I’d argue it’s more tearing itself apart, but yes. I do not at this point consider our actions on a national level to be the result so much of deliberation as simple reaction to lack of health in our democracy. If before we were a shambling giant, then now we’re one twitching and trembling out of control.
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This is from yesterday, but this is a rather amusing little bit :
Well, this happened just as I was going to bed. Are we sure it still isn’t friday? Regardless though, night.
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Oh he’ll be fine.
Vaguely politically related - anyone else feel like they’ll work until they die unless something changes?
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Do you mean in the current political climate? Or do you mean with the increasing wealth disparity across the planet? Or something else? Or yes to all?
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"Yes"is a pretty good round up.
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Slow-motion Balkanization of the US, I’m afraid.
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I’m not sure I credit it with even that level of cohesion, but that would be one weird map if nothing else.
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If I was a college athlete who was praised for my (our) accomplishments and was invited to the White House, I would not care who the President was or the food that was served. I’m pretty sure none of those athletes mind either.
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There was a clip where one of the athletes said “I thought it was a joke” but who knows what he actually meant by that. I think it’s safe to say some of them were into it and others weren’t.
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I agree the whole thing has blown out of proportion but you can’t say Trump is not the kind of person to inflate things.
Personally it wouldn’t give me a good impression of my host. You invite people to celebrate their accomplishment.The least you can do is make a little effort on the menu. For many (most) of them it’s a once of a lifetime opportunity. Try to make it memorable. It’s called respect.
I get it he’s not a lobster and foie gras type of guy. You want to serve them burger, fine. Have your staff prepare the the best and biggest burgers north of Texas! With piles of “freedom fries”. A sculpture of deep fried onions. Something.
We all had take out fast food and a 45 minutes old burger is not exactly the best.
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The last time I’ve had fast food (like from a chain) was probably 20 years ago ; the last time I ate McDonalds was 1988. Needless to say despite the fact that I find the whole thing distasteful (puns ftw!) I frankly think it’s a massive diversion from more important idiocy.
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Well put. It’s been a crazy couple days of news lately, there are multiple major stories going on even if you’re waiting on the Cohen testimony. Honestly, I’m worried to say it, but we may be witnessing the beginning of the end finally.
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Regrettably my worry was justified. Admittedly, we might still hear something interesting when Cohen testifies, but for now we’re still waiting on Mueller.
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Initially I found the whole situation with Huawei interesting. I’m feeling a lot more like ■■■■ you China at the moment.
Using all kinds of bullying tactics when Canada legally arrested their chief financial officer on behalf of the US. And now threatening “repercussions” if Canada goes ahead and bans Huawei from the 5G network (which other countries have already done).
Then make absurd statements like the reason we’re doing what we’re doing is because we’re racist, or deny that the Chinese government has any influence on private business or vice versa.
Huawei has long insisted it is not a state-controlled company and denies engaging in intelligence work for the Chinese government. However, Chinese law dictates that companies must “support, co-operate with and collaborate in national intelligence work.”
If you think Russian influence in US politics is “a bad thing”, look left.
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And that’s before you get into costs of IP theft. US totals are well into the trillions at this point. While we may be currently preoccupied with Putin, the honest truth is he rules an economically unstable nation with only a regional military. If we’re speaking in terms of potential threat to world peace China ranks much higher, but at present has incentives to behave with a certain amount of decorum.
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About that fast food feast, I can’t state enough that it just rubs me the wrong way. Forget the diet thing I was being sarcastic about, his shutdown is putting federal workers at risk of going hungry – bragging about throwing a feast you supposedly paid for at a time like this is just in bad taste.
Also, I noticed when I was looking at the list of affected agencies two weeks ago…:
…that the Department of Homeland Security wasn’t the only one affected – so was the Department of Justice, which the FBI falls under. It almost didn’t surprise me when this came up last week:
Another concern, this:
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I’d expect a veto override well before we reach even half a year, yes though the shutdown affects the DHS and DoJ. If it helps, the SCO (Mueller) is funded through a different appropriation process and therefore unaffected by this mess.
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Read an opinion piece in the Guardian the other day pointing out that a prolonged shutdown might just be what Republican politicians want. If your ideology says that federal government should be small, causing a massive attrition in federal employees through a prolonged furlough might be a way to achieve that without having to get legislation past those pesky Democrats. I’m not sure I totally buy that, but I can see some within various flavours of R being quite happy about it. The only counter argument is that the more people have to manage without the services provided by the federal government, perhaps the more they’ll realise that some of them are actually highly desirable (especially if the alternative is paying the private sector $$$$$$ for the same thing.)
Shutting down the government is (ironically) horribly expensive. While I wouldn’t put it past Trump, for the most part it’s not a popular option.
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