POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

[joecct]

Except now it's 17. And if we keep on the path we're on it will be 30. Then 50.

1980 was the great inflection point in American history. Until we undo that fundamental damage and destroy what those plutocrats did to this country we will just be bleeding out.

Sovomovers is ready to accommodate anyone who wishes to leave.

[Kepler]

Re: POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

Sovomovers is ready to accommodate anyone who wishes to leave.

I'd rather stay and fight, thanks.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Re: POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

Also reproductive rights, regulation of corporations, high taxes, and worker and consumer protections.

My God, what a hell.

OMG, I just noticed the dogs.

[Slap Shot]

Re: POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

Except now it's 17. And if we keep on the path we're on it will be 30. Then 50.

1980 was the great inflection point in American history. Until we undo that fundamental damage and destroy what those plutocrats did to this country we will just be bleeding out.

We'll move up once Orange Droolius is out.

[Kepler]

Re: POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

An aspiring Republican.

[Kepler]

Re: POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

We'll move up once Orange Droolius is out.

You think we're going to rid ourselves of the GOP that easily?

They stay; we drop.

[Slap Shot]

Re: POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

You think we're going to rid ourselves of the GOP that easily?

They stay; we drop.

The GOP has been $h!te for years and yes I truly believe the clouds will open up (which doesn't mean I'm discounting our actual skeletons) once he's out.

[joecct]

Re: POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

@GerardMulligan1: Report: Trump plans to get GOP members of Congress to support his legislation by threatening to endorse them.

[SJHovey]

Re: POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

So, here was the subject of our lunch discussion today, and I thought I'd pose the same question to Cafe (admittedly, we have some strange lunch discussions.)

The Donald Trump / Stormy Daniels sex tape hits the internet. Assuming you can click on a link to watch it with relative security, as free from viruses or other malware as you can be as if you were watching it on say, Youtube. Do you watch it? Remember, you don't get to "un-see" it.

I was actually a little surprised at the results of our poll of the six members of our lunch group.

[dxmnkd316]

Re: POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

Probably not. I’d wait for the Gawker writeup of it.

[Kepler]

Re: POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

So, here was the subject of our lunch discussion today, and I thought I'd pose the same question to Cafe (admittedly, we have some strange lunch discussions.)

The Donald Trump / Stormy Daniels sex tape hits the internet. Assuming you can click on a link to watch it with relative security, as free from viruses or other malware as you can be as if you were watching it on say, Youtube. Do you watch it? Remember, you don't get to "un-see" it.

I was actually a little surprised at the results of our poll of the six members of our lunch group.

I've seen worse. Sure.

Prolly not at work, though.

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

An aspiring Republican.

Which one is the aspiring republican?

[Slap Shot]

Re: POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

No I would not.

[joecct]

Re: POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

Slava Malamud (he of the famous KHL Twitter thread), posts this about the Russian elections (translated from Russian via Google)

CAPTAIN AMERICA
THE AUTHOR OF THE PROJECT, SLAVA MALAMUD, WHO LIVES IN BALTIMORE, CONSIDERS RUSSIAN AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS FROM THE POSITION OF AN AMERICAN AND A POLITICAL WESTERNER


What rivals ?! Russia has no choice!
What planet do we know that will compete with the Earth in terms of human habitation? Who could become a worthy opponent of the US team in the World Cup in American football? Who can write a note on the language I just invented better than I did not teach and teach?

As you understand, the complexity of the answer to these questions lies in their very formulation. How can you choose something that is not and can not be? By the way, the key phrase here is "it can not be," and not "what's not." About the fact that there are no rivals for Putin, you will tell me yourself about three boxes; in this I have no doubt. The argument "If not him, then who?" Has been chanted in Russia for almost two decades, confirming the long-known truth that if one and the same lie is pronounced many times, then it will gradually become true. Sometimes the same argument is mutated in "If not him, then the terrible Nine will return" and "If not him, then America will take us."


I will leave aside the problematic topic of why America needs such happiness. I will not touch upon the question of historians, poorly studied by historians, about the absence in the world political practice of any alternatives to the options "Putin" and "Scary Nineties." The very formulation of the question "If not him, then who?" Seems to me absolutely correct, but now I consider him, I think, from a slightly different position than most of you. I will explain what I mean.

I suspect that in most Russian heads the conviction has become stronger that Putin is the only qualified candidate for the presidency and any person who is in opposition to him is a priori unworthy, incapable or simply harmful. Since I live in America and do not like what the present Russian state is, many will call me Russophobe (in fact this is completely wrong), but it is difficult for me personally to imagine a more Russophobic attitude than this one: "In all the huge, ancient the country of Russia that gave birth to Lomonosov, Mendeleev, Sikorsky, Vysotsky and Anatoly Tarasov, there is not and can not be any worthy alternative to the role of head of state of the average hand to a spy, judoka and a cooperator,

I think that anyone who thinks so, can at least right now go for a walk in the field and zalomati there white birch, pre-wiped kokoshnikom. You will not become a big Russophobe anyway. However, it is indeed a fact that Putin has no competitors. It's just that it's not just the fact that he was so straightforward and glorified as a glorious Siberian Crane over the oecumene of sinful people, but because he plays in his own kind of sport, in which rivals are not provided.

Russia has no rivals to Putin, because Russia has no elections, on which they could appear. And Russia does not have elections, because Putin for 18 years has been systematically destroying all of its fragile, dysfunctional and historically unrelated democracy in the country. The main milestones of this process are known to all: submission to the state structures of the main independent media, the abolition of the fundamental principle of federalism - the self-government of the regions, the emergence of a pocket system of justice, and finally the creation in the country through a powerful apparatus of propaganda and aggressive foreign policy of mass hysteria and persistent paranoia.

You say that elections in Russia are more free than American elections? Will you give me an argument about the bipartisan system? Come on, boys! Elections in the United States, let's be frank - not the pinnacle of pluralism, but in Russia there are none at all. Yes, in the US representatives of, say, libertarian parties are a tiny platform, and all other marginalized people do not have it at all, but this does not mean that the Yankees have no choice. Take the same primaries in 2016, where under the guise of a bipartisan system, about a dozen different ideologies fought for a place in the sun. Even Democrats, where party bosses wanted to crown the moderate liberalism and hawkish foreign policy of Hillary Clinton, had a real alternative in the person of Bernie Sanders and his European Social Democracy. In Germany, for example, it would be two completely different parties:

And Republicans also had classical neo-liberals in the person of Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, and the social megaconservers of the "Jesus with the gun" system from the camp of Ted Cruz, and moderately right-winged, led by John Casey, and libertarians with Random Paul. The choice was not just real - huge. To all tastes.

And even the legend, beloved by many, that the election in the States is a myth, and the presidents secretly appointed by the elites, was shattered when Trump settled in the White House with his populist ultra-right xenophobia, which has nothing in common with the position of the establishment of both parties . The eructation of the dark side of the subconscious of the townsfolk won. It happens in a free society. This is its side effect.

But the main thing is not even the availability of alternatives, but the fact that they are in conditions. In the States and other Western states, candidates play on a more or less level ground. The debate is open to everyone, everyone has equal rules, the laws on financing the campaign for all are the same, the opportunities for agitation are limited only by federal legislation and the ability of the candidate to raise funds (a process that is also strictly controlled by law) in the media all are equally divided. And as for the incumbent head of state to control the election committee and clean his ballot from the unwanted by his hands, there can be no question.

In Russia, there is simply no election process as such. About that, about whom you gundosit federal box 168 hours a week, you know perfectly well yourself. About how zealously pocket public services polish the clearing from any serious competitors, too. The fact that the ruler of "competitors" is meticulously selected from those whom the people a priori will call clowns, you will tell me yourself. And the "message" about the inevitability of the election of the One and the Irreplaceable is impregnated all the information space - from Kiselev to "Facebook", from minibus to KVN. In such conditions, even carousels with stuffing are not needed, but after all, and carousel, and throw all the same - so that for sure.

In the atmosphere created in Russia, no competition can appear, of course, can not, which means that the atmosphere works exactly as intended by the creator. People admitted to elections are admitted precisely because they are not competitive. There is nothing to hope for other media personalities at all. Most of them (Zakharova, Shoigu, Sobyanin and the like) are allies and political "children" of Putin. Khodorkovsky and Zyuganov - long-played cards. Navalny (whose main virtue is his lack of control of the authorities) is carefully removed from the game and nailed to the role of the herald and a mess, but no more. This is not the opposition as such. This is not a real political process. This is professional wrestling. This is a shadow theater, about which everyone knows that this is a shadow theater,

So, people, forget about the alternative. Competitors will only be with you when there is no current government. Alas, the variant of its displacement by elections has long been absent. I can not discuss other options with Russian legislation.

[burd]

Re: POTUS 45.30: "Stormy Weather...It Keeps on Rainin' all the Time..."

So, here was the subject of our lunch discussion today, and I thought I'd pose the same question to Cafe (admittedly, we have some strange lunch discussions.)

The Donald Trump / Stormy Daniels sex tape hits the internet. Assuming you can click on a link to watch it with relative security, as free from viruses or other malware as you can be as if you were watching it on say, Youtube. Do you watch it? Remember, you don't get to "un-see" it.

I was actually a little surprised at the results of our poll of the six members of our lunch group.

Hard to pass up the greatest performance in the history of man.