Doesn’t Matter Who Wins the K Race; We’re All the Same

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Not specifically on point, but the guy lies about everything. It is absolutely how he is wired. I don't understand why, after so many years of this, people still give him the benefit of the doubt.

Say what you will about him, but if he were the admin here instead of you:

1) the Beslam and 9/11 photos would not have been deleted; and
2) I’d have an answer to my anal question.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Putin can damage Trump, just the same way a well heeled or corporate donor can any politician it wishes to. Putin’s actions are those of a power broker. The “conspiracy” our media has concocted (because common media consumers and many low information reporters like conspiracy stories) is identical to the relationship between powerful lobbyists and politicians. I’d say all Putin needs is an office on K Street. But he’s already probably got a dozen, through countless untraceable intermediaries.

I'm sorry, I know that you're trying to make a point about how corrupt business as usual is, but this is nuts. Putin is categorically different from someone with a lot of money. There are a lot of people with a lot of money, and the President is often making some of them unhappy, but usually because he is making other Americans happy. Putin is not an American. If Putin were to reveal that Trump had done something covert for him, it would have a stench of betrayal that is different. Putin also is different because he has the resources of a whole 'nother country.

Corporate donors get play partly because the political parties don't have to betray their principles much to do it. They can find a way to give a favor by doing something they were elected to do (tax cuts!). But Trump's weird relationship with Russia seems like a personal thing with Putin. It's not like he has some special affinity for the Russian culture or people. It's very personal.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Say what you will about him, but if he were the admin here instead of you:

1) the Beslam and 9/11 photos would not have been deleted; and
2) I’d have an answer to my anal question.

As always, the powerful brevity of your storytelling impresses. Like a tall, bald Lydia Davis of the interwebs.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Not specifically on point, but the guy lies about everything. It is absolutely how he is wired. I don't understand why, after so many years of this, people still give him the benefit of the doubt.

Does anyone give him the benefit of the doubt anymore? I assumed that, like me, everyone assumes he’s lying until it’s proven he isn’t. Which isn’t frequent.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

I'm sorry, I know that you're trying to make a point about how corrupt business as usual is, but this is nuts. Putin is categorically different from someone with a lot of money. There are a lot of people with a lot of money, and the President is often making some of them unhappy, but usually because he is making other Americans happy. Putin is not an American. If Putin were to reveal that Trump had done something covert for him, it would have a stench of betrayal that is different. Putin also is different because he has the resources of a whole 'nother country.

Corporate donors get play partly because the political parties don't have to betray their principles much to do it. They can find a way to give a favor by doing something they were elected to do (tax cuts!). But Trump's weird relationship with Russia seems like a personal thing with Putin. It's not like he has some special affinity for the Russian culture or people. It's very personal.

Putin is an extreme example, true. But not terribly much more powerful than Rupert Murdoch. I’d surmise Rupert can manipulate Trump almost as much as Putin. Putin’s distinction is he can do it more easily. He just threatens to call loans and drop dirt on Trump. Murdoch has to cause public opinion shifts to indirectly move Trump where he needs him to go.

Look at how Murdoch pushed Trump to kill the Sinclair deal that would’ve created a competitor against Fox. That was the mother of all arm twists.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

So I’ve always heard that before a porn actor does an anal scene they clean out the pipes, as it were. Today I had a colonoscopy, so yesterday I had to ummm... and it brought a question to mind:

Do the actors do the full 24 clean out, or is it more superficial?

I’ve always thought of you more as a top.

Skip the amyls. They can give a man of your age a heart attack.

And always remember, Overhead Lighting Is Your Friend!

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Does anyone give him the benefit of the doubt anymore? I assumed that, like me, everyone assumes he’s lying until it’s proven he isn’t. Which isn’t frequent.

Dude, you just said, "I also don't know, nor do you, that Trump lied about his involvement with Russia in a setting in which it would have consequences." If you just assume he's lying until it's proven he isn't, you don't write that sentence.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Putin is an extreme example, true. But not terribly much more powerful than Rupert Murdoch. I’d surmise Rupert can manipulate Trump almost as much as Putin. Putin’s distinction is he can do it more easily. He just threatens to call loans and drop dirt on Trump. Murdoch has to cause public opinion shifts to indirectly move Trump where he needs him to go.

Look at how Murdoch pushed Trump to kill the Sinclair deal that would’ve created a competitor against Fox. That was the mother of all arm twists.

"Putin is an extreme example" if you are really talking about rich businessmen and their sway over politicians, which is what you are talking about (again). But you just hijacked an exchange about something else, which is Trump and Russia, and changed the subject.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I’ve always thought of you more as a top.

Skip the amyls. They can give a man of your age a heart attack.

And always remember, Overhead Lighting Is Your Friend!

Thanks, but I’ve eaten lunch now. I just thought if I had a quick connect I could get my SAG card, you know, gig economy?

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

"Putin is an extreme example" if you are really talking about rich businessmen and their sway over politicians, which is what you are talking about (again). But you just hijacked an exchange about something else, which is Trump and Russia, and changed the subject.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rAdUuGsi30g

[Adder]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Putin is an extreme example, true. But not terribly much more powerful than Rupert Murdoch. I’d surmise Rupert can manipulate Trump almost as much as Putin. Putin’s distinction is he can do it more easily. He just threatens to call loans and drop dirt on Trump. Murdoch has to cause public opinion shifts to indirectly move Trump where he needs him to go.

These are categorically different things.

With that said, in my more tinfoil-hatted moments it does seem as though there is a global cabal of oligarchs (Murdoch, Kochs, Putin and his cronies) backing the worldwide white nationalist movement, so, ya know.

The Kochs both don't really fit in there, because they seem to be genuinely be motivated by (highly profitable for them) libertarianism and less interested in stoking ethnonationalism, and do because much of this is about propping up dying extraction industries (i.e., Russia's entire economy).

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rAdUuGsi30g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc6BSH2uIe4

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc6BSH2uIe4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc6BSH2uIe4

Touché

Sometimes when I finally see the video for a MB old favorite I think I might have been interpreting the meaning of the lyrics wrong all along, TBH{confused face}

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I love this guy. Fucking love him.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...-stein-901593/

The #Resistance has come up with all sorts of words for such fifth-columnists and deviationists: they are “false-balancers” or “false equivalencers,” “neo-Naderites,” “purity-testers,” “both-sidesists,” “whataboutists,” “horseshoe theorists,” “Russia skeptics” or “Russia denialists,” and “anti-anti-Trumpers.” Such heretics are all ultimately seen as being on “team Putin.”

This witch-hunting insanity isn’t just dangerous, it’s a massive breach from reality. Trump’s campaign was a clown show. He had almost no institutional backing. His “ground game” was nonexistent: his “campaign” was a TV program based almost wholly around unscripted media appearances. Trump raised just over half the $1.2 billion Hillary pulled in (making him the first presidential candidate dating back to 1976 to win with a funds deficit). He didn’t prepare a victory speech, for the perfectly logical reason that he never expected to win.

Even if you posit the most elaborate theories of Russian interference (which I don’t, but of course I’m denialist scum), what happened in 2016 was still almost entirely a domestic story, with Trump benefiting from long-developing public rejection of the political establishment.

Rather than confront the devastating absurdity of defeat before an ad-libbing game show host who was seemingly trying to lose – a black comedy that is 100% in America’s rich stupidity tradition – Democrats have gone all-in on this theory of foreign infiltration. House speaker Nancy Pelosi even said as much in a White House meeting, pointing at Trump and proclaiming: “All roads lead to Putin.”

Of course you do. You both believe the same stupid shit.

TM