US Politics April: A Series of Fantastically Bad Ideas

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > US Politics April: A Series of Fantastically Bad Ideas

Wolfsheim: Dec 23, 2003; "Ah," Ratz had said, at last, "the artiste."

McDonald's is the go-to example of broken conservative thought.

Go to college so you don't work at McDonald's -> I went to college and there are no jobs -> What are you, too good for McDonald's? -> Okay, now I work at McDonald's and don't make enough money for food and shelter -> Why are you working at McDonald's, that jobs for teenagers! -> Start Over

# ¿ Apr 3, 2014 04:01

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 20:04

Wolfsheim: Dec 23, 2003; "Ah," Ratz had said, at last, "the artiste."

HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:

Jesus, 9k more comments since I last looked at that. If you look he has a more recent post where he promises a full repeal of Obamacare, despite all of those people telling him they like it.

Come on, it's not as if Ted Cruz is unaware that the ACA will help people (not as much as it could, single-payer, can of worms, etc etc). He's just ideologically opposed to it because it helps give people a "privilege" they didn't "earn."

# ¿ Apr 5, 2014 17:58

Wolfsheim: Dec 23, 2003; "Ah," Ratz had said, at last, "the artiste."

Phone posted:

Forgive my ignorance, but as long as this thread is on a nostalgia kick (I didn't really start reading D&D until like late 2011 so I missed all the LF stuff) what does this gif mean? I've always wondered if I was missing an obvious reference or there was some in-joke behind it.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2014 21:49

Wolfsheim: Dec 23, 2003; "Ah," Ratz had said, at last, "the artiste."

ColoradoCleric posted:

That's grover from sesame street.

Goddamnit

# ¿ Apr 12, 2014 22:02

Wolfsheim: Dec 23, 2003; "Ah," Ratz had said, at last, "the artiste."

All this Bush talk brings me back to how completely, desperately hosed the country was by the end of 2008, and I got to thinking, crash aside (because who can predict a bubble, right?) what exactly was the endgame for Iraq? Like, in a perfect Republican world where everything didn't go to poo poo, how was that supposed to play out? And same question for Afghanistan, I guess.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2014 08:13

Wolfsheim: Dec 23, 2003; "Ah," Ratz had said, at last, "the artiste."

ToxicSlurpee posted:

I don't think they had any sort of plan beyond "acquire money and prestige for our buddies." Part of the reason it became such a disaster is because there just kind of wasn't any sort of solid plan and Bush and pals were having none of it when top-ranking strategists told them their ideas were dumb. One of the top generals literally got fired when he said to Bush that, to achieve anything they wanted to (whatever the gently caress that was) they needed to at least double the troops that were over there. Bush's attitude was along the lines of "well you need to think positively and saying we might fail if we do not do a thing is not thinking positively." Yeah, Bush was literally arguing that you could just positively think a war to victory. That's part of why people think he's a drooling idiot.

Afghanistan turned into a complete disaster very quickly with no plan other than "I don't know send some dudes over and have them go look for Osama or something" after more or less declaring war on the world. Saddam was picked up rather quickly and nobody found a single WMD to dismantle (because they didn't exist) so everybody was standing around holding their dicks going "OK, now what?"

Really, there was some nebulous "end terrorism" goals set but it was so non-specific it was impossible to plan around. Meanwhile the Bush policies toward the wars ended up just making the problems worse. It was like putting out fires with kerosene.

It reflected his policies on literally everything else, really. His attitude was "I think this will work so it will work. I'll just do like whatever, if you criticize it you're a dummy and need to think more positively. Anything bad that happens due to my policy isn't my fault because I think positive." That line of magical thinking doesn't make somebody sound like a pillar of intellectualism. It's also part of why people think he's an idiot. That attitude actually makes it impossible to learn or improve.

This will definitely get lost in Bundy-chat (holy poo poo, he actually used the phrase 'picking cotton') but thank you for the detailed answer on this. It's even more depressing than I originally thought, and I can't help but wonder how it's going to be whitewashed in textbooks twenty years from now.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2014 17:40

Wolfsheim: Dec 23, 2003; "Ah," Ratz had said, at last, "the artiste."

I'm glad Bundy is making the right look as terrible as it is, but a part of me just wants events to fast forward to the point where the feds have seized his assets.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2014 17:18

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 20:04

Wolfsheim: Dec 23, 2003; "Ah," Ratz had said, at last, "the artiste."

Watching the Correspondents' Dinner, I liked Obama's little involuntary snicker after he slammed Fox News. Probably the highlight for me.

# ¿ May 4, 2014 19:38

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