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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Yeah, that was kind of what I was getting at. Apparently they mostly think that welfare checks are burnt by their recipients for heating purposes, because otherwise they'd realise that they are so meagre that they instantly disappear on basic needs that are dominated by various oligarchical corporations and/or the state, thus going to the same people as the tax cuts or back into the roots of the government's actually real magic money tree via a slightly more roundabout and beneficial route.
Because Reality Is Unrealistic - there are people in another forum that are claiming, straight-faced, that...
Yes. Really.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"edited 19th Jun '18 4:41:30 PM by Eschaton
I talked about the situation on Twitter and a guy said that he was unfollowing me because of my reaction:
https://twitter.com/eighthsin013/status/1008884479505641473
I told him, "Even if they deport them, do it with their kids."
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.There could be an argument for providing the kids with a safe home even if their parents don’t have a valid claim, but that’s not what’s happening, the kids aren’t being helped and they’re being detained the same as the parents.
I suspect that a number of parents would be okay with the idea of their kids getting a new life in a safe place even if the parents didn’t, but that’s not being offered.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranMore Evidence Cohen will cooperate with prosecutors. [1]
"He knows a lot of things about the President and he's not averse to talking in the right situation," one of Cohen's New York friends who is in touch with him told CNN. "If they want information on Trump, he's willing to give it."
edited 19th Jun '18 5:49:01 PM by megaeliz
Maybe that's why Trump is getting so incoherent lately? Between Cohen flipping (if Trump has ever committed any sort of criminal act, Cohen is the one who will have the juicy stuff on it), the terrible optics at the border, no country in the world willing to bend over in the face of tariffs, and the adulation from North Korea fading out of the media cycle quickly, he's got a lot to worry about.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.![]()
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he wasn't charged with any crimes... yet, but I could see him cooperating. He might just be starting to see that for a guy that demands loyalty, he's not very loyal himself. [1]
They’re often the dumpee not the dumper.
They’re loyal and give, give, give... and then get dumped anyway.
Afterwards, they’re hurt, shocked and incredulous.
How could they have done this to me after everything I’ve done?!
Then they’re just hurt.
Then they look for comfort in people who have been wronged by the narc as well...
...and those people usually weren’t as loyal.
When they then talk to people they know who the narc jettisoned earlier, they get a cold, dispassionate wake-up call.
“The narc is not a good person. You were wronged. They wrong everyone.”
...and then the spell is broken.
The loyalty is dead.
Michael Cohen is well on his way to that point...
...and once he gets there and opens the spigot, there will be no holding back what he gives up.
The first turn is the hardest.
Then comes the flood.
Trump is in big, big trouble here.
edited 19th Jun '18 5:56:43 PM by megaeliz
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Nope, clearly the solution is to cut off aid and worsen living conditions in Central/South America. That'll learn em.
Maybe Cohen has information valuable enough (he's been Trump's legal enforcer for years) that he thinks he can get outright immunity, aside from fines and restitution, for everything?
edited 19th Jun '18 5:57:23 PM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
x3 How would we go about doing that without invading said nations? Even legalizing Drugs here in this Country (which I am 100% behind) won't stop gangs in other countries; they'll just shift focus to their own turf and sell drugs to their own people (or to other countries that keep the Drugs illegal). The whole world would need to get rid of most drug laws to actively end the criminal enterprises in central and South America. Then there are problems you can't solve simply by force; corruption will still run rampant even if the US invades.
The simpler solution (and one I am also 100% behind) is to end our ridiculous laws regarding immigration; no amount of immigration from any country will destroy our own, and it's cruel that we force people to wait years, and spend so much, to become citizens. Make it that, as long as you have no criminal record or serious spreadable disease, you become a citizen when you pass those easy tests.
edited 19th Jun '18 6:02:23 PM by DingoWalley1
I'm all for lowering immigration standards. Logically, the best way to decrease illegal immigration is to make it easier to immigrate legally, which is why Republicans hate it.
This is worth a read.
This seems like a particularly important time to amplify a few things about how his disordered mind works.
He is absolutely compulsive in his handling of things like the current crisis.
Trump is entirely consumed by related drives to 1) earn others' esteem and be seen as special; and 2) avoid being seen as shameful or unworthy of respect/admiration.
Those drives control him. They own him. He cannot serve any other masters.
In a situation like the one we're in now re: his immigrant family separation policy, he is entirely penned into a corner that his primitive hard-wiring doesn't allow him to escape from.
His software offers only a couple choices. None work here.
To back down would be to shame himself. In his mind, it would make him look less powerful and in charge; it would make him seem less worthy of being seen as a leader if someone ELSE gets their way.
He is entirely unable to do that, no matter the costs.
There is also no way for him to turn this into a moment of triumph. There is no way for him to earn praise here.
If he engineers a compromise, his base will scorn him. He has no possible way to come out of this looking like he is worthy of praise.
He's entirely trapped.
A person without his entirely programmed dysfunction would be able to cede a little ground to get out of this without taking further damage.
A healthy person can lose a battle to win a war.
Trump cannot. He literally cannot. He is unable.
Even worse, the louder the clamor over the wrongfulness of his policy, the MORE impossible it is for Trump to retreat.
The man cannot handle others seeing him as having been wrong. The bigger the wrong, the less he can handle it.
The only actual ways out of the escalating conflict over Trump's border policy have very little to do with Trump because his circuitry has already entirely crashed and he can do nothing more or different than he is doing.
Doubling down over and over and over.
The only ways for the actual family separation crisis to be resolved are for Congress to either:
1) Give Trump a face-saving out - craft a resolution that allows him to claim to have "won" something for having taken this stand
2) Steamroll over him by nullifying his policy
The question in managing narcissists is ALWAYS "do you want to be happy or right?"
If the answer is "happy", the first of those two is better. Give him enough air-cover to retreat with a cloud of false bravado
If the answer is "right", the second is better. Steamroll over him and wipe out his policy... which essentially neuters him not only on this issue but in a larger way.
That would have consequences though. Trump would erupt and their would be collateral damage.
Democrats have public sentiment on their side and have many reasons to stand pat and let the fire consume the White House until even R's are forced to choose Door #2.
Will they? I don't know.
This game is entirely out of Trump's hands though because he is all out of moves.
With that in mind, might as well save yourself some indigestion and tune out his rhetoric. It will be an endless loop of the same... until someone cuts the mic in one of the above ways.
Trump's primitive circuitry leaves him entirely unable to navigate situations in the chess match where you have to sacrifice a piece to win.
There's no point watching him throw the pieces around like a raving loon.
He isn't the party that matters here.
Congress may be utterly inept and inert and divided along partisan lines but whether its a day, a week or a month, this crisis will not be resolved by Trump.
It will be resolved by them... whether they know, like or want that or not.
Adults gonna have to adult here.
Sometimes I think the rest of the GOP would just like to flat out ask Trump "What do you want?" and work from there. As that article I posted a while back claimed, one of the biggest problems the GOP actually has with Trump is that they don't really know what he wants them to do at any given time.
Disgusted, but not surprisedHe wants to be adored, praised and worshiped by everyone all the time. That's not something anyone can make happen.
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edit: I'm not sure he can answer the other question either.
edited 19th Jun '18 7:00:20 PM by nightwyrm_zero

That was always the point of that particular cliche. The "difficult decision" is meant to be the one that doesn't mean you commit morally questionable acts for the sake of mere expediency, but somehow most of the writers (and right-wing followers, for that matter) seem to miss that because Conflict and Emotional Drama is required to make standard action hero #1231 look interesting. Oddly enough that only makes them more stereotypical.
edited 19th Jun '18 4:04:08 PM by DeathorCake