Trump’s America

[Longhorn_Fan68 34101]

3 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Fine. But what about my dorm idea?  Knock them down a peg. 

bc STIs will run rampant through congress?

[Francisco 2.0 32585]

23 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Dan Pfeiffer said that we should pay them more because, among other things, they have to have two houses: one in DC and one in their district. Why don’t we have tax payer funded Congress housing in DC?  Like a dorm or something.

 

Imagine the hijinks.  

 

 

[Bozo_Casanova 26823]

8 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Fine. But what about my dorm idea?  Knock them down a peg. 

If anything, we need to elevate their station so we can dump the fucking toadies we allow the powerful to install today without any talented opposition. 

[Longhorn_Fan68 34101]

[Brisketexan 106871]

2 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

If anything, we need to elevate their station so we can dump the fucking toadies we allow the powerful to install today without any talented opposition. 

Dude.  There is no solution.

Pay them jack shit?  We end up with toadies, or massively independently wealthy tools doing it as a power trip (see Rick Scott).

Pay them lots?  Then it becomes about the money, and people who want the money.  And don't think that $3 million makes a fucking difference and gets us there.  Because you know what someone with $3 million REALLY wants?  $30 million.  And they'll use their office to get it.

There is no solution, because the problem is our collective nature and character as Americans.  The pool of potential congresscritters is "Americans," and "Americans" are loathsome fucking creatures who will sell their grandmother to rapists for $1.

We're just re-arranging rotted deckchairs on the fucking Arizona.  After it blew the fuck up and sank.

[Aqua Buddha 14802]

An unelected mega billionaire trying to control the country is a bad look and will age even worse.

Imagine the right if this were Obama and George Soros.

[Francisco 2.0 32585]

6 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

An unelected mega billionaire trying to control the country is a bad look and will age even worse.

Imagine the right if this were Obama and George Soros.

 

For at least a decade now, I've read and heard the name Soros as some kind of puppetmaster who was the ills of all society and was secretly running the legislative and executive branches of the federal government (when Dems were in charge).

Today, the GOP has their very own version of this; the difference is he's actually running the show and bragging about it.  And has no qualms on using his media megaphone in order to inflict as much pain and chaos as possible.  And has received billions in government contracts and will use his influence to cripple any potential competitors to his business interests.

But tell me all about this Soros bogeyman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bozo_Casanova 26823]

19 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Pay them lots?  Then it becomes about the money, and people who want the money.  And don't think that $3 million makes a fucking difference and gets us there.  Because you know what someone with $3 million REALLY wants?  $30 million.  And they'll use their office to get it.

They already do. They just finagle their way to it. 
One of my favorite lessons of history is that officers of the British East India Company were paid very little and expected to come home rich, both by themselves and the company. To fail to get rich was seen as a sign of laziness, stupidity, or worse, naive sympathy towards the natives.
Thus the Hindustani word “loot” entered our language. 
 

You pay for the employees want.

Edited yesterday at 12:30 AM by Bozo_Casanova

[Brisketexan 106871]

2 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

You pay for the employees want.

Our pool of employees is a vat of shit.

Pay what you want, it won't make a difference.  You can decide WHICH type of shit you want, not whether or not it will be shit.

Our national character has swung so hard to the absolute extreme of hyper-individualist "fuck you, I got mine," not just at the expense of but connected with the downright complete opposition to and demonization of any notion of "public service/the common good" that this discussion is utterly pointless.  All we will get is selfish fucks determined to fuck us over for personal gain.  The decreasing pool of people who may have some notion of public service is simply overwhelmed, and has no chance.

[UpperWestside 6268]

4 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Our pool of employees is a vat of shit.

Pay what you want, it won't make a difference.  You can decide WHICH type of shit you want, not whether or not it will be shit.

Our national character has swung so hard to the absolute extreme of hyper-individualist "fuck you, I got mine," not just at the expense of but connected with the downright complete opposition to and demonization of any notion of "public service/the common good" that this discussion is utterly pointless.  All we will get is selfish fucks determined to fuck us over for personal gain.  The decreasing pool of people who may have some notion of public service is simply overwhelmed, and has no chance.

This is ‘Merica now! It’s just sad that we as a collective have become the things we have always said we are not. Everything that the men and women who built America into what it became post World War II is now dissolving.  I am glad that almost all of them have passed on and do not have to witness the abject selfishness on display from sea to shining sea.We are far from being the only country with this issue, but we insist on being the loudest and proudest about it.

[Gil Bang 26229]

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

Dan Pfeiffer said that we should pay them more because, among other things, they have to have two houses: one in DC and one in their district. Why don’t we have tax payer funded Congress housing in DC?  Like a dorm or something.

A lot of them live together...3 congressmen rent a 3 bedroom house, etc. 

Then there are the crooks.  Remember "Duke" Cunningham?  He lived on a defense contractors yacht. 

[Biff Tannen 46148]

13 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Our pool of employees is a vat of shit.

Pay what you want, it won't make a difference.  You can decide WHICH type of shit you want, not whether or not it will be shit.

Our national character has swung so hard to the absolute extreme of hyper-individualist "fuck you, I got mine," not just at the expense of but connected with the downright complete opposition to and demonization of any notion of "public service/the common good" that this discussion is utterly pointless.  All we will get is selfish fucks determined to fuck us over for personal gain.  The decreasing pool of people who may have some notion of public service is simply overwhelmed, and has no chance.

This is also the same in corporate America. Our “account manager of the year” at my company got recognized as such because she would straight up lie and threaten our customers to get them to do what she wanted. 

[TwiceHorn 32049]

17 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Our pool of employees is a vat of shit.

Pay what you want, it won't make a difference.  You can decide WHICH type of shit you want, not whether or not it will be shit.

Our national character has swung so hard to the absolute extreme of hyper-individualist "fuck you, I got mine," not just at the expense of but connected with the downright complete opposition to and demonization of any notion of "public service/the common good" that this discussion is utterly pointless.  All we will get is selfish fucks determined to fuck us over for personal gain.  The decreasing pool of people who may have some notion of public service is simply overwhelmed, and has no chance.

I finally landed, with this post, on the problem with "common good" government, as advocated by a bunch of neo-Catholic christofascists.

It's that if that doesn't inhere to the majority of the people, and must be forced on them by government and by some arbitrary choices made by the government, we're completely fucked and the government isn't going to fix it.

Edited yesterday at 12:52 AM by TwiceHorn

[PRONG HORN 3219]

5 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Elon AND Pronghorn continue to lie?  Color me shocked.

There was a bipartisan stand-alone bill regarding that particular aspect of cancer research.  Do you know what it did NOT include?  That's right....appropriation/funding.  Instead, it expressly DEFERRED on that to a further act of Congress (so....the exact continuing resolution we've all been discusssing) - see the full text of the referenced bill in its funding section:

When in doubt, do NOT read what "Libs of TikTok" says.  Read the actual bill text.  Go ahead, read it.  You won't find a funding appropriation in it.

Elon Musk, and his mouthpieces like Pronghorn, lie.  They do it without hesitation, without taking a breath in between the lies.  It is their natural state of being.

 

 

So why have the dems been sitting on it since March?

 

 

[Brisketexan 106871]

16 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I finally landed, with this post, on the problem with "common good" government, as advocated by a bunch of neo-Catholic christofascists.

It's that if that doesn't inhere to the majority of the people, and must be forced on them by government and by some arbitrary choices made by the government, we're completely fucked and the government isn't going to fix it.

Correct.  If we aren't the kind of society that will CHOOSE the common good to some extent, then we won't get it at all.  You can't force basic decency on humanity.  If we have decided to descend into full-on monkey-on-monkey zero-sum gaming, then that's what we're going to have.  Overall, it is a dramatically worse outcome than the alternative, but that's what we've chosen, culturally and socially.  Politics trails and reflects society, it doesn't control it.

[Brisketexan 106871]

3 minutes ago, PRONG HORN said:

 

 

So why have the dems been sitting on it since March?

 

 

You mean the unfunded bill?  Beats me.  Without funding, it's functionally aspirational.

Of course, you're playing the deflection and distraction game -- why don't you answer "why did the GOP remove funding for it from the CR bill?"  

Edited yesterday at 01:13 AM by Brisketexan

[TwiceHorn 32049]

5 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

You mean the unfunded bill?  Beats me.  Without funding, it's functionally aspirational.

Of course, you're playing the deflection and distraction game -- why don't you answer "why did the GOP remove funding for it from the CR bill?"  

Dug around on this.  It was apparently the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act, which was passed in 1994 and funded by the initial legislation at 12,600,000 annually until 2023.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriella_Miller_Kids_First_Research_Act

So funding "ran out."  This would have re-appropriated funding for another 10 years.

[Pancho 46250]

[TwiceHorn 32049]

1 minute ago, Pancho said:

Well, they both need to be in high-chairs.

[InkaUtexas 26859]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Our pool of employees is a vat of shit.

Pay what you want, it won't make a difference.  You can decide WHICH type of shit you want, not whether or not it will be shit.

Our national character has swung so hard to the absolute extreme of hyper-individualist "fuck you, I got mine," not just at the expense of but connected with the downright complete opposition to and demonization of any notion of "public service/the common good" that this discussion is utterly pointless.  All we will get is selfish fucks determined to fuck us over for personal gain.  The decreasing pool of people who may have some notion of public service is simply overwhelmed, and has no chance.

I think I found the problem. Where we get them. And notice, this is from a pretty well respected publication we both utilize. So there is a path. Fleece the public as a lawyer, serve the public using said lawyer experience, open business, run for office.

CQ.com provides data on occupations declared by Members of Congress in the 118th Congress.
The most common professions are law, business, and public service/politics. For example, 30% of
House Members, and 51% of Senators, have law degrees and have practiced law. Three hundred
fifty-two House Members (80% of the House) and 82 Senators (82% of the Senate) have served
as public servants or elected officials at the local, state, or federal level before arriving in
Congress. CQ data also indicates that at least 136 House Members (31% of the House) and 26
Senators (26% of the Senate) have been owners, founders, or executives of businesses or
companies.
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47470

[Anastasis 23714]

2 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

We should pay them $1-2M/year and senators should make $3-5mm.

How about a comp structure that runs inverse to the amount of deficit  they run. Aligned incentives. Balance the budget, 2mm. Keep running massive deficits, eats into the take home. 

[Anastasis 23714]

Deficit doesn’t have to be the only performance measure. We can come up with a bunch of good ones. 

[GenXer 3425]

2 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Fine. But what about my dorm idea?  Knock them down a peg. 

They tried this. Have you seen the documentary?

 

[Brisketexan 106871]

Deficit doesn’t have to be the only performance measure. We can come up with a bunch of good ones. 

Yeah…in this country, the only performance measures implemented would be “how many people that I hate did you hurt?” Ban free school lunch? Target met. Divert billions to deport Dreamers? Target met. Put up barriers to commerce for blue states? Target met.

Come on. Even you know that’s just a recipe for partisan fuckery.

We’ll get shit government because we are shit governed.

[Anastasis 23714]

2 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Come on. Even you know that’s just a recipe for partisan fuckery.

I bet you would be surprised how much bipartisanship emerges when everyone’s comp is on the line. 

[Brisketexan 106871]

I bet you would be surprised how much bipartisanship emerges when everyone’s comp is on the line. 

I’d be shocked to death.
When the comp depends on the only metric that matters in this era - how much you hurt others to your advantage - bipartisanship is the opposite of what will happen.

[C-Man 27777]

[Sawbonz 28170]

8 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

174k isn't a bad gig for a 25 year old ignoramus.

Also, this says terrible things about Texas.  Nothing new, but terrible just the same.

She could make that per month on OF

[pacman 7502]

https://lailluminator.com/2024/12/19/kids-online-safety-act/

Quote

Spokeswoman says it has nothing to do with $10B Meta data center project in Louisiana

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20897]

Republican marketing guru goes after Nancy Mace:


 

 

 

 

[Biff Tannen 46148]

5 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

Republican marketing guru goes after Nancy Mace:


 

 

 

 

Big lol

 

[Anastasis 23714]

Kinda want. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26823]

16 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Yeah…in this country, the only performance measures implemented would be “how many people that I hate did you hurt?” Ban free school lunch? Target met. Divert billions to deport Dreamers? Target met. Put up barriers to commerce for blue states? Target met.

Come on. Even you know that’s just a recipe for partisan fuckery.

Not for nothing, none of those things matter to the deficit. The only things that do are social security, Medicare, Medicaid and the military, along with the interest payments on the debt itself. And the REALLY fun part is that if you just make wholesale, indiscriminate cuts to those things the deficit probably increases a bit because tax revenues decrease. 
So what we need is a strategic unwinding of the budget deficit and a reallocation of spending that reduces cost but not necessarily spending  in a transformative way. 
 

and now step back to the real world, look at that task, and realize that your pay scale means that your absolute best-case candidates are John Cornyn and Colin Allred. Or Roger Williams and Julie Oliver. Or Steve Daines and whatever his name was. 
And your worst case is Lauren Boebert and Tommy Tuberville and Ted Cruz. 

So far.

[Blotto 24010]

22 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Not for nothing, none of those things matter to the deficit. The only things that do are social security, Medicare, Medicaid and the military, along with the interest payments on the debt itself. And the REALLY fun part is that if you just make wholesale, indiscriminate cuts to those things the deficit probably increases a bit because tax revenues decrease. 
So what we need is a strategic unwinding of the budget deficit and a reallocation of spending that reduces cost but not necessarily spending  in a transformative way. 
 

What if, and believe me this is a hypothetical.....but what if we just decided to give the rich another tax cut? Would that do anything for you? 

[Underdog 29159]

Thread should be retitled Musk's America. 

[Bozo_Casanova 26823]

1 hour ago, Blotto said:

What if, and believe me this is a hypothetical.....but what if we just decided to give the rich another tax cut? Would that do anything for you? 

I can hear the trickling already 

[Blotto 24010]

6 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I can hear the trickling already 

I think that's just Elon pissing on all of us. 

[Brisketexan 106871]

I can hear the trickling already 

[surly] It’s piss. [/surly]

[Stros121 3]

 

[Don Johnson 4847]

21 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

A lot of them live together...3 congressmen rent a 3 bedroom house, etc. 

Then there are the crooks.  Remember "Duke" Cunningham?  He lived on a defense contractors yacht. 

A number of them live in their offices. Blow up mattress. Shower in the congressional gym. 

[safe sex 11956]

Yes everyone here is aware that Quinn is a piece of shit

[Rex Kramer 1533]

This is the first page that pulled up when I wanted to check Surly on the game. Odd yall are posting here during first half. Even odder you’d call our starting QB a POS when he’s 22 because of who he supports. Tolerant. 

[aggie08 21790]

1 hour ago, Stros121 said:

 

Vote for him. Fine, whatever, I honestly don't care. But shit like this is so weird and sad.

Edited 2 hours ago by aggie08

[Macanudo 13311]

14 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

Vote for him. Fine, whatever, I honestly don't care. But shit like this is so weird and sad.

Quinn could eat cats with J.D. Vance and party with Don Jr and Elon for all I care as long as he wins football games.  

[aggie08 21790]

6 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

Quinn could eat cats with J.D. Vance and party with Don Jr and Elon for all I care as long as he wins football games.  

And that's perfectly fair.

[safe sex 11956]

35 minutes ago, Rex Kramer said:

This is the first page that pulled up when I wanted to check Surly on the game. Odd yall are posting here during first half. Even odder you’d call our starting QB a POS when he’s 22 because of who he supports. Tolerant. 

Don't throw tolerance at me when it comes to supporting Trump. You cannot tolerate intolerance, because as we are currently seeing, tolerating intolerance allows intolerance to win. And you don't have to have a fully formed brain to know that supporting that man is morally indefensible. 

 

[Rex Kramer 1533]

Just now, safe sex said:

Don't throw tolerance at me when it comes to supporting Trump. You cannot tolerate intolerance, because as we are currently seeing, tolerating intolerance allows intolerance to win. And you don't have to have a fully formed brain to know that supporting that man is morally indefensible. 

 

I think it’s morally indefensible. But I’m 46. And this forum is the embodiment of intolerance. Just wait until Penelope comes by to neg these posts. 

[safe sex 11956]

Lol

[DDD Dad 14641]

1 hour ago, Rex Kramer said:

I think it’s morally indefensible. But I’m 46.  

Dammit. Here I go again agreeing with you. 
 

With age and experience one can only hope Quinn will learn. Hell. I did. 
 

im gonna cut these college boys/men some slack. They’re a product of their parents. Quinn grew up in fucking Southlake and went to Carroll. That’s gonna take some time to outgrow. 

Edited 29 minutes ago by DDD Dad

[safe sex 11956]

I've been cutting straight young white men slack my whole fucking life, and all I've gotten from it are lost rights and a threatened existence