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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Not quite, there's also the Supply Side Jesus ones. Mitch and Bevin in my state are a fucking WEIRD combination of Ayn Rand and Prosperity Gospel that don't just fanatically oppose government assistance because they benefit from it. They do it as a moral obligation.
That the poor, minority or not, are actively destroying America by their existence and not being rich. So they must gain no charity, assistance, or humanity lest they continue to drain the producers.
Its bizarre because both Ayn Rand AND Jesus are used to justify it. People who would loathe one another (and did in the former case).
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jun 24th 2019 at 5:34:37 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/06/24/day-886/
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/24/trump-sanctions-iran-over-downed-drone.html
2/ Trump delayed planned nationwide ICE raids for two weeks to see if Congress can "work out a solution." Immigration agents had planned to sweep and deport people living the U.S. illegally in 10 major cities beginning Sunday. Hours after defending the plan, Trump delayed the raids on Saturday. Earlier in the week, Trump threatened to arrest and deport "millions of illegal aliens" next week. ICE leaders expressed concerns that officers' safety would be in jeopardy because too many details about the raids had been made public. (Associated Press / New York Times / CNN / Politico / ABC News)
https://apnews.com/70c173c8d213438e9fbef4d1f2bba07b
3/ The Trump administration stopped promoting dozens of taxpayer-funded studies about the impacts of climate change. The studies include a discovery that rice loses vitamins in a carbon-rich environment, a finding that climate change would exacerbate allergy seasons, and a warning to farmers about an expected reduction in the quality of important grasses used to feed and raise cattle. All of the studies were peer-reviewed and cleared through the Agricultural Research Service. (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/23/agriculture-department-climate-change-1376413
https://apnews.com/ce88bd15279749dbabcde34c8ef3dc28
Pence refused to say whether climate change was a legitimate threat to the U.S. Instead, Pence said that the Trump administration would "always follow the science" on the issue. (Axios / The Hill)
https://www.axios.com/mike-pence-climate-change-threat-198bedd7-b724-4330-87b5-754f81c278f8.html
4/ Nearly 100 internal Trump transition team vetting documents were leaked, revealing a wide range of "red flags" about several officials who went on to secure high-ranking positions in the Trump administration. (Axios / Business Insider / Daily Beast)
https://www.axios.com/leaked-donald-trump-vetting-docs-hbo-6ce3cd26-1eb9-4da8-b15e-47b56020aef7.html
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price had sections in his dossier flagging "criticisms of management ability" and "Dysfunction And Division Has Haunted Price's Leadership Of The House Budget Committee."
Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney had several "red flags," including his assessment that Trump "is not a very good person."
The Trump transition team was so worried about Rudy Giuliani being chosen as secretary of state that they created a separate 25-page document titled "Rudy Giuliani Business Ties Research Dossier" with many accounts of his "foreign entanglements."
The transition team was worried that Gen. David Petraeus "Is Opposed to Torture."
Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had ties to Russia.
Kris Kobach, who was once in the running for homeland security secretary, had "white supremacy" as one of his vulnerabilities.
Nikki Haley, who would go on to be U.N. ambassador, was flagged for saying that Trump is everything "we teach our kids not to do in kindergarten."
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/23/white-house-immunity-testimony-mcgahn-donaldson-1376950
Trump nominated Mark Esper to be the next defense secretary following the abrupt resignation of acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan. Esper is currently the secretary of the Army and former West Point classmate of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (New York Times / Politico)
Fox News host Jeanine Pirro lobbied for a top Justice Department job under Jeff Sessions, which Trump considered. Sessions, however, blocked the appointment and then Pirro attacked Sessions on her show for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, calling him the most "dangerous person" in the U.S. (Washington Post / Talking Points Memo)
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-pirro-justice-department-fox-news
Trump said appointing Sessions as his first attorney general was his "biggest mistake" and that he'd like a "do over" on the decision. (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-sessions-idUSKCN1TO0TH
White House officials have refused to tell House Democrats what happened to the interpreter notes from Trump's private meeting with Putin. The House Oversight Committee argues that the notes are federal records that must be preserved under record-keeping laws. The White House, however, won't say whether Trump destroyed or in any way altered the interpreter notes. (Washington Post)
The House Oversight Committee will vote to subpoena Kellyanne Conway related to her violations of the Hatch Act if she does not voluntarily appear at the committee's hearing. The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities in their official capacity, and the civil service watchdog known as the Office of Special Counsel determined earlier this month that Conway violated the act by "disparaging Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in an official capacity during television interviews and on social media." Conway claimed that House Democrats are seeking her testimony in retaliation for successfully managing Trump's 2016 campaign. [Breaking News: The White House moved to block Conway from testifying to Congress about alleged violations of the Hatch Act.] (Axios / Washington Post)
Does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with legit Conspiracy Theorist relatives?
A few weeks ago, on my family's beach trip, I found out that my favorite uncle is among other things, a 9/11 truther, and believes school shootings are perpetuated by "Crisis Actors" and the like.
It's just so hard to reconcile it in my head. How can such a smart guy, who loves trains, stuffed animals, biking, and being silly with me and his daughter, also believe this stuff?
Like I was in the car with them, and when I brought up how much I wanted to see Come from Away, my uncle came in insisting that 9/11 was this huge conspiracy, and I didn't realize he actually believed that.
Edited by megaeliz on Jun 25th 2019 at 5:29:06 AM
Just stay far away from that topic from this point forward. Also, try to ensure that younger relatives aren't misinformed by his bullshit.
Just accept that you're not going to be able to change him unless you're really willing to commit a lot of time and effort and potentially alienating him for good.
He's clearly been spending way too much time looking at the wrong Facebook pages and watching stuff like Loose Change.
The problem with a conspiracy theorist is that you can't "fix" them just by giving them the facts. That's not how human beings work. Your uncle has made being a "truther" part of his very identity. It's too important to his sense of self now. After all, one of the key attractions of being a conspiracy theorist is how it makes you feel special.
Edited by M84 on Jun 24th 2019 at 10:02:30 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedThey are kinda similar to cults in that "exploiting other folks' desire to be special" part.
They basically are cults imho. Plenty of other people have made the comparison too.
Which should give you an idea of what it would take to change the mind of a "truther". De-brainwashing a cultist isn't the easiest thing to do.
Edited by M84 on Jun 24th 2019 at 10:23:12 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised![]()
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Thanks. That's been bugging me in the back of my head for a while now, and i’m Glad I could get it out.
The tip about younger relatives is really helpful as well. He has a young daughter, and I think I can at least do my best to make sure she isn't too misinformed by him. (Don't get me wrong, he's a wonderful dad, but hopefully you can see my dilemma.)
She's like 8, so it's a long way off, but I have already been pushing that she go to my college, instead of the tiny, very conservative, college that her dad went to. (It helps that my cousin has a peanut/tree nut allergy, and her mom has a gluten allergy, and my school has a completely tree nut/peanut, Gluten, and dairy free kitchen in the main dinning hall.)
Edited by megaeliz on Jun 25th 2019 at 11:41:18 AM
I post an article from
Vox about the coverage, or rather lack thereof, of E. Jean Carol's allegations against the POTUS, in hopes of starting a conversation about said allegations. As well as the possible effects this might have on future coverage on Trump in the future (as in, is the notion that Trump being a frequent perpetrator of sexual misconduct being too normalized to warrant the media attention it should?)
Edited by MorningStar1337 on Jun 24th 2019 at 7:48:20 AM
I'm going to step in to speak for the bothsiders for a moment, because there is a legit issue here - in fact, a certain lack of populism on the Democratic side is partly to blame for Trump's success. That lack of populism is a complete failure to give a shit about the issues of poor, rural whites. The Republicans can rely on the racial pickpocket strategy to appeal to them in lieu of actually tackling their problems, but what have Democrats done in response? Not a hell of a lot (even if part of that can be ascribed to Republican politicians being even more opposed to serving their constituents).
The fact that there often isn't a lot that can be done is not the point. There needs to be some aggressive federal money flowing into these communities to fix their problems with education and jobs in rural communities. Likewise, alongside prison reform, we need to make damn sure that when those private prisons go away, there will be a federally-subsidized furniture plant or something to replace the jobs that the prison was generating. (MBI is my usual go-to solution for "the jobs aren't coming back," but I don't think it'll be acceptable to rural, deeply Protestant communities. There, we need a program to hire half the town to dig holes and the other half to fill in holes.)
The problem is that populism tends to be light on actual problem-solving and heavy on emotionally charged rhetoric. It also often comes with shades of anti-elitism, which all too often is also coupled with anti-intellectualism.
That's how you get all that bullshit about "liberal coastal elites". Never mind that a lot of said "elites" are also struggling financially.
I for one don't want the Democratic Party to go in that direction. This is why I don't like the three main front-runners.
In order of how much I dislike them (with Biden being the worst of course):
- Biden's got that skin-deep "aw shucks I'm just like you" populism where he says whatever he thinks will get him applause. And that's on top of his gaffes and his creeper behavior.
- Sanders is all "Eat the Rich" and "fuck the establishment!" while being light on actual policy solutions and he's got a heap of racial issues.
- Warren's more policy oriented, but even she has displayed a willingness to go with the anti-establishment populist flow. She's also pretty driven by Eat the Rich mentality, to the point of proposing a potentially unconstitutional and impractical wealth tax plan just to rile up people even further against rich people. She could have at least gone with Ocasio-Cortez's proposed tax idea instead.
Edited by M84 on Jun 25th 2019 at 4:21:59 PM
Disgusted, but not surprisedExpanded Medicare/Medicaid, pushed rural broadband infrastructure so as to enable new jobs, fought against Trump’s tariffs that are hurting farmers, pushed for massive investment in retraining people out of dying rural industries and into new industries, pushed to reduce drug prices so rural people can afford their healthcare more...
That’s what I can think of off the top of my head, I’m sure if this thread out some effort in we could do a full “What have the Romans ever done for us” sketch about democrats and rural whites.
But here’s the two things they haven’t done and that’s what’s gotten people angry, they haven’t waved a magic wand and gotten fox to tell people about their achievements and they haven’t embraced racist dogwhistles about how the world’s problems are the fault of Hispanics and African Americans.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranFor me, one of the bigger issues of the Clinton campaign's failure was the utter failure of her to campaign in the Rust Belt (which she lost). This isn't because it's rural whites but it's rural people in clear swing states. She didn't have a policy that would address the issue of, "The steel industry is dead." She also took a hits because her replacement plan for coal was one that didn't go over well.
And believe me, I know the propaganda of the energy companies (note: not coal companies) was complete bullshit.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
538 did an article rebutting that a couple years ago.
Clinton’s Ground Game Didn’t Cost Her The Election
It acknowledges her mistakes, but it also argues that those mistakes didn't actually lead to her losing.
The real issue was that the states she lost had voting demographics heavily skewed to "white people with no higher education", and that was true regardless of how heavily she campaigned. And that isn't necessarily the same thing as rural white people (though there's definitely overlap).
Edited by M84 on Jun 25th 2019 at 2:01:55 AM
Disgusted, but not surprisedTrump Muses Privately About Ending Postwar Japan Defense Pact
Trump regards the accord as too one-sided because it promises U.S. aid if Japan is ever attacked, but doesn’t oblige Japan’s military to come to America’s defense, the people said. The treaty, signed more than 60 years ago, forms the foundation of the alliance between the countries that emerged from World War II.
While completely ignoring the fact that it's written as-such so that Japan doesn't have a military. At all. For fear that they'd go on the offensive again. If he'd gone by that logic, it'd actually be kind of understandable, but, Trump being Trump, of course he doesn't.
Also, a poll by MoveOn has a stark contrast to most polls for the Democratic Primary
, as Warren is head and shoulders above anyone else. The breakdown:
- Warren - 37.8%
- Sanders - 16.5%
- Biden - 14.9%
- Buttigieg - 11.7%
- Harris - 6.8%
- Undecided - 2.2%
- O'Rourke - 1.8%
- Everyone else - 1.1% or lower.
top choice of 38 percent of MoveOn's members nationwide
That sounds like a biased sample to me, as I am sure that most of Biden's support demographic is not an Internet regular.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanTrump doesn't understand that a lot of the resources we pour into foreign countries are the cost of retaining power and influence over those nations. He never has.
People describe Trump as a mob boss but he's shit at that too. The United States is the ultimate mafia. A lot of our diplomatic connections are basically protection rackets. "Sure is a nice country you have, right here on the border of Russia. Be a shame if something were to happen to it."
But Trump is so incompetent that he doesn't even get that.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.

A little from column A, a little from column B. Some people obviously do know what they're doing, and just don't care beyond the scope of "me and mine, and fuck everyone else".
Others, for whatever reasons, can convince themselves what they're doing is right, a non-insignificant portion of these people also being of the aforementioned "me and mine" type, but unlike the first not actually wanting to admit to themselves that's what it's about.
You could probably also say the same for people who hold racist/sexist/homophobic views but don't want to admit that or actually have to work on themselves, so they just convince themselves they aren't.