Re: Whoa.
 

ETA It seems Buzzfeed has released a file detailing Trump's Russian ties. It doesn't provide any evidence, but I cannot say that any of the allegations are implausible.

Um, yeah. I can tell all of us are shocked. I will not be surprised if Trump is impeached, and will be severely disappointed if the GOP in congress don't sign on.

It's still weird for me that I am frequently now on the side of Lindsey Graham and John McCain.

Deplorables are now putting KGB in their names because they're idiots.

Re: Aon
 

In other dated news, some of you may want to delete accounts and cookies - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.5d7ec2871b43 .

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I prefer anti-theist gadfly.

Re: Whoa.
 

Check #goldenshowers on Twitter.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Dissent: #goldenshowers

"It's the gift that keeps on giving..." - Uncle Eddie

It's true, or false, or maybe it's both...
 

The last hour of this BBC Doc. makes The Shock Doctrine's central theory seem like a benign fairy tale: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-fny99f8amM

Re: Whoa.
 

Whoa, indeed.

I believe I can say, with little credible dissent, that Trump is dumb enough to tag a gorgeous Russian in Moscow. Doubtless he has never seen this classic video within a video scene from James Bond's "From Russia With Love."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaA7_aOD2ig

This morning's press conference is must see TV Currently scheduled for 11:00 Eastern.

Re: It's true, or false, or maybe it's both...
 

In an effort to make me hypersectionally woke, a friend recommended that I watch Adam Curtis (starting with "Hypernormalisation") a few months ago. I may or may not be on the way to woke, but boy am I depressed.

And while I think some of Curtis' theories in this doc are silly (the UFO craze of the 1990s? Please. He doesn't even mention the UFO craze of the 50s or 70s, and his theory that the military used UFOs to cover up new weapons systems is the exact opposite of what the government said back then -- that what people thought were UFOs were actually high tech planes, etc.), I think that his observations about where we are in terms of how society looks at facts and "facts" are spot on.

The section that I found very interesting was the discussion of Putin's aide Vladislov Surkov and his use of avant garde theater techniques to promote Putin's regime. It hit me like a shot -- Trump and his supporters either stole the concept from Putin or Putin gave it to him. For example, everything that Trump and Pence and his people were saying about the deal to keep the air conditioning factory in Indiana -- it's pure theater. And the completely self-contradictory positions of so many in the GOP (from McConnell on confirmation hearings for cabinet nominees and Supreme Court nominees to Ryan allowing house members to gut ethics and punish individual civil servants by cutting their pay to $1) shows that the phenomenon is not limited to Trump. And let me preempt you by saying, no, both sides do *not* do this. Dems may play all sorts of games, but there is no equivalence. Obama may have been lying or wrong in 2009 when he said "you can keep your doctors," but he didn't say last night that "I promised you that you could keep your doctors, and I kept that promise."

Anyway, carry on.

Re: Lock Him Up
 

I think it is important that these charges all be vetted with the same care as Trump used on Obama's birth certificate.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Jesus Christ. I'd trade that - in a heartbeat - for him not causing the deaths of kids and people with compromised immune systems by being an intellectually lazy blowhard who ignores facts about vaccines.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Can we throw in there not causing the deaths or bankruptcy of people who have had cancer and so will hit any lifetime maximum insurance companies can set on policies after the repeal of O-care? Because cancer recurs.

Asking for a friend.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Of course. There are an unlimited number of Not Good things that will/could happen in a Trump Administration, and the effects of an ACA rollback is high on my own list, too.

But my "Jesus Christ!" was prompted by Sebby's #goldengate response to Flower's specific point about Sebby being entertained by the Trump Show despite deaths caused by his idiocy on vaccines.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

The Trump Show is not entertaining. It is sad and it is disturbing. Sebby should just read Celine if he wants this kind of entertainment.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

For Sebby: Comey probably cost Clinton the election. Particularly relevant today, now that we know what Comey kept to himself about Trump and Russia.

You ain't a-reachin' me, no how, no way.
 

I admire your persistence. Perhaps Zeus will relent one of these days, and allow the rock to reach the top of the hill.

Re: You ain't a-reachin' me, no how, no way.
 

And maybe that fucking eagle will stop eating my liver every day, but it's not looking good. We've done this Daily Dose already, but it is hard to not to replay the Funkadelic song that opens with a reference to being peed on, amirite???? Standing On The Verge of Getting It On, a driving funk guitar-oriented rocker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmJqDfdGmV4

Re: You ain't a-reachin' me, no how, no way.
 

This Vox piece is good too.

Re: You ain't a-reachin' me, no how, no way.
 

He talks like Palin. Except I think he knows that he's letting his audience hear what they want. I'm not sure she did.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I get annoyed by listening to Obama speak and detest his smug selfishness. I also got a case of the dry heaves when GWB mispronounced the word "nuclear". But nothing can compare to how much I truly hate Trump and the way he speaks. It is worse than nails on a chalkboard. But my annoyance cannot be limited to the way he speaks, because turning off the sound and reading the closed captioning also makes me want to throw up in my mouth. It will be a long four years. It's at the point where I don't know if it's solely because he objectively sucks, or if I also have some weird aversion to him like I do Hilary Swank. I cannot put words to why I hate Hilary Swank as much as I do, and I have never even seen one of her movies, yet I inexplicably hate her guts. To be honest, the dread I feel for the next four years is pretty much how I felt when Obama was elected and the Dems held the House and Senate. But exponentially worse, because now I get to see those who used to be on my team engage in the same conduct they used to bitch about. Man, I can't be on the winning side for anything.

I have been told by Trump supporters that I am forgiven (not that I require forgiveness, because while I was wrong about Trump's electoral prospects, I continue to assert that I was right about his character), or that I am the enemy they are coming for due to my apostasy. Whatever. Seeing Rubio grill Tillerson today made me sad. We could have had him as President instead. Gang of 8 is small potatoes compared with what we are staring down now.

Re: You ain't a-reachin' me, no how, no way.
 

Screw Zeus. Bring in the heavy equipment and flatten the hill.

Fill the swamp.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Congratulations, the GOP has delivered for the country a man who is everything they ever attacked (whether falsely, as in most of their attacks on Obama or Hillary, or occasionally accurately, as with Bill). He's unChristian, he's a liar, he's corrupt, he is already engaging in pay to play, and he is a pervert. And you helped.

Moments like these make me think the Greeks had a point in their characterization of the divine, up there on Olympus laughing at us, making us their playthings. You helped the Gop deliver this. The Gods are laughing. And it no longer matters if the glass is half full or half empty, just whether you think the urine will test for drugs.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

And now, laughing from the Seventh Level of Hell, is Richard Milhous Nixon:

"If the President does it, that means it is not illegal."

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Nixon-...is-not-illegal

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Not sure why you think it is fair or does any good to say this to someone who has opposed him.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

While this is a reply, I am going to assume that this comment is not addressed to me. I think I have a pretty clearly established record of opposing Trump in the primary, as well as the general election. My twitter photo remains a #NeverTrump reference.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

He is a product of the GOP and everything they've done since Newt Gingrich declared that they would negotiate with Democrats but not compromise with them.

Frankly, we all bear some responsibility for Trump's rise. He's the product of our whole politics over the last generation, ranging from the half-assed way we've taught everything from civics to science to the way we've allowed politics to be more driven by political slogan and posturing than issues and analysis.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

He certainly draws on some things the GOP was and was doing before he came along, but he departs from other parts of the GOP in significant ways. If you want to make that argument, you're going to need to think that through a little more.

If everyone is responsible then no one is, and that's BS.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

His extreme created this: people who are liberal voters thought that he is so far gone from reality that hil can't lose, so they can finally vote 3rd party! The extreme of his insanity emboldened people to move away from the safe Dem. Sad.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Thankfully, as an anti-theist, I can whistle past this word salad.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Except he didn't say that. He said everyone is responsible to a degree. That rings awfully true to me.

(BTW, the logic you use here is a favorite of the religulous: "If you believe in nothing, you'll believe in anything!" Right up there with Pascal's Wager in terms of brilliance.)

Re: It's true, or false, or maybe it's both...
 

"Woke," "shaming," "splaining," "bigly," "alt-right" - why? Haven't we adequate words in English? Did we really need this stuff? These words are not well crafted, clever, or interesting. Just further proof we're getting dumb as all fuck.

You're right about the GOP using KGB techniques more aggressively than Dems. I don't think anyone could argue with that. It'll be interesting to see what lessons the Dems take away from this election. In a world run on the playbooks of Bernays, Goebbels, Barnum, Madison Ave., Sun Tzu, and the KGB, what chance has truth?

We live in a world where those in power aren't seeking to do much more than maintain a status quo, as the movie notes. Life doesn't work that way. The entropy we'll see is natural. Trump only changes its timeline and nature. Slight adjustments in the winners and losers. Similar results. The neoliberal school fucked it up long before Trump took the stage.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I don't think national polls are useful data in almost any regard in an electoral college race, but the remaining three points are highly persuasive.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I've been "forgiven" or "excused" as well. Try this reply: "For what? I don't regret what I did." They don't know what to say except "Fucking closet liberal."

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Damn. Sebby and I agreeing on something in the post-civilization world. (Remember, though, I'm giving you a high degree of responsibility here).

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

The part of the GOP he personifies is the part that does not negotiate. It is the part that believes demonizing and ridiculing opponents is the only way to practice politics. It's the GOP of the radio talk shows, of Newt Gingrich, and of Ted Cruz.

The underlying positions he chooses based on what feeds power and ego. But the approach is straight out of the playbook they've been applying for the last 25 years.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

This is absolutely correct. And those assholes refused to listen when every rational person told them how dangerous their protest vote would be.

TM

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

You seem to lack an understanding of how the GOP works, and how Trump fits in. How can Trump be part of the uncompromising right, when all he does is flip flop. The only position that he has ever given completely consistent views is his love of Putin and Russia.

How is going from "Lock her up!" and "You'd be in jail!" to "She's good people and I don't want to hurt her" uncompromising or showing inflexibility? How about 4 positions on abortion over 3 days. How about Mexico paying for a physical wall or deporting all the illegals? I could go on, but it would take forever. He seems pretty willing to compromise on all those.

Because Trump is clearly not a Republican, not even a country club, chamber of commerce sort, I find it incredibly odd that you place him in cahoots with true GOP establishment sorts. If anything, doesn't the fact that the GOP is pushing back on Russia, and that McCain gave Comey the dossier indicate that the party is completely fractured?

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

On my end, however, I still feel no regret towards my vote for Evan McMullin. As a former intelligence guy, he's had a lot to say these past few days that is right on.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

There is some fraying on the edges among the Republicans, in the traditional places, but most of them are marching in lock step. The GOP has focused on obstructionism. McConnell's attack on those who might delay supreme court nominees right after he blocked consideration of a nominee for the longest period on record is a good example of the double speak. He and Trump sound just alike.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

McMullin is indeed the one third party candidate who probably took votes mainly from Trump and who has something worthwhile to say. I actually like the guy.

Besides, you are and always have been a lost cause from my perspective.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I couldn't possibly care less about what you do or do not regret.

TM