The Cloak Room is a terrible place.

[Celery Man 21076]

Yeah, I saw where you were getting that from, it just seemed like you pulled out one line from a whole bunch of lines about the issue you raised and said "so you think this? interesting". To me, yeah, potential blackmail on a family member of a presidential candidate is a whole story. If you add a bunch of context around that (election is over, this exact thing was hashed out in depth before/during/after the election, I can literally pull up a photograph of hunter biden's dick next to a prositute onto this very screen right now if I chose to do that, there doesn't seem to be anything new about this story apart from a voice recording of Hunter Biden saying how bad it is?) it makes sense to say "who cares". It seems obvious to me that that is what Twice Horn is saying here, I'm not sure if that is obvious to you and you are not engaging honestly or if I'm reading Twice's comments differently than you are.

[Captainant 28387]

1 hour ago, Hate said:

I’ve already pointed out a few. Now, because you are a hypocrite you will hide behind “specifics” and “examples” while completely dismissing common sense. It’s what you do.

 

25 minutes ago, Hate said:

The fact that the son of a former US Senator, former Vice Potus, and then active Presidential candidate admitted to being blackmailed during the campaign isn't interesting?  Interesting. 

So just to be clear - you're accusing me of being a hypocrite for not thinking that the story of biden's son being blackmailed was a BOMBSHELL that deserved as much or more attention than the variety of real current issues? Because that's the only specific issue you've brought up here. I just want to be fair to you and understand your beef - thanks in advance  

[TwiceHorn 31987]

52 minutes ago, Hate said:

The fact that the son of a former US Senator, former Vice Potus, and then active Presidential candidate admitted to being blackmailed during the campaign isn't interesting?  Interesting. 

I don't see where he admitted being blackmailed?  As far as I can see, drug addled dildo lost another porntop and feared being blackmailed and recorded himself saying so to a hooker.

Well, that seems to be kind of a done deal.  Not blackmail, as far as I am aware, but embarrassing revelations come to light.

Just another Hunter breaking out in fuckups.  Hunter not only isn't involved formally or informally in the Biden Administration, he doesn't take to youtube or twitter to make inflammatory political posts.  Cf. Donald Jr.

Just another day in the life of a drug and sex-addicted fuckup.

[Fondren & Main 6871]

I think Clay Jenkins is an authoritarian dickhead.  I hope Dallas defies him.

[elfenix 34658]

edit: goddamnit thought i was in the CR after coming back from lunch with this thread open.  can y'all CR in CR please?

Edited August 12, 2021 by elfenix

[atomheartbevo 90546]

4 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

DonkeyCigars hangs in there, and, to be fair, he does get some unfair accusations.  But he engages and probably learns something.

I may disagree with him, but he defends his positions and try to make a case for them unlike a lot of drive-by types.

I even agree with him, and in years past, would have agreed with him a lot more.

[atomheartbevo 90546]

3 hours ago, Hate said:

In no way am I suggesting that this Hunter story take precedence over the real issues of the day. But if the story was about “Hunter Trump” instead

Hunter Biden is not a close advisor to his dad, doesn't hit up the campaign trails and talk shows to act directly as his dad's proxy, does not post on twitter as his dad's proxy, and will not be running for future political office, but the Trump boys do all of that.

Plus, the Trump boys (and girl!) were actively wheeling and dealing with various foreign countries/companies while their dad was President, even though they had pledged they wouldn't do that, and Don Jr. is looking at political office.

I'm surprised that you are not surprised that Hunter simply doesn't move the needle much.

A lot of us here are older than most internet posters, plenty of us used to be a lot more conservative but have mellowed out, and we are college educated.  That does have an impact, especially the age part.

Edited August 12, 2021 by atomheartbevo

[atomheartbevo 90546]

4 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

There are a goodly number of people that populated CR pre-Trump, when it "leaned" right that just can't do it anymore.  People like me that rarely voted for democrats that cannot stomach what Trump turned the GOP into.

I had already turned away from the GOP long before Trump came into the picture, but if you go back and look at Shaggy and at other certain forums before that, plenty of the Surly CR regulars that fall into the more liberal category were pretty conservative before Trump.

Trump and his clan did, and still do stuff that we would not have tolerated in Republican Presidents in the past (and damn sure wouldn't have with Democrats), but what Trump and Co. did for 4+ years became normalized, and that is a huge issue.

Like I said to @Hate, we at Surly are older - a lot of us were born in the '70s, (both in the 1970s and one or two in the 1870s), and we are college educated, and we have just come through four years of a lot of bullshit coming out of the White House.  

Being that Surly is a sports forum first and foremost, we are very well-versed in cutting through the bullshit spewed by coaches, officials, ADs, the media (fucking you Curt Bohls) etc., and when we hear it come from the President on a near-daily basis, some of us snap a bit, and some of us who might still vote (R) have no desire to defend it.

So yes, it's no surprise it became one-sided. Especially when the other side is handily embraced by TexAgs to the point it's almost parody.

It's not helped that our Governor, a Longhorn no less, rather than being guided through a pandemic by the critical thinking skills he should have acquired here and by highly-respected UT medical officials, but is instead making shitty decisions because he's scared shitless of a few tens of thousands of people who are busy guzzling fucking horse paste, who might vote against him in March.

[atomheartbevo 90546]

If I had to sum up the anger in CR these days, I'd say this:

Our governor, a UT grad, should be taking advice from the highly-respected medical folks who work and teach at UT and its various highly-respected medical schools.

Instead, he's pandering to the horse paste guzzling idiots at TexAgs.

[DonkeyCigars 143]

6 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

No, the real problem is that hardly anyone comes into CR that isn't doing a driveby or trolling from "the right."

DonkeyCigars hangs in there, and, to be fair, he does get some unfair accusations.  But he engages and probably learns something.

For all the crying about "liberal media," it is fucking hilarious how those who cling to what passes for current conservatism are informed by the monolithic "talking points" of the right.  

Yea, the dismissal as a troll thing is as Gabriel says, a frustrated lashing out.

That said, I'm sure I've been guilty of being petty and striking at nerves or going below belts with folks I don't like-- I am a human-- and that doesn't necessarily help. But I also think it's amusing that folks can't fathom that I am only me and have never been anyone else-- TahoeHorn, Donuts, or Chrispy or anyone else. I think it comforts them to think that. 

And the truth is I'll be gone soon. I'm down to 60 points and I am not going to materially change my stances or behaviors or rhetoric-- and I do truly enjoy the conversations and like you suggest, I do learn (and by learning I have changed some thinking, so maybe I'm wrong about the first part of this sentence).

Quote

This is a truism, but as such it's so easily forgotten. In real life, to get people to cooperate en masse to commit atrocities you have to do some work of dehumanization. On the internet, we are all always already dehumanized.

 

Edited August 12, 2021 by DonkeyCigars

[DDD Dad 14571]

 

OK Chrispy.

[babysdaddy 2731]

I read the cloak room to find out what the very angry online left is thinking and discussing.  There are a few moderates in there but for the most part the titles of all the threads tell the story of what you'll be reading.  

[TwiceHorn 31987]

On 8/12/2021 at 12:24 PM, Celery Man said:

Yeah, I saw where you were getting that from, it just seemed like you pulled out one line from a whole bunch of lines about the issue you raised and said "so you think this? interesting". To me, yeah, potential blackmail on a family member of a presidential candidate is a whole story. If you add a bunch of context around that (election is over, this exact thing was hashed out in depth before/during/after the election, I can literally pull up a photograph of hunter biden's dick next to a prositute onto this very screen right now if I chose to do that, there doesn't seem to be anything new about this story apart from a voice recording of Hunter Biden saying how bad it is?) it makes sense to say "who cares". It seems obvious to me that that is what Twice Horn is saying here, I'm not sure if that is obvious to you and you are not engaging honestly or if I'm reading Twice's comments differently than you are.

This is what I meant.  Near as I can tell from the story, this happened in 2018 so it's just more of the same old Hunter shit.

The potential for blackmail seems to be rather attenuated when all this shit is pretty much out in the open, as you note, and has been since before the election.

Now, you can go on to say God knows what other compromising shit is out there on Hunter and how that might affect his Dad as POTUS.  That might be fair, maybe.

Buuuuut, then you have to consider that Donald Trump paid actual greenmail, or pre-blackmail to at least a couple of women, pretty much proven up as tight as you could want.  And nobody seemed to give a shit about that, either the morality and character of the man himself, or the other potential blackmail material or "kompromat" out there.  Remember when people scoffed at Hugo and kompromat?  I 'member.

[DDD Dad 14571]

I read the cloak room to find out what the very angry online left is thinking and discussing.  There are a few moderates in there but for the most part the titles of all the threads tell the story of what you'll be reading.  

I’m not angry you’re angry.

[babysdaddy 2731]

I’m not angry you’re angry.

Lol, you are not driving those conversations my friend

[Guest]

Buncha South Pole elves up in here...

[MaybeACoordinator 8350]

On 8/6/2021 at 3:23 PM, Hefeweizen said:

This

Quote

one has more specific questions

This one has more specific questions

Background:

Spoiler

Political life was exceedingly tumultuous in 1917. Some parties and groups wanted to give all the land to the peasants and all the factories to the workers; others thirsted to fight in the war to a final victory; still others dreamed of demolishing the government to its very foundations. In order to find out which of these groups you might have been a part of, you can use the Political Compass of the Revolution. Its horizontal axis refers to economic preferences, from the extreme left (socialists) to the extreme right (liberals). The vertical axis maps out data about political inclinations, from democratic to authoritarian. We have laid out the ten basic political forces in the Revolution along these axes ( see below). In order to find out where you would have fallen, you need to take our quiz and evaluate 27 assertions about the most pressing problems in September 1917, after the Kornilov Affair had failed, but before the October Revolution took place. You should not use the Compass to define your modern preferences. The situations of the different parties is tightly connected to September 1917: the position of many - in particular the Bolsheviks - later shifted on certain issues, even so far as to land on the directly opposite pole. Therefore, the proximity of any party or group to another on the Compass does not necessarily mean that they were allies in the political struggle: a group's position on the graph is merely the sum of their ideological positions.

 

Turns out I'm a Menshevik Internationalist. Same quadrant as my US/ Western test but up a little to the right. Although my lot was friendly to the Bolsheviks, I fear hard times to come.

[workswithseed 2201]

Interesting

[Guest]

cadets, from space?

There's no fucking way that is the student body at West Point.

Edited August 15, 2021 by slorch

[Celery Man 21076]

Cadets of Bergen County. Fucking fascists.

[workswithseed 2201]

2 hours ago, Celery Man said:

Cadets of Bergen County. Fucking fascists.

Anarchist love democracy 

[closetohumping 17778]

Go check out the Biden 2021 thread.  There's like 1 conservative vs 50 liberals.  😆

[Pam Cummings 9823]

What even is a conservative these days? There are no intellectuals left on that side of the aisle. If you don't blindly pledge your allegiance to Trumpism, you are not welcome in that party anymore.

[closetohumping 17778]

36 minutes ago, Pam Cummings said:

What even is a conservative these days? There are no intellectuals left on that side of the aisle. If you don't blindly pledge your allegiance to Trumpism, you are not welcome in that party anymore.

I'm a social liberal, fiscal conservative.  Never Trumper.  

[babysdaddy 2731]

3 hours ago, closetohumping said:

I'm a social liberal, fiscal conservative.  Never Trumper.  

nope, not allowed.  "Pam" said so

[atomheartbevo 90546]

7 hours ago, closetohumping said:

I'm a social liberal, fiscal conservative.  Never Trumper.  

The first and third of those things would get you kicked out of today's GOP.  The second would be chuckled at.

I'm not saying it's better back when I was a Republican 20 years ago, but it's definitely changed.  That is reflected across discussion forums all over the internet.  It's turned into full-blown No True Scotsman these days.

It would be really fascinating to do some in-depth surveys on a lot of folks in their 30s and 40s on forums like Surly.  People who are now considered practically flaming liberals these days, were pretty damned conservative on Shaggy and HF and other forums in the past.

[Guest]

The GOP is a laughing stock.  On that point you are 1000% correct.

Now for the fiscal conservatives....nary a port to be found.

[mchookem 16728]

21 hours ago, closetohumping said:

Go check out the Biden 2021 thread.  There's like 1 conservative vs 50 liberals.  😆

that says as much about 'conservatives' as it does the Cloak Room lol

Edited August 18, 2021 by mchookem

[closetohumping 17778]

6 minutes ago, mchookem said:

that says as much about 'conservatives' as it does the Cloak Room lol

As in their cowards or they don't want to have to sign up for Surly after being neg bombed into Bolivia?

[Guest]

nm

Edited August 18, 2021 by slorch

[Pam Cummings 9823]

15 hours ago, closetohumping said:

As in their cowards or they don't want to have to sign up for Surly after being neg bombed into Bolivia?

Who has that happened to? This is another thing i love. People who "never go to the CR" but somehow know of some big long list of people who have been crowdsourced because they dared post a conservative opinion there.

 

 

[ROFL BOX 6654]

18 hours ago, slorch said:

The GOP is a laughing stock.  On that point you are 1000% correct.

Now for the fiscal conservatives....nary a port to be found.

Welfare for corporations is good business, yo!

[closetohumping 17778]

24 minutes ago, Pam Cummings said:

Who has that happened to? This is another thing i love. People who "never go to the CR" but somehow know of some big long list of people who have been crowdsourced because they dared post a conservative opinion there.

 

 

Crowdsourced?  no.  But neg bombed, definitely.  Come on now.

[Fudge Nuggets 19407]

On 8/12/2021 at 11:11 AM, Hate said:

Not a red hat you CR turd. I don’t know how else to explain that to you. Keep deflecting from reality by pointing out just how hypocritical you are.

Back during the campaign, Tiff did something or other that was pretty stupid and it was talked about for about a half day max.  Y’all are still “But Hunter”ing more than nine months after the election.  So fuck off you DT turd.

[bad_teammate 13479]

On 8/18/2021 at 11:42 AM, closetohumping said:

Crowdsourced?  no.  But neg bombed, definitely.  Come on now.

oh no people negged other people oh my god call the UN

[elfenix 34658]

[washparkhorn 9967]

On 8/17/2021 at 8:02 AM, closetohumping said:

fiscal conservative

I know this is no great shock to anyone, but fiscal conservatism is a relic in modern economics. The multiplier effect of public investment creates profit in the private sector. That is not going away. 

Respectfully, those who identify as fiscal conservatives were led into a corner where austerity was the only answer, while movement leaders wallowed in wealth from special interests and kept spending. 

The Fed does not see a problem selling paper for our debt. Economists agree debt level are manageable and will grow accordingly.

Granted, the is a limit to public spending, but that time is not now. There is plenty of room in the tank and eager buyers willing to buy the dominant world reserve currency. We have no problem financing it. 

Public investment has multiplier effects. Multiplier effects = profit for private sector.

Austerity works for household accounts, but not reserve currency issuers. Aside from austerity, there are other tools that drive efficiency and spur growth. Fiscal conservatives should be celebrating the innovations of geopolitical finance (and making money off their advancements). Not kidding.

One last thing to fiscal conservatives who watch CNBC for economic analysis -

Spoiler

Bloomberg News provides genuine insight on the markets and the geopolitical currents. CNBC is hot garbage.

With all due respect to those with differing views, but the world is speeding up and the train is leaving the station. 

[closetohumping 17778]

3 hours ago, washparkhorn said:

I know this is no great shock to anyone, but fiscal conservatism is a relic in modern economics. The multiplier effect of public investment creates profit in the private sector. That is not going away. 

Respectfully, those who identify as fiscal conservatives were led into a corner where austerity was the only answer, while movement leaders wallowed in wealth from special interests and kept spending. 

The Fed does not see a problem selling paper for our debt. Economists agree debt level are manageable and will grow accordingly.

Granted, the is a limit to public spending, but that time is not now. There is plenty of room in the tank and eager buyers willing to buy the dominant world reserve currency. We have no problem financing it. 

Public investment has multiplier effects. Multiplier effects = profit for private sector.

Austerity works for household accounts, but not reserve currency issuers. Aside from austerity, there are other tools that drive efficiency and spur growth. Fiscal conservatives should be celebrating the innovations of geopolitical finance (and making money off their advancements). Not kidding.

One last thing to fiscal conservatives who watch CNBC for economic analysis -

  Reveal hidden contents

Bloomberg News provides genuine insight on the markets and the geopolitical currents. CNBC is hot garbage.

With all due respect to those with differing views, but the world is speeding up and the train is leaving the station. 

Thank you for the effort on a well thought out post.  When I say fiscal conservative I mean don’t touch my money and go make your own.  

[phdhorn 6224]

Wait, this is supposed to be a thread about how the CR sucks shit (which it does).  Especially lately.

So... the CR sucks shit.

[Pam Cummings 9823]

7 hours ago, elfenix said:

But but but CR!

[Hate 20232]

22 hours ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Back during the campaign, Tiff did something or other that was pretty stupid and it was talked about for about a half day max.  Y’all are still “But Hunter”ing more than nine months after the election.  So fuck off you DT turd.

Who is Tiff?

[atomheartbevo 90546]

53 minutes ago, Hate said:

Who is Tiff?

Tiff's Treats Cookie Delivery service here in Austin.

And no matter how much money you may offer, it's "Cookie", not "Nookie", and only make the offer once or else the cops get involved.

[Guest Lobo]

So wait, there's a NSFW version of Cloak Room where we get to see Tiffany Trump's cookie?  

By all accounts, she is supposedly, actually really nice and very smart.  I feel bad for Barron and her for the shit they get in the media.  /noCR

[Johnny Sack 8397]

On 8/29/2021 at 12:27 AM, elfenix said:

Yeah fuckhead, because you drive by negged me like a pussy.  I don't neg anyone for political opinions.  But if they drive by neg me, I am going to neg bomb them.

[mchookem 16728]

'drive by neg' 

 

[MillerEP 30838]

[elfenix 34658]

lulz i don't even know what that shit was for, i just noticed a neg on a random post that wasn't worth negging and clicked through to find johnny and univ going at it like a couple of 7th graders

[Chooky 13337]

On 9/8/2021 at 10:46 PM, elfenix said:

lulz i don't even know what that shit was for, i just noticed a neg on a random post that wasn't worth negging and clicked through to find johnny and univ going at it like a couple of 7th graders

Negged

[USNALonghorn 5155]

Cool quiz, I guess

[m00t607t 155]

On 9/8/2021 at 2:10 PM, Johnny Sack said:

Yeah fuckhead, because you drive by negged me like a pussy.  I don't neg anyone for political opinions.  But if they drive by neg me, I am going to neg bomb them.

this sounds like a frightful policy.   Particularly from the group who were warned that, left to their natural end, would completely decimate the country in under a year.  They burned the country down last year and stoked civil disobedience to the point of violence, over and over and over, ruined any semblance of a free and fair democratic election and the dipshits in the "Cloak Room" fucking ate it up, 900, everyday to the point to where they lie about criminal threats of violence here just to keep their fucking face out of the mirror.

Your idea is a noble one (not negging in the Cloak Room) , but you are speaking to lunatics who can only have their drivel paid attention to by absolutely shutting down intelligent debate, or, worse, honest discussion.   The mods here are frightened of them as well, which isn't surprising, but it is disappointing. 

 

These assholes gleefully cheered on the most corrupt idea ever to consider the office of t

 

But, Brisket is Brown and Subliminal is gay, in case you haven't been reminded in the last 5 minutes in the Cloak Room.

THAT point needs to be made over and over in that shit room or else, much like Biden gets away with it only with the complicit censorship, can survive that "Cloak Room" circle jerk because dissent is banned.   You are trying to reason with the wrong crew.   

These are the destroyers of America, Americana, the Constitution, your children, education, medicine, scientist's credibility, monetary policy, foreign policy, not being branded globally as beta male pussy incompetent, thick,  talentless corruption and any pretense of honesty.

 

Miss me yet?

 

But remember...in case you forgot....Brisket is brown and Subliminal is gay. 

 

  This is 99 percent of the Cloak Room and everything that's embarrassing the State of Texas