not.

I see that as a very narrow view of status, a word that trips my gag reflex. Bigoted policies do me no favors. They detract from my quality of life by shrinking the economic pie and robbing me of the advantages that come with population diversity, in terms of culture, science, broadened educational experiences, etc. (Hell, you rob me of better restaurant choices.) Bigoted policies also coarsen society, and imperil me. If populism succeeds in pushing out immigrants and marginalizing minorities back to second class citizenry, the next wave of it will be the dimwitted and angry against the nearest elites. That's people like us -- the skilled, the educated.

My status remains better than that of a black guy when we're both pulled over by cops in this lovely police state of ours. That's true. Relative to him, I'm unfortunately in a gifted position. But in a broader relative sense, versus everyone around me, in relation to where I might be in a society managed by more enlightened policies, my status isn't much improved. No person of any sense wishes to be the big fish in a small pond. No garden variety white male with any sense wishes to be near the top of a pyramid of shit -- to be of high peerage in a country of Archie Bunkers, nativists, and low information imbeciles.

My lack of caring isn't because the current situation does not impact me. It's because I think we're past political fixes. I honestly don't believe in anything I see out there among politicians. They have no ideas. They have band aids. And I think focusing on Trump, the acute symptom of myriad problems, rather than the actual problems, is an exercise near exclusively cathartic, and not much else.

Work it Girl! Get those buns in motion!
 

You're done with this morning's Sweating to the Oldies already?

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

Scalpel? Flailing? I am struggling to understand exactly how you see the world.

From domestic policy, to the environment, to healthcare, to international relations (relationships with allies and enemies alike), to enriching himself and family, to appointing his idiot family members to senior advisory positions, to surrounding himself with buffoons and glad-handlers, to having no interest in learning what it takes to do the job or even wanting to be fucking briefed, to constantly contradicting himself, to tweeting about bullshit like Rosie O'Donnell to Alec Baldwin, this man has been a complete disaster. He is the worst President we could have possibly elected. Is your only measure of the world not being destroyed the fucking stock market?

As for Russia, there are currently 3 investigations going on at the absolute highest levels of the government. The then-acting FBI director said in public that the Administration is being investigated for collusion. Trump's national security advisor was fired because of his connections to Russia. Trump has done nothing but suck Putin's dick publicly, denied the very concrete evidence of Russian hacking, given Putin a heads-up on his bullshit no-damage bombing of a Syrian airfield, and invited the very Russian spy at the center of the collusion allegations into the Oval Office without American press being present to pass along classified information and brag about getting rid of the headache that was the head of the FBI, thinking the investigation would go away. His son-in-law, who is currently in charge of everything in the Administration, met with the head of a Russian bank and lied about it. His fucking attorney general can't seem to remember how many times he's met with Russian spies. He quite clearly has investors or lenders (or both) now or in the past who have funded him when no known western bank would. His relationship with Russia and Putin is not natural.

If you can look at that and see a "nothing burger," you're more insane than I thought. And you're as fucking crazy as they come.

TM

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

I don't know why I keep responding to you. You are incapable of any type of understanding of something that is not directly affecting you somehow. And even then, it's fairly fucking limited.

But if you don't understand the difference between (i) enacting laws and running the DOJ, HUD, the Department of Education, and every other governmental institution with an eye towards protecting people who are vulnerable (poor, Black, Hispanic, LGBT, etc.) and (ii) enacting laws and running those departments to actively harm those groups of people, you are a clown. And it's hard not to believe that you are not a tragically, intentionally-idiotic clown.

TM

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

If it does, it will be because people like you refuse to take it seriously.

They hacked elections systems in 39 states, and multiple close advisors to the president lied about meetings with them, but giant nothing burger.

Oh, and the president likely obstructed justice in a hamfisted attempt to "take the pressure off."

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

You have to be kidding. His infrastructure plan is to gut spending on infrastructure.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

:rolleyes:

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

We are not past political fixes on the ways Trump has used executive orders to actively harm people relative to where they were under Obama. We're not past political fixes on not deporting people who've done nothing wrong. We're not past political fixes on rolling back the war on drugs and mass incarceration. We're not past political fixes on banning Muslims from entering the country.

You keep ignoring what's actually happening in favor of your big picture fantasies.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

I think notbob was covering for him. He's really a paralegal in a firm that bills itself as one of Scranton's top twenty.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

I miss infrastructure week.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

Material collusion is not going to stick.

That he borrows money from Russians isn't going to be the massive coup expected. I'm sorry, but I see this being intense suspicion and heat to not much of an end. He's a dipshit to have not been more of an open book on this from the start. He fucked up by acting like there was something to hide.

I think a lot of people onthe Left are beginning to think that as well. There's a good bit of frustration in the voices -- that the expected traction isn't occurring.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

I disagree with all of those things. Why not fight them, instead of falling into the trap of total war on all fronts with Trump? It's wasting energy, exhausting would be allies, creating disinterest.

Tackling things issue by issue works. Total war seems to be what Trump wants. And he's getting it. The angrier and more unhinged he can paint the Left, the more galvanized his base. And that's all he seems to are about.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

Wrong. His plan would compel more project bundling. Private money finds value where the old model was cost explosion by a thousand change orders. He'll fuck it up somehow, because execution isn't his thing, but in theory, putting more private skin in the game to shake out greater savings and efficiencies isn't a bad idea.

It certainly beats just raising taxes and giving fattened deals to contractors.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

You literally just said we're beyond political fixes.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

What you say above makes no fucking sense.

Either there was collusion or there wasn't. If there was collusion, it will stick. If there was no collusion, why the fuck is he trying to thwart the investigation at every turn? And if there was collusion (or some other form of corruption), you best believe the Russians who lent him money are involved.

And that frustration you are hearing is not as a result of a lack of traction (if you recall, they named a special prosecutor who is conducting an investigation--that's traction, my friend). We all know the investigation is going to take a long time. The frustration you hear is because every day there is more dirt coming out about the Administration's possible involvement in something and their efforts to cover it up and impede the investigations. From Nunes to Trump himself. Why the fuck are they doing that to hide nothing burgers?

TM

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

He's at 35% approval and 60% disapproval. What the actual fuck are you talking about?

TM

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

Two candidates here:

1) Trump and his ego are threatened by any suggestion that he won the election because the Russians did something to help him. He sees it as undermining his legitimacy and any discussion of the possibility upsets him.

2) Trump and his companies have such a long history of involvement with shady Russians (and others from the former USSR) that he doesn't know what an investigation will turn up, and does not want to find out.

Neither is inconsistent with the possibility that his campaign colluded with the Russians, btw.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

As Sebby suggests, he has made it this far by polarizing, by speaking to his base and pissing off everyone else. As long as his base sticks with him, he won't be impeached.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

Yep. I covered (2) in a subsequent post. But how does killing an investigation into collusion help him on (1)? Does he think the only way we discover what Russia did by hacking is through an investigation of his people? I know he's stupid, but he can't think that. And he absolutely has to understand that impeding investigations make him look more guilty no matter what. All this leads me to either collusion, an agreement to lift sanctions based on personal relationships (or some other type of leverage), or clear evidence of corruption (probably money laundering). Maybe all of the above!

TM

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

There is so much dirt that nobody is even talking about the fact that Trump apparently was going TO FIRE THE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR (until his aides somehow convinced him that it might be a good idea to not try to re-enact Watergate in real time). But here's the thing. Sebastian is kind of like Dave Chappelle in the R. Kelly jury duty skit. He would not be convinced unless he was in a hotel room with Trump and Putin, while Trump drafted a signed request to Putin, in calligraphy, asking Putin to direct Russian hackers to interfere in the elections, while Russian developers stuffed Rubles in Trump's pockets, and while Trump peed on Russian prostitutes, who had tattoos (in Russian with English sub-titles) declaring them to be prostitutes, while a medical examiner did DNA tests on the urine and declared it to be Trump's, and with Ivanka spectating and confirming that it was, beyond a doubt, her father's penis peeing on the prostitutes. Anything short of that is just a nothing burger.

Here is Lou Donaldson with some dirty funk jazz for the Daily Dose. "Hamp's Hump":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H3N_EMkmcM

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

He wants the story to go away, and he's like a toddler.

By the way
 

Lots of people seemed to be focused on the chair trying to silence Kamala Harris, and only Harris, but I think it's particularly important to note what Sessions seemed to be saying at the time, which amounted to a vast new interpretation of executive privilege that Sessions asserted applied to anything the president says. That's scary shit.

Re: By the way
 

The Executive Branch will always want to take a strong view of that privilege, and no cabinet officer wants to have to testify about what the President did or didn't say in a small meeting. It's a bad sign for Trump that Sessions was asked those questions, and that he wanted not to talk about what the President said. Such a broad assertion of privilege may not fly if Congress wants to push the matter, or a court hears the issue.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

I know you're playing Devil's Advocate, but we all know he wants the story to go away. The problem is there is a lot of shit pointing to there being actual wrongdoing. What were there, like 18 contacts between Trump's people and Russia? He had people running his campaign and a national security advisor who accepted money from Russia? Fucking Flynn asked for immunity. Too much.

And there is way too much effort being exerted to make a story about nothing disappear. I don't care how big of a child Trump is. You don't send Nunes out to try to kill the investigation and then fire the FBI director and consider firing the special fucking prosecutor just because you're sick of hearing about the story. Nah.

TM

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

I personally suspect that if there was collusion between Trump and the Russians over the campaign, it didn't involve him personally, but that he has other ties to Russia that he does not uncovered, and that he is insecure about losing the popular vote and is irrationally vexed at the suggestion that he won because he got Russian help. In other words: All of the above. I do wonder why Trump cares so much about protecting Flynn -- that is one detail that makes me think the above might be wrong.

Other Republicans are trying to kill it for various reasons, many of them partisan.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

And the more he tries to make the story go away by shouting "THERE'S NOTHING TO SEE HERE, EVERYBODY LOOK AWAY!!!" the more the story persists. The ONLY person who actually believes the story has petered out is Sebastian, and his credibility here is currently somewhere on the scale between zero and Sessions. Even a toddler eventually figures out that the best way to stop prolonging the pain of having brussel sprouts for dinner is to just shut up, eat the brussel sprouts and move on. The only rational reason for continuing to refuse after a certain point is that you know the brussel sprouts are poisonous. Yes, ascribing rationality to Trump is dubious, but if there is really nothing to see here, somebody has to be able to convince him that the only way to get everybody to stop talking about this, every fucking day, every fucking week, is to let people see that there is nothing there. But that is not happening, and if you continue to think that is because Trump is just a hissy fit-throwing child, your logic has seriously atrophied and/or you are Sebastian.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

Hmmm. Most people I know who compete in weekly wrestling matches like to win a few.

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...
 

So I have buried my head in the sand as to reading news, but one of you said there was evidence russia tampered with votes in 30 or so states. Really? I thought the main thing found was that the hacked released hil stuff was intended to sink her, but there was not much shown as to any touching a machine?

Re: You've got no love for the underdog/That's why you will not survive...