Trump

[mimekiller]

I fully support the idea of Alex Jones as communications director.

[Phoebe]

It fits the model we have seen so far.

Now that Gary Cohn is out, should we all buy stocks tomorrow, or do you think there's a long, slow spiraling down to come?
Might as well do a trawl for bargains, just in case. Pretty pleased that BH picked up Teva recently. Makes me feel smarter than reality, heh.

[Mike]

I understood 60% of that.

[Cazmonster]

The thing that I heard today that made me happy is that one of the watchdog groups can prove that Conway broke the law when she tried to pimp for alleged sex offender Roy Moore from the White House lawn.

The thing that makes me sad is the Trump is the one responsible for punishing her.

I swear, when this all ends, we're going to see Trump and Conway floating out to sea on a door. Trump will kick her off into the freezing waters.

[Phoebe]

Isn't that movie called Titanic?

[mimekiller]

[Phoebe]

So she kicked him right off that door, eh? Wonder why it was always presented as such a classic Romance! But this gritty hard version... Wow.

[mimekiller]

There’s an old Vulcan proverb, “only Nixon could go to China”.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/08/north-k ... ter%7Cmain

[bralbovsky]

So, ya, who's going to win this negotiation if it ever happens? The guy whose country needs nukes to exist legitimately (as far as he's concerned), or the guy who doesn't really read the intelligence reports he gets?
BTW, not entirely sure we came out on top in the way normalization happened with China either. Geopoliticals are entirely speculative, but certainly it exacerbated the division between the rich and poor worldwide.

[Phoebe]

I don't even know anymore. In a way it's like both parties are so crazy, maybe the usual rules of how things work don't apply to them anymore. In the contest of crazies, who wins? Anyone who isn't nuked, basically. Just please let's not let anyone use a nuke, and that will be enough until 2020 when hopefully we get a functional government. We can hope.

[mimekiller]

Can't wait for my grandchildren to interview me about the Trump presidency for a class project and telling them that I honestly quit paying attention about a half a year in

[Phoebe]

So I was having a conversation here yesterday about what it would actually take for Trump voters not to vote for Trump in 2020 or not to fully support him if Mueller comes out with some kind of evidence that works against his campaign or his presidency. Maybe if they showed he had secret gun control legislation in the works all along? What level of anti-American activities or anti-democracy activities would it take for his campaign to be suspect in the eyes of his supporters? Is there literally anything he could have done or said to obstruct justice, including lying to people, threatening them with punishments, or bribing them, that would upset his base?

The discussion centers around whether the answer is "there is nothing he could do wrong", or "he could do something to make himself seem weak and less like these people's insane idea of what an alpha male is". Like maybe if it turns out that he's broke and all of his money comes from Russians? Not because anyone cares that the Russians are buying influence in our democracy at the highest possible level, but because it would make him look weak if he really isn't the billionaire they all assume he is? Mere tax cheating is no problem for them so I think he has to be completely broke or in debt to people up to his eyeballs. Or does even that matter?

It's an interesting thought experiment to pose to your friendly neighborhood Trump supporter. Suppose he paid for someone to have an abortion. Would that be enough? I doubt it. Suppose he wanted to take your assault rifle away. Yes? I'm curious to see where the actual lines are drawn. I get a kick out of him calling other people low IQ.

On a related note, what do you suppose a sleepy son of a b**** is? Sleeping? Sleepy eyes? What does that mean exactly? How does that function as an insult?

[mimekiller]

-Whatever the economy happens to be doing in 2020 will have a strong impact

-The strength or weakness of the democratic candidate(See John "REPORTING FOR DUTTTYYY" Kerry on how you can lose against a unpopular President)

[mimekiller]

and shit like this won't help.

https://splinternews.com/not-good-enoug ... 1823645362

[Phoebe]

Yeah, that does not help.
And it's not like people who are concerned about the effects of immigration are wrong to have some of those concerns. An influx of cheap labor, and whole families being supported on those salaries, can have profound effects on the rest of that local economy, the school system, the social support services, and the whole culture of the area in everything from churches to driving. The important thing is that overall it's a net gain, but people don't always see that or don't always want to see that. Instead more often than not you get this whole, we can't build "our civilization with somebody else's babies" racist bullshit. Sorry, those babies are ours now, and we also promised them that if they followed the rules they would be our babies. We don't get to send them back after that. It's morally sick, especially if you claim to love the baby Jesus.

[Phoebe]

Maybe this is what we all should do. It would be very inconvenient in some respects, but imagine the benefits! I'm not clear why this is being framed as a wacky dream life, privileged, escapist, irresponsible, etc. He's doing something way more important. It seems like this particular guy saved up money from a fancy job to get started, and no, he doesn't have to worry about ICE tracking him down. But how is a condition all citizens share supposed to indict his aloofness, especially when he's accomplishing a lasting good for his fellow citizens? Nor did he need to be specially wealthy to do this - a more austere version is surely possible. After all, he's dropping a grand a year on coffee runs, probably 2 grand if we count gas mileage, while buying land and the needed equipment for the art creations, so he has surplus one wouldn't really need for the basic plan.

It did make me think of the pros of social media and its accoutrements, and I would miss those, but think what you'd gain in other respects, even if you had only a few friends and could stay in touch with family? So what really tethers us to the way of life we choose? It's interesting to think about. I wouldn't live too far from my parents. But he's close to a town. And I wouldn't leave my job unless I had to. Kids - do they need to be non-isolated? Well, people raise kids in different ways and this environment has a few major benefits. However, it would be harder for them to learn languages, music, and level-appropriate math, and I'm not ready to sacrifice any of that. Nor do I want to make it more challenging for them to navigate their social world. Interesting that these things are so valuable, and in this specific form. I like the convenience of my lifestyle too, the ease and comfort of it all. I know people try to critique that but most (not all) would be hypocritical to do so. I'm sure you can live in an easy comfortable way where he is too, but he has to go through so much effort to make sure no news filters through, so an impure effort that was still largely effective seems better.

The other thing that's weird is how useless all the stuff/info he's missed actually is. In all this crap what did he really need to know? Equifax? Maybe, ok. What else?

[Phoebe]

[akiva]

[Phoebe]

That's the fun of it isn't it? It's a perfectly reasonable assumption that they're all expert at this type of obfuscation and mendacity, so this is how they operate in the face of any perceived threat. On the other hand it's a perfectly reasonable assumption then when people are having absolute kittens and telling all kinds of crazy lies they can't keep straight to cover something up, there's something to cover up.

[akiva]