USCE 2023: Please let them shove a camera up your butt

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USCE 2023: Please let them shove a camera up your butt

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

BiggerBoat posted:

Yeah, I mean, this is a picture from a loving Onion article.

For some reason I've found myself lately pondering the 2024 election and I think I'm finally coming around to and facing the stark reality of the fact that, every single time, it's the lesser of two of evils and I'm always voting against someone more than voting for someone. I remember the first time I could vote being fairly excited to vote for Dukakis because, even back then and despite my extreme lack of political knowledge about much of anything, it was gently caress George Bush. Then I watched Dukakis get loving massacred and wondered exactly what it was that was so weird about ME that didn't jive with pretty much what seemed like all of society.

The only presidential candidate in my lifetime that I was genuinely excited for was Barack Obama, for a multitude of reasons, and that's exactly one out of ten. The older I get, the more checked out and apathetic I become; always resigned to voting to STOP something instead of creating anything and now, in 1.5 years, here I'll be again staring at Joe Biden and Donald Trump knowing this is never, ever going to change in my lifetime. I don't know what took me so long for it to really sink in and I'm not sure if it's by design or what but, god drat.

Every 4 years, in the richest and most powerful nation in the world, these are the best and brightest we can offer?

I think that no matter how this shakes out for Trump, he's going to come out of it stronger and with an even more dug in base of support than he had before. The idea of being actually tried with a crime, an whether he's convicted or not, is going to be seen as a positive for the crazies. It's either going to be validation of the Deep State and create more MTG's or, if Trump is found not guilty, looked at as the big, bad ultimate AMerican patriot emerging victorious against the loony libs.

sorry

I know this sounds like misplaced optimism, but sometimes "good enough" goes farther than you think. Think of some of the landmark legislation that's passed in our country's history, like the 1968 Civil Rights Act. Do you think every congressman and senator who voted for it was a vanguard of civil rights with an ironclad sense of moral justice? No! A lot of them were like "My colleagues are voting for it. I might vote for it as well."

# ¿ Apr 16, 2023 01:22

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 17:45

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Gumball Gumption posted:

The civil unrest was a bigger motivator for those not in it for civil rights and the housing act. Both stopping it and passing the anti-riot acts. I guess your argument fits in there since a different government may have cracked down more. I think it's just an ahistorical view though, the forces that actually lead to things like legislature passing are more chaotic than we think.

I think the lesser evil idea is cope because we don't want to talk about how limited the options are and how far the truth is from our national myth.

They are more chaotic than we think. So chaotic that it caused the fracturing of a political party and led the southern states to vote for a proto-Trump candidate (which made him the most successful third party candidate in US history in terms of EV). But I also can't help but think of the more mundane forces as well. "If I vote for this, I'll get a library in my district." "I could leverage a committee seat with this vote." I look at our congress now. For every outspoken Bernie, AOC, Pelosi, and Manchin, you've got a hundred or so people there just voting quietly for one reason or another. I don't think of it like "Vote Blue, No Matter Who", just that I don't think we need 100 Bernies or a 500 AOCs for there to be change. We just need people who could bend just enough to be helpful for one reason or another.

EDIT: We still need the Bernies and AOCs. Otherwise, it just becomes a self-perpetuating status-quo machine.

Gumball Gumption posted:

It's not that the candidates are all evil. We absolutely get ones who try and a lot of Dems are "good enough" for whatever that means. I don't like Joe but it doesn't really matter if you do or not, it's that he's in the finals at all. It's that Joe Biden is supposed to have won a meritocracy. And Trump did before that. And really Obama and Bush. That's our best and brightest? That's the leader of the country where everyone can be president?

You can thank our hosed up antiquated voting system for that. That's something that needs to change ASAP. Even then, that's the best that the people who bothered to vote could choose.

volts5000 fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Apr 16, 2023

# ¿ Apr 16, 2023 02:34

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Fox News is about to have less personality

https://twitter.com/LakotaMan1/status/1649113480161796096?s=20

# ¿ Apr 20, 2023 21:58

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Phelddagrif posted:

This entire "article" is one person guessing about what Fox might do.

Well poo poo. Sorry about that. Saw several tweets and dropped my guard. At least Bongino�s out but isn�t he making bank on Facebook?

# ¿ Apr 20, 2023 22:34

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

I've been seeing that this interview was what made CNN decide to reshuffle Don Lemon.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1650563196795641871?s=20

# ¿ Apr 24, 2023 21:53

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Mooseontheloose posted:

Oh. No. Don't.

Tucker running is going to have the same problem that Ted Cruz has running, his machismo is fake and comes off as fake. Trump for whatever reason came off as a real man to people and didn't have that high nasal nerd pitch that puts people off. There is a certain hallow fakeness that people I imagine detect in Tucker.

Remember, Trump's persona of "accessible rich guy who is rejected by snooty high society" is an image that's been cultivated since the 80's. Let's face it, you wouldn't see Rockefeller or Carnegie doing an ad for Pizza Hut or host a game show. Cruz, Carlson, DeSantis, none of them have that long standing brand. That's why they come across as phonies when they try to act "accessible". It works so well with Trump's rubes because they remember him from being on TV over many many years.

EDIT: To update my point, I wouldn't say it's an act of machismo. It's an act of accessibility. He's not acting strong because he thinks he's strong. He's acting strong because "he's your buddy and he's looking out for you". "Don't worry my friend, I'll kick their rear end for you. I'll protect you. Your enemy is my enemy."

volts5000 fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Apr 25, 2023

# ¿ Apr 25, 2023 15:44

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Edge & Christian posted:

Bill O'Reilly does a daily podcast/radio show and a subscribers-only video show daily, up to and including today, talking about Tucker Carlson's firing. He released two books in 2022 and is accepting pre-orders on a new one for this fall. He didn't retire at all, he just has fallen off of the radar.

I looked at his YouTube channel just out of curiosity. His videos only average 10-14K views. There are reaction channels that do 2-3 times that. Definitely fallen off the radar.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2023 02:20

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

KillHour posted:

I just bought a new high efficiency tankless hot water heater because my old tank started leaking. My mother (who gets all her information from Fox News) is insisting this means Hochul will send her goons to rip it off my wall. No matter how many times I tell her it only applies to new buildings, she keeps saying "no the state is going to force us all to upgrade to electric."

It won't make a difference how many times you tell her. My mom swears that, any minute now, Biden is going to lower the estate tax threshold to $200,000. I've tried numerous times to convince her that it won't happen.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2023 17:43

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Charlz Guybon posted:

Shocking news
https://twitter.com/dfriedman33/status/1652771933224677379

It's easy to be an rear end in a top hat. Anyone can do it. The trick is being a likeable rear end in a top hat. You have to possess some level of charm, charisma, or media savvy to pull it off.

# ¿ May 1, 2023 14:01

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Timby posted:

Rudy Giuliani sued for rape and sexual assault.

That last paragraph is all sorts of -worthy.

And in the filing was this little gem. (yes I know it's Olbermann, but I still checked the source)
https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1658201258656759809?s=20

# ¿ May 15, 2023 23:02

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Willa Rogers posted:

drat, what is it with NY pols & their sex poo poo?

Weiner, Spitz, Cuomo and now Ghouliani.

"When you're a star, they let you do it..."

# ¿ May 15, 2023 23:04

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

FlamingLiberal posted:

In case anyone expected anything less, Musk's big conversation with Ron DeSantis as he launches his Presidential campaign on Twitter Spaces isn't working

It's a complete shitshow.

https://twitter.com/PEWilliams_/status/1661495273439256578?s=20
https://twitter.com/JordanUhl/status/1661496381800890372?s=20
https://twitter.com/JUNlPER/status/1661495354771095553?s=20

Don't worry. This guy got it figured out.
https://twitter.com/Jason/status/1661497360973742080?s=20

# ¿ May 24, 2023 23:28

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

I think that the point of #MeToo was to have sexual crimes be treated with the same presumption as any other crime. If I go to the cops or the media and say "I was robbed" or "I got the poo poo beat out of me", people would take my claim at face value and investigate with due diligence. However, thanks to rape culture and patriarchy, sex crimes like rape/sexual assault/etc. were front loaded with bullshit skepticism. "What were you wearing when it happened?" "Did you have anything to drink?" "Did you give off any vibes that could have led to the assault." And that was if you were lucky enough to be heard by anybody to begin with.

But with ANY crime, a basic level of skepticism is not unreasonable, as long as you take the claim seriously and investigate it. If someone claims robbery or assault, but there's no evidence that a crime happened despite an investigation, don't be angry at other people if they still have lingering skepticism over the claim. And especially don't be angry if the person making the claim starts behaving in a manner that would invite more skepticism.

Tara Reade had others corroborate the misconduct claims, but the assault claims couldn't be corroborated. I know that victims of rape don't always remember things linearly or be unable to recall details until decades later (this is something I've painfully learned very recently). But I do think her claims were given a fair consideration, but they didn't pan out like others, and I'm not going to fault others for exercising doubt given her associations and claims since 2020. The article below is from 2020, but I think it gives a fair assessment of Tara's claims.

Vox: The agonizing story of Tara Reade - I started reporting on Tara Reade�s story a year ago. Here�s what I found, and where I�m stuck.

volts5000 fucked around with this message at 14:17 on May 31, 2023

# ¿ May 31, 2023 14:14

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Tim Alberta, from the Atlantic, spent a year with CNN's CEO Chris Licht. It's a long article, but it perfectly encapsulates the Elon Musk school of thought. Dunning-Kruegering so hard that your idiocy and naivete convince you that you are "above the fray". Your lack of self-reflection and curiosity allow you to fall into every trap right-wing operatives lay out for you. And your unearned self-confidence making you think you know more than seasoned professionals while, at the same time, not realizing you're a puppet for your conservative boss.

The article is behind a paywall and it's too long to post, so I snipped my favorite parts because it highlights just what a moron this guy is. You can still read the article if you open it in a private browser window.

Inside the Meltdown at CNN

The Atlantic posted:

But anxieties grew as the town hall approached. Employees found it strange that none of the CNN anchors who�d interviewed Trump�Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper, Erin Burnett, Wolf Blitzer, Chris Wallace�was invited to play a role in preparing for the event, whether by shaping questions, suggesting best practices, or simply advising Collins. Trump speculated on social media about the town hall turning into a disaster, prompting fears among executives that he might stage a stunt by walking off the set, which in turn prompted fears among staffers about what, exactly, the network would do to keep Trump on the set. In the final days before the event, concerns about the audience makeup spiked as Licht�s description of the crowd��extra Trumpy��wound its way through Slack channels and text-message threads.

All of these concerns, it turned out, were warranted. Preparation was clearly an issue. Collins did an admirable job but was steamrolled by Trump in key moments; her questions, which came almost entirely from the candidate�s ideological left, served to effectively rally the room around him. Not that the room needed rallying: The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Trump, and because CNN wanted an organic environment, it placed few restrictions on engagement. The ensuing rounds of whole-audience applause�I counted at least nine�disrupted Collins�s rhythm as an interviewer. So did the ill-timed bouts of laughter, such as when Trump mocked E. Jean Carroll, and the jeering that accompanied Collins�s mention of the Access Hollywood tape. By the end of the event, it was essentially indistinguishable from a MAGA rally. People throughout the room shouted, �I love you!� during commercial breaks and chanted �Four more years!� when the program ended.

As attendees emptied into the lobby, it felt as though fans were celebrating the home team�s victory over a hated rival. People I talked with lauded Trump and loathed CNN in equal proportion. Christopher Ager, the state party chair, captured their sentiments best: �We knew that CNN had new leadership. It seemed like they had a different tone, like they were going to be fair to Trump, fair to Republicans. But I didn�t see that tonight,� he said. �This was the old CNN.�

Two hundred fifty miles away, on the set in New York, CNN staffers were perplexed. The initial plan had called for Scott Jennings, a Republican who is less than enamored of Trump, to join his familiar grouping of pundits on the postgame show. CNN had flown Jennings to New York for the occasion. However, hours before the town hall, a switch was announced internally: Byron Donalds would be substituted for Jennings (who wound up coming on the air with another panel much later that night). Donalds, a Republican congressman from Florida, is an election denier�someone who, to use Licht�s language, says it�s not raining in the middle of a downpour. It was enough of a problem for some CNN staffers that Trump, the original election denier, was flouting Licht�s oft-repeated standard. But why was Donalds on CNN�s postgame panel?

This wasn�t the only peculiar personnel move. Sarah Matthews, a Trump-administration official who�d turned critical of her former boss, had been slated to appear on the pregame show. But she was abruptly nixed in favor of Hogan Gidley, a former White House staffer who remained devoted to Trump.

Live television is a volatile thing. People and sets and scripts are always being changed for all kinds of reasons. Still, CNN employees had reason to be suspicious. They wondered if some sort of deal had been cut with Trump�s team, promising the placement of approved panelists in exchange for his participation in the town hall. At the least, even absent some official agreement, it seemed obvious that CNN leaders had been contorting the coverage to keep Trump happy�perhaps to prevent him from walking offstage. At one point during the pregame show, when the words sexual abuse appeared on the CNN chyron, one of Licht�s lieutenants phoned the control room. His instructions stunned everyone who overheard them: The chyron needed to come down immediately.

When the town hall ended, two postgame panels kicked off concurrently, giving network executives the flexibility to switch between reporting and analysis. One panel, anchored by Tapper, was a roundtable of journalists picking apart Trump�s lies. The other, led by Cooper, featured partisan pundits�including Donalds�debating one another. According to the mission that Licht had articulated for me, Tapper�s panel should have starred that night. But it didn�t. Licht made the call to elevate Cooper�s panel (a fact first reported by Puck). This decision may or may not have come from the very top: In the days after the town hall, Zaslav told multiple people that Tapper�s Trump-bashing panel reminded him of Zucker�s CNN. Yet even that MAGA-friendly version wasn�t good enough for Donalds. After criticizing the network on-air, the congressman stepped off the set and then, in full view of the crew as well as his fellow panelists, grabbed his phone and started blasting CNN on Twitter.

They gave Donald Trump a stage, with an unprepared host, an audience full of loyal "ride-or-die" fans, replaced on-air commentators with pro-Trump Republican shills, AND THE RIGHT STILL poo poo ALL OVER HIM! Licht and his lackeys gave Trump exactly what he wanted because he stupidly thought that throwing facts at Trump would be both entertaining and informative. It didn't. It showed Trump's audience that he was able to withstand the nasty attacks, vanquish the "fake news" network, be applauded for it, and be validated by the panelists.

And everybody told him exactly what would happen and, surprise surprise, it happened.

The Atlantic posted:

Right on cue, one of Luntz�s students asked Licht about the trap of false equivalency. She seemed less interested in litigating the respective crimes of Fox News and MSNBC�though that played into her question�and more concerned with Licht�s overall attitude toward the news. There is, she reminded him, �one truth� on some fundamental questions facing the country. Trump had lost the 2020 election; Barack Obama had been born in the United States; we know how many deaths have been caused by COVID.

Licht pounced. �Wait a second. We don�t know how many deaths there were from COVID,� he said.

She frowned at him.

�No, really, we don�t,� Licht said. As the son of a doctor, he believed there were �legitimate conversations� to be had about the death toll attached to COVID-19. Perhaps some patients had been admitted to hospitals with life-threatening illnesses before the pandemic began, then died with a positive diagnosis, Licht postulated. �Where we run into trouble is when you say, �No. Come on. We�re not even having that conversation,�� he told the students. �That goes to trust as much as anything else. If you�re solid on your facts, then you should be able to entertain that discussion.�

Licht conceded that mollifying the right with a both-sides approach was �the biggest concern in my own organization.� But he wasn�t backing down. It had been unfair, he said, to paint everyone who had questions about the accuracy of death counts as �COVID deniers.� It was dishonest to frame the final pandemic-era bailout as �You�re either for this rescue bill, or you hate poor people.� He gave them his favorite analogy: We can debate whether we like rain or we don�t like rain, as long as we acknowledge when it�s raining outside.

The dumbass doesn't realize that deciding which truths deserve questions and which don't is already picking sides! He's so dumb that he doesn't know that entertaining questions on certain truths is the very definition of "both-sides" journalism.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2023 02:04

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Chris out.

https://twitter.com/nhannahjones/status/1666427724263567361?s=20

The New York Times posted:

Chris Licht, the former television producer who oversaw a brief and chaotic tenure as the chairman of CNN, is out at the network, according to a person briefed on the decision.

Mr. Licht�s 13-month run at CNN was marked by one controversy after another, culminating in his exit earlier this week. He got off to a bumpy start even before he had officially started when he oversaw the shuttering of the pricey CNN+ streaming service at the request of its network�s new owners, who were skeptical about a stand-alone digital product. The cuts resulted in scores of layoffs.

Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN�s parent company, did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Licht�s departure represents a dramatic fall not long after he departed as an executive producer of Stephen Colbert�s top-rated late night show and vowed to bring a middle-of-the-road balance to CNN�s journalism. When Mr. Licht took the job, he told friends it was a �calling.�

Puck earlier reported that Mr. Licht was leaving CNN.

This is a developing story. Check back for more updates.

Wonder who the replacement is.

EDIT: drat. Beaten.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2023 14:08

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1666955805893984256?s=20

# ¿ Jun 9, 2023 01:01

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Captain_Maclaine posted:

Late Gen-X here, and this was absolutely my experience as well. In school I got called queer and/or fag at least once virtually every single day from about sixth grade until graduating high school, as it was the main vector for abuse (other than physical, of which there was a non-trivial amount as well) of any and all weird kids who didn't fit expectations or made the evil rednecks I grew up with feel inadequate by doing well in class. I can't imagine how much worse it was for the actually gay kids, given I'm straight and it was a nightmare.

Same here. Show any bit of weirdness or difference and they'll pounce on you.

Nameless Pete posted:

It's one of those where using the definite article makes it way more offensive. "John is queer" versus "John is a queer."

I always use "queer" when talking about academics or policy. I never use it when referring to groups or individuals.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2023 16:06

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Captain_Maclaine posted:

And nobody would ever help. Sure, if it was too blatant a teacher might intervene and they'd get detention or even suspended but like they loving cared; they got those all the time anyway, wasn't any kind of deterrent.

In my experience, the only thing that got them to stop was a roundhouse kick to the guy's kidneys followed by a complete withdrawal from social interaction forever stunting my already stunted social development.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2023 16:20

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Captain_Maclaine posted:

In mine, fighting back bought you a little breathing space, then you got hauled in for fighting and sanctimoniously lectured about "how it takes two to tango" and other such boomer bullshit.

drat! Trauma memory unlocked.

aw frig aw dang it posted:

shocked to read that chronic D&D posters got stuffed in a garbage can & called names

Getting suckerpunched in the middle school lobby in front of god and everybody, to then see the guy get suspended for the rest of the school year (which totaled to one day) really informed my politics.

volts5000 fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Jun 14, 2023

# ¿ Jun 14, 2023 19:57

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

the_steve posted:

Yeah, DeSantis never stood a chance against Trump.

Trump, whether you like it or not, has Charisma. Boorish and oafish, sure, but he knows how to use it. And he knows how to work a crowd.
Plus he has decades, drat near generations, of Neutral-to-Positive name recognition from before he ever set his sights on politics.
And his political career, no matter how objectively bad it is/was, makes his zealots very happy and very vocal and very willing to mobilize on his behalf.

He's the Ronald Reagan of a new generation.

I just got back from Pigeon Forge, TN. There were THREE Trump stores selling "patriotic" merch. These weren't people on a street corner in a tent. These were actual stores in strip centers off of the main drag. Nobody ain't doing that kind of poo poo for DeSantis.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2023 17:18

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Mooseontheloose posted:

We go through this a lot in D&D. Conservative voters and even some moderates will vote against a program because it will help ~~a black person~~ someone lazy and doesn't want to work, even if they see a direct benefit or a larger benefit from.

Don't forget Lee Atwater's dogwhistling strategy is still alive and well. Welfare queens are still a myth still going strong, especially in Boomers.

Nash posted:

Here in the wilderness of rural Illinois the big issues that drive GOP voters are

1. Guns
2. Abortion
3. Racism

I live in a pretty poor rural area. The kids at my school get free lunch because of the high poverty rate in the district. When talking about government aid they say that �city people� are just mooching off hard working Americans. I point out the high rate of government assistance even within the school �oh, but people around here deserve it�

The dogwhistling gives people who don't think they're racist the wiggle room to perform that type of mental gymnastics.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2023 14:00

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

So I came across this on conservative Facebook. Basically, it's "Hunter Biden was wired $250,000 from China and Hunter used his dad's address as the beneficiary" but in conservative-speak, it's "China gave Joe Biden $250,000!!!! OMG!!!".

House Oversight Republicans say new bank subpoena shows Hunter Biden listed father�s Wilmington house in wires with China

CNN posted:

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee subpoenaed a bank for Hunter Biden�s records and obtained two wire transfers from Chinese nationals to Hunter Biden in 2019 that listed President Joe Biden�s Wilmington, Delaware, home as the beneficiary address, the panel announced Tuesday.

The subpoena, which was quietly issued on Monday, is the first time the committee issued a subpoena to a bank for Hunter Biden�s records specifically, a source told CNN.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer said after the announcement that the subpoena was �very specific� and that these two wire transfers are the first examples the panel has found of Hunter Biden receiving money directly and not through a shell company.

�This went directly to Hunter Biden and the address listed was Joe Biden�s,� Comer told reporters.

The six subpoenas the committee issued to banks up to this point were for records of Hunter Biden�s business associates. The committee still plans to issue subpoenas to Hunter and James Biden, the president�s brother, for their personal and business records, according to the source.

The wires allegedly were addressed to Hunter Biden when his father was not in office and do not prove that Joe Biden received any of the money. CNN previously reported Hunter Biden used the Wilmington address on his driver�s license and the home was the site of a family intervention over his drug addiction in 2019.

Comer told CNN his panel is trying to put together a timeline on where Hunter Biden was living around this time.

According to the committee, the wires allegedly showed that Hunter Biden received a $10,000 wire from Wang Xin on July 26, 2019. Separately, on August 2, 2019, Hunter Biden allegedly received a $250,000 wire from Jonathan Li and Tan Ling. Both of the wires listed Joe Biden�s home in Wilmington, Delaware, as the beneficiary address. The committee did not provide the bank wires in their announcement on Tuesday.

Hunter Biden�s attorney Abbe Lowell said the new allegation from House Republicans �evaporates in thin air the moment facts come out.� Lowell said that in 2017, Hunter Biden made a �substantial investment� in Bohai Harvest Rosemont Partners, where Li is CEO. In 2019, the year of the wire transfers, Lowell said Hunter Biden was borrowing the funds using his equity as security, and the reason the wires went to the Wilmington address was because it was Hunter Biden�s only permanent address at the time.

�This was a documented loan (not a distribution or pay-out) that was wired from a private individual to his new bank account which listed the address on his driver�s license, his parents� address, because it was his only permanent address at the time,� Lowell said in a statement provided to CNN. �We expect more occasions where the Republican chairs twist the truth to mislead people to promote their fantasy political agenda.�

White House spokesperson for Oversight and Investigations Ian Sams said in a statement to CNN: �Extreme House Republicans are pushing out half-baked innuendo and conspiracy theories that yet again show no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, just more discredited personal attacks on him and his family, in a sad effort to distract from their chaotic inability to govern that is leading us to the brink of a dangerous government shutdown.�

House Republicans have yet to uncover any specific evidence that Joe Biden financially benefited from his son�s business dealings and have shifted to accusing the president of lying and corruption.

Comer said in a statement to CNN: �Joe Biden�s abuse of public office for his family�s financial gain threatens our national security. What did the Bidens do with this money from Beijing?�

Hunter Biden�s business former associate Devon Archer testified to Congress earlier this year that Hunter Biden placed his father on speaker phone in front of Li, but that business was not discussed.

�I think you have to understand that there was no business conversation about a cap table or a fee or anything like that. It was, you know, just general niceties and, you know, conversation in general, you know, about the geography, about the weather, whatever it may be,� Archer testified.

Archer also said then-Vice President Joe Biden had a handshake with Li and later wrote a college recommendation for Li�s daughter to go to Georgetown, but she didn�t get in.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2023 17:36

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Kalli posted:

quote:
�Look, we�re not silly�we know what Trump has done to our communities,� says Amer Zahr, the president of the Dearborn-based New Generation for Palestine. But when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he continues, �The policies are basically the same. Except when Trump does it, you get some pushback from the Democratic Party.�

Zahr, who was a national surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2020, eventually supported Biden to keep Trump from winning another term.

�If Trump were president and all of this was going on right now, we would probably get a lot more Democratic politicians at our rallies,� Zahr says. �But Biden doing it means that we don�t.�

As others see it, though, the question of whether Trump would be better or worse right now is immaterial. �Joe Biden is president right now and the genocide is happening right now�every other hypothetical is of no concern to me,� says Maysoon Zayid, a Palestinian-American comedian, disability advocate, and longtime Democratic Party activist who campaigned for Biden in 2020. When asked whether there was anything Biden could do to win back her support, she was unwavering. �There�s absolutely nothing that man could do. I mean, my God, what could ever bring back those kids? Nothing.�

Maybe I'm missing something here, but does impotent, hollow, meaningless harumph-ing make any difference in the grand scheme of things if the immediate outcome is the same?

# ¿ Oct 31, 2023 21:20

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

FlamingLiberal posted:

Yeah I guess at some point we got rid of basic computer training? I�m an older millennial so I was like 12/13 or so when the Internet was really accessible

Well, think about it like cars. Basic car maintenance used to be accessible. They'd even teach mechanic classes in high school. Now, thanks to everything in the car being connected to a computer, most car maintenance procedures and repairs have to be done by the dealer or someone "certified".

# ¿ Nov 29, 2023 20:16

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

https://x.com/Acyn/status/1730049499840532901?s=20

Oh absolutely! I encourage this! Here's some choice quotes!
The 10 most ghoulish quotes of Henry Kissinger's gruesome career

# ¿ Nov 30, 2023 03:34

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

There's a subset of mid-sized cities that are "undervalued" in terms of housing. Assuming we are excluding places that are just "cheap."

- Detroit
- Pittsburgh
- Philadelphia
- Louisville
- Lexington
- Kansas City
- Omaha
- Baltimore
- Augusta, Georgia
- Indianapolis
- Minneapolis
- Las Vegas
- St. Louis
- Wilmington, Delaware
- Virginia Beach
- Little Rock
- Raleigh
- Oklahoma City
- Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Des Moines
- Boise
- Milwaukee
- Springfield, Illinois
- Buffalo
- Memphis
- Cleveland
- Mesa
- Henderson, Nevada
- Columbus, Ohio
- Fayetteville, North Carolina

There's probably lots of reasons you may or may not want to live in those places, but according to the analysis from wallethub, those are the large/mid-sized cities that are relatively undervalued for housing.

Chicago is the major metro area that is the most undervalued in terms of housing.

Raleigh undervalued? Jesus Christ. Just living in the beltline means you can tack on 15% to the asking price. There was one house that went for 260K last year and it got swarmed with potential buyers. Nothing here is under 300K. Is the housing market in other cities THAT jacked up?

A North Carolina house was swarmed with interested shoppers just hours after hitting the market for $260,000

# ¿ Jan 11, 2024 22:57

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

theCalamity posted:

It wasn't directed at Biden, but there was that lady who lost over 60 of her family members since the start of the war and confronted Senator Warren about a ceasefire. I doubt saying that the other guy is worse would do anything to persuade people who experienced this war so viscerally. If it were me, I'd resent them for it.

Yeah, but I've got friends who are trans or have trans kids. I also know people who have family in Ukraine. Am I not allowed to get upset? Especially when their decision ultimately changes nothing for them but everything for others? Like, why does the resentment only work one way?

EDIT: Sorry if this is going into electoralism derail again. Just stressed.

Byzantine posted:

My 'favorite' political trend is watching the line for "they'll understand when they're older/drat youths being youths not understanding the Real World" creeping upwards from 25 in 2012 to 30 in 2016 to 35 in 2020 and now tapping 40. It's weird, like something happened in the 80s that put The American Dream out of reach and the boomers keep expecting a turn that never materializes.

I've heard that line my entire life as well.

volts5000 fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Jan 23, 2024

# ¿ Jan 23, 2024 18:24

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Lager posted:

I mean when he was campaigning I was convinced there would be one, and it kills me a little to be cheering for a billionaire so hard but he kinda loving rules.

Well, we keep saying "Why are billionaires always spending money on vanity poo poo like big penis rockets? Why can't they actually spend that money for good?" I guess Pritzker decided to use it to run for office and be decent.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2024 02:10

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

koolkal posted:

I blame the Internet

I've had this theory and I know it sounds like "old man yelling at clouds", but I think it has a lot to do with user-learning algorithms in social media. We already see what Facebook did to old people, driving them down rabbit holes with people of the same age/hobbies/values/etc. Why should Gen Z be immune to the effects? There's no shortage of TikToks telling kids that everything's broken, nobody cares, there's nothing you can do, the powerful are untouchable, nothing's getting better, and it just keeps going and going. Maybe young women are down different rabbit holes than men (also, I assume they're talking about cis men and women. I didn't see anything trans Gen Z and if they're going against or with their respective trend).

# ¿ Jan 26, 2024 17:15

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Old people of both genders tended to be influenced about equally by social media and it was a (relatively) small impact on their overall political alignment. It was like a ~15% change towards more conservative views among the 65+ crowd, which is a huge amount of raw people, but not these 70% swings we are seeing in the under 30 crowd.

I'm also fairly sure that young women consume more social media than young men.

It could definitely be that they are looking at very different content (but, that means men are either seeking it out or being uniquely silo'd into it at huge levels), but it would have to be impacting nearly every young person in very similar ways for it to be entirely social media.

Why is the same source also turning young women much more liberal and young men much more conservative?

It also seems to be pervasive across language, geographic, and class barriers. Are 40% of the men in China and Germany watching the same Andrew Tate videos?

I think the internet/social media is probably a very large player, but it can't be just that.

Maybe Facebook's algorithm or engagement methods is less efficient than TikTok's. And I don't mean to single out TikTok. It's just the newest thing.

It might be that the silos Gen Z men and women are being funneled into are THAT unique and divergent. The most compelling thing to me is that it's on a global scale and happening within the same span of time.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2024 17:59

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Main Paineframe posted:

I'm amazed that this is still not going to blow back on Obama literally at all, because the investigation started in 2019 and it turns out the White House Medical Unit only keeps records for two years before shredding them.

The thing about that stuff is that it mostly just reinforces things that were already there. In the US, the gap started to appear long before social media became a thing. And while the gap dramatically widens pretty much everywhere right around the early 2010s, that lines up with the general global upsurge of conservatism around that time period anyway.

In the US, the political gender gap dates back to the 80s. Or, to put it another way, it dates back to a major political realignment that completely changed the political landscape of the entire US. Moreover, one of the major factors in that realignment was a public backlash against the civil rights advances and proposals of the 60s and 70s. It's not hard to see how the impact of that might shift different demographics in different directions.

That would explain why conservatism has been hyperfocused on traditional masculinity in the last so many years, or am I putting the cart before the horse? I know there's always been an appeal to "traditional values" and "nuclear family" in conservatism, but it was never at the "Tucker Carlson promotes ball tanning for virility" level.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2024 18:44

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

B B posted:

FYI, the mayor of Dearborn addressed this very argument when Genocide Joe himself last made it:

https://twitter.com/AHammoudMI/status/1748769890696089948

I feel like point number two is missing the point of Trump's Muslim ban. Trump's ban didn't give a poo poo about what religion you practiced. He cared about where you came from. So it didn't matter if you, as an Arab-American, practiced Christianity or Islam. As far as he was concerned, if you came from an Arab country, you were not welcome here. Why does it seem like people are sugar-coating the horrible poo poo Trump did while he was president?

# ¿ Jan 26, 2024 22:54

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Zwabu posted:

This timeline would ALMOST be worth it to witness some kind of online jihad between MAGAts and Swifties.

Almost.

Not if it includes poo poo like this. The story broke about an hour ago. A guy in Pennsylvania is waging a war on the federal government, posted a manifesto on YouTube, and presented his father�s severed head wrapped in plastic as the first federal employee killed in his war. YouTube had it up for six hours before it came down. I saw it. It is hosed up beyond belief.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13026501/Man-beheads-federal-employee-father-posts-video-decapitated-head-YouTube.html

# ¿ Jan 31, 2024 05:32

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 17:45

volts5000: Apr 7, 2009; Can't post for 3 days!

Google Jeb Bush posted:

daily mail are worthless assholes but the story seems to be accurate (and there is no way I am going to seek out the video if there's a copy still up)

Yeah, don�t watch it. Also, The Daily Mail was the only outlet I recognized that had the story.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2024 05:42

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