Society The Donald J. Trump Show - 4 more years editions

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Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,743

kneeblock

Drapetomaniac
Apr 18, 2015
12,435
23,026
Do coal miners do the desired bidding of the populace regardless the potential consequences?




Except that the dude in Wyoming gets weekends, and evenings to do with as he pleases. There's also a 0 percent chance that the dude in Wyoming can get a phone call saying he's being moved to Kabul National Park because they're short staffed. The sacrifice that military servicepeople make is so vastly different from any other publicly funded occupation it's kind of laughable that people are trying to create an equivalence.
I think you took the wrong point from my post. My point is that occupational risk is not relevant to discussing labor distribution in the government. For the workers it is, but unfortunately their only recourse for altering those conditions is through political mechanisms. The US, Russia, China, and several countries around the world have used their defense industries as their largest government employer. This is due to a high level of investment in the industry as an employment sector, having less to do with the actual scope of mission or any of the rhetoric.

Western Pennsylvania is actually a great example. For decades the Democratic Congressman John Murtha steered pork belly funding to the region in the form of defense contracts. For years the region relied on these funds to stay afloat and his dealmaking to enlarge military spending and the labor force made him a major political powerbroker. Since his death, the region has lost most of those jobs. Several people there send their kids to the military, thinking of it as the best possible employer and a reliable way out of town. So in essence, the people of the area have just made a generational shift from one lower risk form of government subcontracting to a higher risk form of direct government labor. Owing to low enployment prospects in the area, a more significant percentage of people end up reliant on the state in other ways.

But they still believe in things like service and flag and country because that was the ladder to the middle class for many of them for a generation. They hold low regard for entitlements because they have to rely on them and they suspect others are using them when they may not have to. This is the part of Pennsylvania that has gradually flipped from blue to red over the past three election cycles.

When we think of the military as a military industrial complex, to quote President Eisenhower, with labor and a political economy, we can disentangle the purpose it serves in our society at home from the rhetoric and foreign policy that guides its risks and operations abroad.
 

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,743
I wonder why Ted Cruz or Gerg Abbott haven’t had anything to say about the state of emergencies playing out in their back yards?
 

KWingJitsu

ยาเม็ดสีแดงหรือสีฟ้ายา?
Nov 15, 2015
10,311
12,758
Pelosi - terrible speaker, breathes heavily into mic, not convincing

Schumer - best speech of the night. Great job neutralizing his New York accent. Was convincing, terse, effective. Closed well.

For any second-language speakers reading this, please know that a New York or New Jersey accent is never good in any situation.

Ever.
The fact that they allowed these two to brutally counterpoint the president is pretty damning. I thought they only allowed that for State of The Unon speeches.
But everyone knows the Con is a prolific liar so fact check time...
Facing pressure, networks fact-check Trump speech
 

Hauler

Been fallin so long it's like gravitys gone
Feb 3, 2016
45,414
57,814
The Pelosi / Schumer rebuttal was...odd
Is dedicated national TV time voicing opposition to the President going to be a thing now?

So after the president addresses the nation, we'll have a politician doing his best Cousin Vinny...



Very productive.
 
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SuperPig

Enjoy yourselves
Aug 7, 2015
30,979
51,737
The Pelosi / Schumer rebuttal was...odd
Is dedicated national TV time voicing opposition to the President going to be a thing now?

So after the president addresses the nation, we'll have a politician doing his best Cousin Vinny...



Very productive.
That's been going on for years. It's really nothing new.
 

Hauler

Been fallin so long it's like gravitys gone
Feb 3, 2016
45,414
57,814
That's been going on for years. It's really nothing new.
They do it after State of the Union - that's a thing and accepted as normal.

But other than campaigns - I don't recall anything like that. Opposing views are generally expressed via statements and interviews. Maybe I'm not remembering the other times an opposing viewpoint was granted a national TV audience immediately after the president addressed the country? I don't know - it felt weird.
 

SuperPig

Enjoy yourselves
Aug 7, 2015
30,979
51,737
They do it after State of the Union - that's a thing and accepted as normal.

But other than campaigns - I don't recall anything like that. Opposing views are generally expressed via statements and interviews. Maybe I'm not remembering the other times an opposing viewpoint was granted a national TV audience immediately after the president addressed the country? I don't know - it felt weird.
That's also because the President generally doesn't address the nation like this unless it's a natural disaster or a declaration of war. Things where generally there's at least a projection of unity between the parties. This was Trump campaigning and naming enemies followed by two assholes looking like vampires.

Pure shit show all around.
 

Hauler

Been fallin so long it's like gravitys gone
Feb 3, 2016
45,414
57,814
That's also because the President generally doesn't address the nation like this unless it's a natural disaster or a declaration of war. Things where generally there's at least a projection of unity between the parties. This was Trump campaigning and naming enemies followed by two assholes looking like vampires.

Pure shit show all around.
Yeah. I guess Trump's addressing of the nation was more political than your typical situation, so that's a little odd in itself.
 

Pitbull9

Daddy
Jan 28, 2015
9,832
14,130
The National Security Advisor just said ISIS was not defeated.

What is your definition of defeated?

From Bolton just the other day:
Defeated as in their control. There was a map that showed isis control before trump that was fully red with a little green and the other night the map was fully green with a little red. They have lost their control and lost all that they had. They are defeated. They are not eradicated and never will be. You can’t stop Muslim extremists. Trump is doing a great job and lots of great things have happened under his watch. I’m sorry you can’t see it, I’m loving it over here. Must suck to be on your side lol
 

Hauler

Been fallin so long it's like gravitys gone
Feb 3, 2016
45,414
57,814
It feels like we are settling in for a war of semantics.

Dems agree we need better borders, but want nothing to do with a "wall"

Trump has been talking about a "wall" for so long he will see it as a loss if he concedes to anything other than a physical barrier from the Pacific to the Gulf.

Unfortunately I don't know that there is a single adult in Washington that can mediate the issue so we can all move forward.
 

BeardOfKnowledge

The Most Consistent Motherfucker You Know
Jul 22, 2015
60,547
56,268
It feels like we are settling in for a war of semantics.

Dems agree we need better borders, but want nothing to do with a "wall"

Trump has been talking about a "wall" for so long he will see it as a loss if he concedes to anything other than a physical barrier from the Pacific to the Gulf.

Unfortunately I don't know that there is a single adult in Washington that can mediate the issue so we can all move forward.
Maybe they could settle on a border "solid-fence"