As seen somewhere on the Internet yesterday, how awesome is it that the guy who's suing an imaginary cow is not the biggest GOP clown act in the impeachment inquiry.
I think it's an exaggeration to say it's "standard playbook," but the Chewbacca Defense is certainly something that some lawyers use.
I am reading a lot of tweets about Trump going to Walter Reed hospital. Everyone should stop for one moment and consider that he has a family. If something is wrong, if he's actually sick, we should all join together and pray it's contagious.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
Here's a story that's not getting much exposure, but like wow man, it fits right in with the pattern of the Dump's ill treatment of our strategic military allies while giving a boost to their antagonists.
So Dump elevates NK's dictator with negotiations, makes concessions for little or nothing in return, then turns around and puts the bite on the RoK by demanding 500% more to host our military in their country. Not seen in the western press, the RoK was hit by a large number of powerful typhoons and tropical storms this year, suffering extensive flooding and wind damage. Way to kick 'em when they're down, Dump.
Much the same for Japan, except he only wants 400% more from Japan.
All this while China is hitting the boiling point in Hong Kong.
I can't believe the Republicans just take it without batting an eye.
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Chained out, like a sitting duck just waiting for the fall _Cage the Elephant
Last edited by SR71; 11-17-2019 at 07:03 PM.
Reason: Hong Kong, not Taiwan
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
Watching that Jordan guy bully and cajole witnesses into validating points that sound like exculpation but are really misleading or just plain irrelevant has been really irritating for me. In part, it's because there's a fair portion of citizens that respond favorably to that kind of thing, and in part, because Democrats haven't mustered anyone to match his righteous tone, even though the case against Dump is sound. Finally, this Maloney guy shows some fire. I hate to say it, but isn't showmanship an important component of getting public support in this type of thing? I think Democrats sometimes forget that to their own detriment. You can't just assume that everyone is analytical and objective. Some people make the judgement more on the sentiment than on the facts.
Happy face sticker for Maloney.
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Chained out, like a sitting duck just waiting for the fall _Cage the Elephant
The cult-like mentality of Trump's most loyal followers almost defies belief. For those with an Authoritarian mindset, it truly seems that there's literally nothing their "Dear Leader" can do which will shake their faith in him -- so long as he maintains that "strong leader" image and continues to punish those people whom they dislike for whatever reason. And the more unreasoning and the more cruel the "punishment," the better.
So I've been watching in growing horror how many of my Facebook "friends" have been responding to news that Trump raised millions of dollars for veterans and then basically pocketed it. The responses fall into one of two camps: a.) "You can't make me believe it" or b.) "Hey, I don't care if he did it or not; Trump is the greatest thing to happen to this country in forever; he can do exactly as he pleases and I'm absolutely fine with it."
Then, of course, they launch into a screed about how it has been "proved" that Hillary Clinton personally sold arms to ISIS, is still running a child pornography ring, and has personally ordered the murders of several people who threatened to "tell the truth" about her and her wicked ways. Oh, and don't all you Liberal Scum remember how the country was in an economic depression during all of Obama's time in office -- and how Trump displayed his incredible acumen to almost immediately turn things around once he got into office, and is thus single-handedly responsible for the fact that every single "real American" is now employed with their dream job and is living the dream life?
So long as it glorifies Trump and demonizes anyone who opposes him, there is no lie so blatantly false that they will question it for even a second.
And as horrifying as it is to contemplate, I think that it literally is true that Trump could rape and murder someone on live television -- and that a good 30% or more of the country would cheer him on. These are terrifying times we live in.
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“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
I think it was Amanda Marcotte on Twitter that pointed out that Trump probably doesn't give 2 shits about whether or not Hunter Biden is guilty of anything, he just wanted Zelensky to announce an investigation so he and his campaign could spin conspiracy theories around it.
Gordon Sondland testified: "He had to announce the investigations, he didn’t have to actually do it as I understand it."
So aside from that obviously making sense - Trump obviously isn't bothered by corruption, and to the extent that he is, it's just that the Don should be getting a cut - we have testimony to that effect.
Trump himself has called NATO “obsolete,” openly questioned whether the U.S. would come to the defense of allies under attack (the very foundation of the alliance), and privately told aides on several occasions last year he wants to withdraw from the alliance. But the notion that somebody else would question NATO, and blame its demise on Trump, has enraged him.
And now Trump is lashing out at Macron. “NATO serves a great purpose,” he declared today. “And I hear that President Macron said NATO is ‘brain dead.’ I think that’s very insulting to a lot of different forces … When you make a statement like that, that is a very, very nasty statement to 28 — including them — 28 countries.”
Manipulating children into doing what you want by pretending to demand they do the opposite thing is a trick most parents learn to use. It usually stops working around the age of 5.
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Peering from the top of Mount Stupid
The gaslighting part of that is what I came to post about. I've noticed several times Republican talking head surrogates on the news and also Congressmen in the hearings claim that the Zhelensky/Trump call summary doesn't mention Biden. Nobody ever called them on it, even though the call summary certainly does mention Biden(s) (p.4). I find that very weird. Even I knew it did just from seeing the summary on the news a couple of times.
Also, at the bottom of p.4 you see Zhelinsky currying Dump, repeating what Dump says and mentioning that he stayed at a Dump hotel. That was also addressed in the article above, make the NPD feel great about himself so you can get what you want from him. It's been said this aspect of NPD is what made him exceptionally vulnerable to Putin's manipulations.
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Chained out, like a sitting duck just waiting for the fall _Cage the Elephant
You've made Trump a supervillain and depicted him in the scene where his plan to kill everyone in the universe falls apart due to his arrogance and incompetence. pic.twitter.com/2B7KdvI7Y8
Oh hey, Thanos’ creator Jim Starlin has responded (spoiler tagged because there are, in fact, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame spoilers):
Quote:
Jim Starlin, creator of Thanos, took exception to the tweet and didn't mince words in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. Starlin, like many others replying to the tweet, was most struck by the comparison to a believer in genocide on a universal scale:
Quote:
After my initial feeling of being violated, seeing that pompous fool using my creation to stroke his infantile ego, it finally struck me that the leader of my country and the free world actually enjoys comparing himself to a mass murderer. How sick is that? These are sad and strange times we are going through. Fortunately all things, even national nightmares, eventually come to an end.
Choosing this specific Thanos clip was an odd choice by the Trump account. The Thanos snap inspired memes by the hundreds, so there were certainly more fitting -- the scene being referenced sees Thanos try and fail to snap the Avengers out of existence, only to be defeated himself. Thanos' plan falls apart because of his arrogance, getting defeated and snapped out of existence later in the film. It appears the account mixed up the Thanos clip, as a more appropriate scene might be Thanos successfully snapping half the world to dust in Avengers: Infinity War. Still, the implication of tying yourself to one of the murderous villains in all of comics and the MCU is, as Starlin points out, a bizarre choice. Thanos has done some awful, awful things.
(…fixed link; that’s what I get for posting at 7 am)
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
The actual executive order leaked today. I haven’t had time to read it, but in point of fact, according to Slate, it does no such thing. All of this analysis is based on inaccurate reporting by the Fuck the Fucking New York Times (and particularly, two of their worst reporters, Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman) that completely misrepresents the content of the executive order, which still seems bad and unnecessary, but does not redefine Judaism as a race or ethnicity, and isn’t even likely to have much impact on the pro-Palestinian movement. As usual, the Times updated their story without any acknowledgement of their error, or even that the story had been updated, which is horrible journalistic practice in and of itself.
(This could also go in the “Why the Mainstream Media Sucks” thread, but people are already talking about it here, so.)
Also, hi X! Not seen you in a while.
ETA: Also, Newsdiffs keeps track of revisions to FTFNYT stories, since the Times itself doesn’t. Might be worth a bookmark. (They also track Politico, the Washington Post, CNN, and the BBC.)
(…also, too, fixed a couple of typos – ugh. Apparently I need a copyeditor! It seems spending so much time at my job proofreading others has made me sloppier with my own writing. Or maybe I’m just tired)
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it later came out that the media reports were accurate, but the White House backtracked and leaked an updated version to make it seem like it was the media that fucked up.
Or alternatively, that they intentionally leaked the worse idea in order to make the media look foolish.
The thorough dishonesty of the Trump administration makes it hard to ever take their side, even if something actually was unfair to them, because without harder evidence you can't be sure you're not being played for a chump. It makes me feel like a conspiracy theorist, even though we know they've done things like this.
The best quote regarding the "Trump snap" I've seen: "Thanos is an abnormally large and misshapen villain, with an unnatural skin tone, a dangerously huge and fragile ego, and a fetish for genocide, who tortures his younger daughter because he doesn't like her as much as his older one. No wonder this seems like perfect casting."
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“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
Re: Good King Trump
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