I DON'T KNOW WHERE THE BOTTOM IS • US presidential elections part VIII

before for the Iraq war

the majority of americans were for the Iraq war, it's hardly a huge gotcha

David Roberts found a great quote that helps explain the modern Republican voter/Trump supporters mindset. It has to do with rolling coal.

But to diesel owners like Corey Blue of Roanoke, Ill., the very efforts to ban coal rolling represent the worst of government overreach and environmental activism. "Your bill will not stop us!" Mr. Blue wrote to Will Guzzardi, a state representative who has proposed a $5,000 fine on anyone who removes or alters emissions equipment.

"Why don’t you go live in Sweden and get the heck out of our country," Mr. Blue wrote. "I will continue to roll coal anytime I feel like and fog your stupid eco-cars."

That many Americans reflexively take the position "I will do whatever I feel like" is hardly a new or shocking revelation. Even if you add that those Americans are above the age of 10.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/opinion/sunday/we-need-somebody-spectacular-views-from-trump-country.html

“Trump’s going to get us killed, probably!” he told me. “But I’ll vote for him anyway over Hillary. If you vote for Hillary you vote for Obama, and he’s made it impossible to ship coal. This place is about dried up. A job at Wendy’s is the only thing left. We may have to move.”

industries die. suck it up.

yeah I don't really shed tears for that many people who've been duped into making their living off something that is literally ruining the planet. wtf there are other skills you can pick up

Making some chemical scrub that would help clean the planet?

how dare you disparage the proud appalachian tradition of coal miners lung and getting murdered by strike busters

My kids are always giving me hell because I won't let them be chimney sweeps.

trump now blaming clinton for north koreas nukes even tho they intensified their program in 2006 because they were worried about a cheney doctrine style invasion

I don't think anyone can definitively prove that Clinton wasn't in Sarajevo in 1914. I'm just sayin'.

it puts relatively moderate grownup Republicans like Ryan

this is a joke, right?

Hey, whoa, hold up: no one jokes about the Paulster.

http://www.adweek.com/prnewser/files/2012/10/time_paulryan_20111205_04021.jpg

he did say 'moderately grown up' which he almost kind of is. I'm struggling to think of very many adult sounding republicans in congress these days; Lugar et all have long since been kicked out

mark kirk?

susan collins? I think that's all

no such thing as a cryingReagan.gif unfortunately

those Ryan gifs will never not be funny. Michael Steele intern pics a close second.

a boogie wit da hoodie
v pooty wit da booty

I kinda like Michael Steele in hindsight.. certainly not as incompetent as Rheience Prhuibus

Steele has been delightful as a commentator; I suspect he regards his chairmanship much like Letterman does his Oscar hosting.

(I liked Letterman's Oscar hosting)

Michael Steele intern pics funnier in my opinion. Ryan actually not funny to me no matter what the occassion.

what if we deserve to collapse because of what we've done (and continue to do) to the environment and how we've normalized blaming everything on (lazy) individuals, not (old money-dominated) society? trump could be the perfect agent of that particular apocalypse!

I'll never understand how those workout shots weren't as damaging to Ryan's career as if someone had leaked a cache of his dickpics. They're definitely like 3x as embarrassing as that hypothetical alternate scenario (assuming he doesn't have a super weird penis).

http://parade.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/12_04_83_page1-0.jpg

What is the story with those shots? I assume they were meant to be humorous....

Christ, folks, by RELATIVELY I meant people who are trying to look like grownups compared to the Trumpian fuck-it-let's-burn-down-the-system crowd. If you watch Ryan lately, he wants to say that Trump is full of shit but (A) he doesn't want to lose the votes of his party's rabid base, and (B) he doesn't want to establish the precedent that he has to develop a response for every bit of shit Trump spews. I love that people are pressing him, of course, and I don't cry any tears for his dilemma, but. His stance is that it's not his job to defend Trump at every turn.

Anyway. For years I have felt vaguely that Ryan's backwards cap and odd vegetable face reminded me of something. Some post-punk or power-pop record cover from my youth, maybe?

I think I've figured it out.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Babylonandon.jpg

industries die. suck it up.

― Οὖτις, Friday, September 9, 2016 3:10 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah I don't really shed tears for that many people who've been duped into making their living off something that is literally ruining the planet. wtf there are other skills you can pick up

― akm, Friday, September 9, 2016 3:15 PM (fifty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

these attitudes are very cool & constructive

it's basically part of my job to destroy the coal industry, so you're welcome

the cool n constructive thing is to give a minimum salary to ppls (welfare...) whose jobs will NOT be returning @ all cf. coal ppls, old-world union jobs etc but in general those people are fucked, yeah.

outic and akm you guys should check out the libertarian party

industries die. suck it up.

― Οὖτις, Friday, September 9, 2016 3:10 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah I don't really shed tears for that many people who've been duped into making their living off something that is literally ruining the planet. wtf there are other skills you can pick up

― akm, Friday, September 9, 2016 3:15 PM (fifty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

these attitudes are very cool & constructive

― esempiu (crüt), Friday, September 9, 2016

This Darwinism surprised me too.

Nixon might've welcomed the idea of a living wage for these men and women.

I am all for gov't re-training programs, welfare/living wages, economic development funding, etc. I am also 100% against mining coal and using it as a source for power and heating.

what about pizza making you do know the best pizzas are made from coal-fired ovens

What about Christmas gifts for bad kids?

but many of these coal country guys claim to not want (and actively vote against) policies that would give them new jobs/skills/financial support so my sympathies are limited in those cases. Don't see why our ecology and economy should be damaged for the sake of people who pine to live in a past that cannot be preserved or perpetuated.

xxp

I would put Paul Ryan in a coal-fired oven.

"what about pizza making you do know the best pizzas are made from coal-fired ovens"

WTF no they aren't. wood fired forever

"outic and akm you guys should check out the libertarian party"

I know what Aleppo is

What about Christmas gifts for bad kids?

^^Speaking of that, I was just in a Spencer's and they a two-way rack of Trump merch a stone's throw away from the dildos.

Don't see why our ecology and economy should be damaged for the sake of people who pine to live in a past that cannot be preserved or perpetuated.

especially a past thats so brutal and an industry that treated them like replaceable parts for as long as it has existed.. that massey energy explosion was in 20 fuckin 10

wood-fired is great but idk coal is the best imo xp

but many of these coal country guys claim to not want (and actively vote against) policies that would give them new jobs/skills/financial support so my sympathies are limited in those cases. Don't see why our ecology and economy should be damaged for the sake of people who pine to live in a past that cannot be preserved or perpetuated.

xxp

― Οὖτις, Friday, September 9, 2016 3:54 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

america doesn't cling to guns and religion america clings to guns and toxic smoke and chemicals and CTE.

here, Morbs.

Let us be clear about one thing at the outset. "Red-baiting" is what happened to Dalton Trumbo, and I.F. Stone, and Paul Robeson, and John Stewart Service. It is not red-baiting to point out that Vladimir Putin made his fame (and a lot of his fortune) by being in the KGB and by being smart enough to bail when history showed its teeth.

It is not red-baiting to point out that Putin is clearly an authoritarian white nationalist who is (at the very least) romancing other authoritarian white nationalists around the globe, including in the Netherlands, Great Britain, and in the upper levels of the campaign of the Republican candidate for President of the United States. He's a kleptocrat and a gangster, and he could be far worse than that. Putin, who learned his trade among the departed masters of tradecraft, is monkeying with the 2016 election, and it is not red-baiting to be concerned about it.

Are we supposed to believe that Donald Trump really went on RT television by accident? That nobody on his staff knew that the Russian government's American network picks up Larry King's podcast? Are we supposed to ignore the fact that El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago—and his trusty sidekick, Pancho Vanilla—have doubled down on their belief that Putin is a better "leader" than the current president of the United States purely on the merits of the argument?

www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a48484/putin-russian-interference-red-baiting/

we're almost at 3,000 posts - time for a new thread

El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago—and his trusty sidekick, Pancho Vanilla

dying.

Doing the math of retraining coal workers to work in say, solar, instead.

Fracking(and several other reasons) means coal ain't coming back, might as well put people to work doing something more productive and developing a better industry.

Pauncho Vanilla, surely