Political Roundtable Part XXXII

[Zonkerbl]

ISRAEL - WTF ARE YOU DOING??!?!?!?!

“We have had more than 180 humanitarian aid workers killed in Gaza,” U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a briefing Tuesday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/02/israel-strike-wck-huamanitarian-convoy/

[dobrojim]

ISRAEL - WTF ARE YOU DOING??!?!?!?!

“We have had more than 180 humanitarian aid workers killed in Gaza,” U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a briefing Tuesday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/02/israel-strike-wck-huamanitarian-convoy/

What's effed up is Netenyahu (apol for misspelling this criminal's name) being in charge.

Israel's political system is all effed up in a way I find analogous to our House of Reps.
Gerrymandered and wackadoodle religious zealots holding the balance of power.
Bebe belonged in jail before Oct 7.

[dobrojim]

Can't make this stuff up

There's a group of GOP congresscritters who want to rename Dulles and call it Trump International.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/04/02/republicans-rename-dulles-airport-trump/

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said on X and in a statement, “Donald Trump is facing 91 felony charges. If Republicans want to name something after him, I’d suggest they find a federal prison.”

Bravo

[dobrojim]

with all of Golfy's explicit statements about the Jan6 'patriots' and his promises
to pardon them all, does anyone remember when the GOP tried to claim that
it (Jan6) was all a false flag operation carried out by the FBI and antifa?

It's hard to fathom how strong a force tribalism is in discerning reality from fiction.

[Zonkerbl]

Democrats, as a group, and as a political organization, are pretty stupid. They react to the narrative rather than actively try to shape it, which is how they lost to Trump, lost the SCOTUS, and lost Roe. Finally after the facts have slapped them in the face several times they have gotten over their cowardice about abortion and have built it into their campaign strategy, about 8 years too late to really address the problem properly but better late than never I guess. Maybe democracy won't be destroyed forever in 2024, if the Dems, through reasons completely out of their control but dictated entirely by own goals from the other side, manage to squeak out a win against Trump because Republicans crapped the bed on abortion related issues.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/09/trump-abortion-arizona-court-decision/

Republicans represent the interests of billionaires and their political strategy is constructed using the best expertise money can buy, Democrats represent everyone else, mainly the super poor, and their political strategy is constructed mostly by well meaning but ignorant and/or incompetent volunteers or, if you're lucky, an expert who cares enough about the issues to accept a huge pay cut to work for the Dems. Which sucks because in the aggregate, the Dems have just as much money as the Republicans. But they spend that money stupidly. Republican strategy looks ahead and creates the narrative, I mean look at Fox News - it *makes* money, it literally costs the Republicans nothing. Democrats are hapless fools who bounce from issue to issue like squirrel chasing dogs, reacting to stimuli in the moment and learning lessons only after they have been drilled into them over and over, like teaching a dog to roll over.

For example in the 90s, when the Republican fear mongers slapped the Dems in the face with the racist War on Drugs issue until they obediently adopted the racism of their opponent and embraced the War on Drugs as their own. This is now learned behavior that the Dems can't seem to be able to unlearn. Another issue is their unconditional support of Israel, even when the government is being run by Jewish Hitler. Yes Judaism has hard core religious fanatics and a lot of them are pretty evil "ends justifies the means" types, and Israel is currently being run by them. I wish it was possible to persuade Democrats that failing to change their ways will cost them elections and cost us all democracy. But they're dumb and can only be persuaded to change after being forced to by events outside their control.

I don't know where I'm going with this - none of it's going to matter in fifty years or so as various climate catastrophes end civilization, at least the organizational structure of it that we are familiar with now. I guess I care because my kids are living in that world and I want it to suck less before it all ends. My main concern is that defeating Trump would just prolong the inevitable.

I guess the one silver lining is that the GOP has been taken over by right wing extremists and have decided it's totally fine to censor companies for being "woke," which is going to cost them a lot of the business-sponsored support that gave them their strategic advantage in the first place. Already the Dems are enjoying a huge campaign finance advantage and if that persists for a decade or so it will start to result in real change. Who knows. It's way too late to solve the climate change problem but maybe my kids' world will suck less temporarily.

[popper]

Interesting article.

https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust

[pancakes3]

I can agree to the extent that far left liberals have an unjustified over-fixation on tone word policing, in an effort to be inclusive, and at times, does so at their own detriment.

I also happen to think that NPR is pretty bland journalism, and it's kind of surprising that the author thinks that NPR is anything but milquetoast. NPR, to me, encapsulates the problem with center-left journalism. They are afraid to broach the truly nefarious topics that lie beneath the surface, which in sum can be described as a concerted conservative project wherein top republican donors and leaders in the late '60s gathered to reverse the tremendous social gains of the '50s and early '60s, and have been profoundly successful in reaping the fruits of those labors in the past 20 years. This is not a conspiracy theory. It's open tentpoles of the political party. Get rid of affirmative action. Overturn Roe v Wade. Maintain the conservative majority on SCOTUS. Deregulate wall street. Gut the administrative state, starting with the EPA. Get rid of social safety nets. Every single meaningful bit of progress made starting with FDR is actively being campaigned against by Republicans, starting with Nixon. There were no good laws made in the past 80 years, and all that matters are tax cuts, and reversing social progress. And due to a potent combination of propaganda, gerrymandering, taking Congress hostage via filibustering (which in turn secured a republican supermajority on SCOTUS) and dark money, it's been a very successful platform. But nobody wants to talk about it. It's not about politics. It's about how Republicans are manipulating politics. But sure, go off King, about how someone saying latinx is the cause of society's downfall.

Also, it's pretty easy to tell the personal bias with which Mr. Berliner writes. Thank you for your input on how public health is being reported on, Mr. Business Editor, we'll keep that in mind. I'm sure your suggestion fell on deaf ears due to your boldness of stepping outside of the bounds of far left libthink and not for any other expertise-related reasons. I look forward to reading your follow-up intedepartmental memo re: the coverage on Palestine.

And lastly, the real problem with both-sidesing, is that the lost conservative audience isn't abandoning NPR because of NPR changing. The conservative audience changed, and is seeking news that adheres to a more comforting worldview that dazzles and fearmongers. Fox News, in its eclipse coverage, really and truly said, on air, multiple times, that the eclipse provides a tremendous opportunity for undocumented immigrants to take advantage of the 4 minutes of totality to cross the border in record amounts, and that numerous migrants in Mexico were seen donning black clothing to take advantage of the once-in-a-lifetime period of darkness. I don't think the problem lies with NPR.

Postscript: I'm tired yall. I'm tired of republicans making stupid arguments. I really am. An IG reel just came up saying "libs are anxious, broke, and don't know what gender they are, so what makes them think they can run the greatest country on earth?" Like, jfc dude. Sick burn? I don't even know where to begin on that. And that's how SO many voters feel. And new content comes out every single day. I was truly broken by the Fox News reporting on the eclipse. They can't stop. They won't stop. Billion dollar defamation judgment. Doesn't matter. Not to them, not to their viewers. Keep saying the most insane things on the air. Keep diverting attention from things that matter.

[dobrojim]

^
Cons/GOP have been wrong on nearly every single major area of public policy during my lifetime
and the money behind those positions often results in bad faith arguments in policy 'debates'.

BS like we have to fight them over there or we'll end up fighting them here

or gay marriage will destroy traditional marriage.

These types of slogans trigger an emotional rather than a truly thoughtful response.

[Zonkerbl]

NPR is liberal only in that they select topics that they know their liberal audience will be interested in. They don't introduce left wing editorializing into their reporting. That's projection.

This article is 100% right wing propaganda. Basically nothing after the phrase "veered toward efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency" is true. I hope the author's billionaire sponsors paid him well because ideally he will never get another job in journalism again. Looks like it was written by Bill Barr. Only idiots believe that Russia had nothing to do with Trump's election and the Mueller report found that the Trumps tried and incompetently failed to coordinate with them.

I mean every sentence in this article is wrong. NPR interviewed Schiff frequently because what Schiff was doing was newsworthy. I could write an equally lengthy article criticizing NPR for uncritically reporting Trump's lies and it would be just as factually accurate.

[Zonkerbl]

Trump is on trial today for election interference resulting from his payouts to Stormy Daniels to keep her from dishing about his affair with her before the 2016 election.

He fell asleep in the middle of the proceedings today. #sleepydon is trending on twitter

[pancakes3]

Melania's former assistant claimed that after the news broke, Melania's comment was "why is that porn-hooker getting the cover of Vogue?"

[Zonkerbl]

Trump is on trial today for election interference resulting from his payouts to Stormy Daniels to keep her from dishing about his affair with her before the 2016 election.

He fell asleep in the middle of the proceedings today. #sleepydon is trending on twitter

Honestly, I hope he is super stressed out and losing sleep over this. Jerk.

[dobrojim]

Opening segment on Rachel last night was a thorough review of a largely forgotten story-
how utterly corrupt the tRump DOJ was in his first term. This is the reason why Golfy is
only now facing a state trial for crimes that happened 7 years ago and that Cohen was the only
one to be prosecuted for. Main DOJ interfered hugely in SDNY resulting in 'individual-1' getting
a total pass from the feds for everything he did. They also acted corruptly towards a number
of other actors including Flynn. Barr liked his job except for the part about an oath of office.

[Zonkerbl]

He fell asleep AGAIN

[Kanyewest]

Interesting article.

https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust

The guy who just wrote the article resigned from NPR just now.

[Zonkerbl]

Interesting article.

https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust

The guy who just wrote the article resigned from NPR just now.

so wait, this guy is trying to cash in on trying to get fired from NPR for being a jerk and failing?

[verbal8]

He fell asleep AGAIN

I could see this hurting him more electorally than getting convicted. Obvious examples of failing and weakness are things that could tame the enthusiasm of his rabid base.

Although I think his biggest problem is he is running more for money than votes/getting elected.

[dobrojim]

It's hard to see how this pathetic story helps him politically either.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/04/14/truth-social-investors-faith-trump/

Jerry Dean McLain first bet on former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social two years ago, buying into the Trump company’s planned merger partner, Digital World Acquisition, at $90 a share. Over time, as the price changed, he kept buying, amassing hundreds of shares for $25,000 — pretty much his “whole nest egg,” he said.

That nest egg has lost more than half its value in the past two weeks as Trump Media & Technology Group’s share price dropped from $66 after its public debut last month to $22 on Tuesday. But McLain, 71, who owns a tree-removal service outside Oklahoma City, said he’s not worried. If anything, he wants to buy more.

“I know good and well it’s in Trump’s hands, and he’s got plans,” he said. “I have no doubt it’s going to explode sometime.”

McLain is possibly spot on in his choice of the word explode but in the opposite way from what he thinks.
Or maybe I'm missing a great opportunity to become rich. It'll be difficult to feel sorry for people
like McLain nor should I feel sorry for myself if I'm wrong. People who remember Atlantic City or
Trump University....might urge more caution.

But for some Trump investors, the stock is a badge of honor — a way to show their devotion beyond buying Trump merchandise, visiting Trump golf courses or donating to Trump’s presidential campaign.

Trump Media has boasted that it has benefited from a flood of “retail investors” — small-time and amateur shareholders betting their personal cash. Its merger partner, Digital World Acquisition, said its shares were bought by nearly 400,000 retail investors, and Trump Media’s chief executive, Devin Nunes, told Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo on April 7 that the company had added over 200,000 new ones in the previous couple of weeks.

“There’s not another company out there that has retail investors like this,” said Nunes, who this year will receive a $1 million salary, a $600,000 retention bonus and a stock package currently worth more than $2.6 million.

In an interview last month with conservative commentator Sean Hannity, the former Republican congressman recounted a recent discussion with Trump in which the men celebrated having “opened up the internet and kept it open for the American people.”

“I’ll never forget the conversation we had,” Nunes said. “He said, ‘You know, once we’re all dead and gone, this will last forever.’”

I'm sure Nunes is worth every penny.


"The value of history is, indeed, not scientific but moral: by liberalizing the mind, by deepening the sympathies, by fortifying the will, it enables us to control, not society, but ourselves -- a much more important thing; it prepares us to live more humanely in the present and to meet rather than to foretell the future."
Carl Becker, 1873-1945, U.S. historian

or PT Barnum

"Many people are gullible, and we can expect this to continue."

"No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public."

Many of Truth Social’s investors say they’re in it for the long haul. Todd Schlanger, an interior designer at a furniture store in West Palm Beach who said Trump had been one of his customers, said he’s invested about $20,000 in total and is buying new shares every week.

Schlanger said he now watches his stock performance every day hoping for positive signs. In a Truth Social post last week, he encouraged “everyone who supports Donald Trump and Truth [Social to] buy a share everyday” and asked, “Do you think we have hit bottom?” (The stock has slid about 35 percent since that post.)

He suspects the recent drops in share price have been the result of “stock manipulation” from an “organized effort” to make the company look bad. There’s no proof of such a campaign, but Schlanger is convinced. “It’s got to be political,” he said, from all the “liberals that are trying to knock it down.”

McLain is an amateur trader — he invested only once before and “lost [his] butt” — and said he hasn’t talked to his family about his investment, saying, “You know how that is.” But he believes the Trump Media deal is a sign he is “supposed to invest,” he said.

“This isn’t just another stock to me. … I feel like it was God Almighty that put it in my lap,” he said. “I’ve just got to hold on and let them do their job. If you go on emotion, you’ll get out of this thing the first time it goes down.”

No doubt Trump is going to make these people rich!

[Zonkerbl]

"I never thought the leopards would eat MY face"

[pancakes3]

The lesson from 2016 is only exponentially more true today. Nothing matters to his base. And counterintuitively, with every additional Trump failure, it only strengthens their resolve.