Objectively intelligent.

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

I’m in Chicago at the Langham Hotel, which sits across Wabash from The Trump Intercontinental Hotel. I keep looking out my window trying to get a sense of who would stay there.

Like in NY I would eat at Jean Georges (sp?) which leases space in the Trump hotel on Central Park. The restaurant is not affiliated w face fuck, and signed the lease when he was still just a two bit hustler. But staying at the hotel now? Unless it’s some kitsch thing, or a blogger looking for material; I do not get it.

It’s too expensive for the MAGA hat crowd, at least the stereotype. And the billionaires he actually helped would be slumming to stay there. They’d be at the Langham, a few floors up from Hank, but here.

Still, the Trump is pretty full. And I know, because, consistent with Trumpian taste, the glass walled hotel is parking deck up to the sixth floor. I can see a pretty full parking level out my window. NWTAF?

That parking deck is probably mostly parking for the condo owners (a decent portion of that building consists of condos).

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?

That parking deck is probably mostly parking for the condo owners (a decent portion of that building consists of condos).

You live there? Above or below the TRUMP? We could have met up!

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

A lot of people made a lot of money there, but did anyone really think that the US military was going to be able to make the Afghan government legitimate, cohesive and durable? Props to Biden for deciding not to kick the can down the road any longer, and let's remember that it was W. who got us into Afghanistan, and that Obama (for eight years) and Trump failed to do much of anything there.

Biden is the pragmatist who got us past prior delusions from both parties. Again

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

You live there? Above or below the TRUMP? We could have met up!

I do not. In the burbs now (for 10 years!). In fact, I've only been to the city once since Covid started. Pre-covid I'd be there about twice a week. I've been in the burbs for so long I'm scared to go to the city because I'm sure I'll get mugged. Also I'm a minority in Cook County and that frightens me.



But you're in a great spot for a river/lakefront run.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Adder

Biden is the pragmatist who got us past prior delusions from both parties. Again

TPM suggests Biden watched Obama get rolled by the Pentagon in 2010, learned from it, and didn't want that to happen again.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by SEC_Chick

Afghanistan has ended in exactly the way one would have expected from a foreign policy proposition endorsed by both Trump and Biden.

Also, while I left the GOP six years ago, it is times like these that serve as a reminder as to why I can never go Libertarian.

I thought you'd be celebrating now that Afghanistan has a pro-Life government.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

I thought you'd be celebrating now that Afghanistan has a pro-Life government.

It's interesting to watch the fuckin' religious right in America discovering how much the fuckin' religious right in Afghanistan shares their values.

https://twitter.com/ARKloster/status...162973708?s=20

True soul sisters.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Sending hopes and prayers to Gov. Abbott, but, much more so, to the State of Texas.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Sending hopes and prayers to Gov. Abbott, but, much more so, to the State of Texas.

While I hate the guy's fucking guts, fully vaxed and tests every day which is lot more than many others do. Still those masks may have helped his ass.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Adder

The stereotype isn't true. The MAGA crowd contains a lot of relatively affluent suburbanites.

Does anyone really refuse to stay at a hotel because Trump owns it?

I've not stayed at his place in DC because it's overpriced. But I heard the roof deck lounge is pretty nice. If the hotel is a bargain, who gives a fuck if he owns it? You're not even giving him money to stay there. He just licenses the name.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

A lot of people made a lot of money there, but did anyone really think that the US military was going to be able to make the Afghan government legitimate, cohesive and durable?

This first point was 10X more important than the second in re why we stayed there so long. And that's not being cynical.

Props to Biden for deciding not to kick the can down the road any longer,

Gut wrenching to think what will happen to women there. But I don't see how the situation could persist, even with just 8k troops acting as a band-aid. No good option for Biden.

and let's remember that it was W. who got us into Afghanistan,

I'm not. Fucking idiot. Worst President ever.

and that Obama (for eight years) and Trump failed to do much of anything there.

I'd probably have done the same. Look at the shit Biden's taking. Much easier just to leave on the band-aid.

[SEC_Chick]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

I thought you'd be celebrating now that Afghanistan has a pro-Life government.

Fuck you.

That is all.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

This first point was 10X more important than the second in re why we stayed there so long. And that's not being cynical.

I disagree. We stayed because the military so wanted to stay, and for them it wasn't about the money.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Does anyone really refuse to stay at a hotel because Trump owns it?

I've not stayed at his place in DC because it's overpriced. But I heard the roof deck lounge is pretty nice. If the hotel is a bargain, who gives a fuck if he owns it? You're not even giving him money to stay there. He just licenses the name.

Not that the issue has come up, but heck no, I would not stay there (or visit the lounge). Yuck.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Adder

Not that the issue has come up, but heck no, I would not stay there (or visit the lounge). Yuck.

You don't find that posture at all extreme? I have an extremely low opinion of Bezos. But do I shop at Whole Foods? Yes. I think the Catholic Church is a reprehensible organization. Do I boycott Catholic weddings or refuse to be in the presence of clergy? No. Would I buy a My Pillow if I needed a pillow and it was the best or fastest one I could find? Of course. I'm uncomfortable with Chik Fil A's owner's homophobic views. Do I refuse to allow my child to order Doordash from the place? Of course not.

I would never select a Trump hotel from an array of equally priced choices because I'm suspect of the brand. I'd guess it'd be somehow defective (Legionaires' Disease in the air ducts, the poached salmon being two weeks old, etc.). But would I boycott it on the basis that Trump was connected to it? No.

If we're going to become sane as a country, this extreme picking sides shit has to be abandoned. I don't expect the right to do it anytime soon because they're fucking insane. But people like us should be bigger than it. We ought to reacquaint ourselves with concepts of pragmatism and circumspect thinking.

That kind of thinking has allowed me to look at Afghanistan, see a tragedy, but also a tragedy that is unavoidable and not the fault of the current President. Could he have pulled out in a more effective manner? Yes. But that's a minor error in relation to the bigger errors that caused us to be involved in nation building in the first place. Rather than pick a side in the debate being framed by the media - Is this or is not Biden's Saigon? - the better view is to see where Joe fucked up a little bit, but view it dispassionately in context. The blame, if we must look to that (and we vicious shitty Americans always do) lies with many, many people over many, many years. The buck here does not stop with Joe. Unless you've picked the anti-Biden side -- that same kind of binary thinking that'd cause one to boycott a hotel because of its connection to a President.