nittany ram wrote:

I think it’s telling that the only climate skeptics on earth are in this country and in the Republican Party. As stupid as denying the evidence is, I could almost admire their tenacity if not for the fact that they couldn’t care less if climate change was happening or not. These are not deeply principled men sticking by their guns, they are greedy fucks that are willing to unleash an environmental catastrophe so as not to dampen their profits.

Loot and Pollute. That is the GOP motto.

They don’t care because most of them are going to be dead when the shit hits the fan.

One of my idiot brothers spent his entire career as an attorney for oil corporations, starting with ARCO. Once, when I asked him about his son’s future on this eco-destroyed planet, he said, “That’s his problem.” And he loves his son, at least by all appearances. But, you know, he just subscribes to that “It’s all about me” philosophy.

As a Californian, I have to say I would love to have this conversation. I don’t think it is likely to go anywhere. The Texas secession movement has been going much longer, and hasn’t topped out above 10%. (And, actually, I would be satisfied with Texas seceeding).

Here’s the thing. We really have had no say in anything for over a century. Our primaries happen after the outcome is determined. And we aren’t a swing state in the general election. Because of the despicable electoral college, and the primary schedule, our votes don’t really matter.

Meanwhile, we send more money to Washington DC than we receive from Washington DC. We subsidize you bastards. Our economy is bigger than France’s. Without you guys, we would still be the sixth largest economy in the world, and would still be a world player. All while not having to put up with the Bushes and Trumps of the world. We would be richer without you, we would still have international prestige without you, and we wouldn’t have Clarence Thomas. We would be Canada with good weather, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood.

You guys can go on with your cro-magnon ways – without our money – and everybody is happy.

Billy_T wrote:

One very dangerous aspect of this country, W, was made all the more apparent by Trump:

Too many Americans want to be led by the nose. Too many Americans are okay with baby fascists like Trump, if that person has the requisite elements for a cult of personality. It’s more than obvious that nothing he said went beyond sloganeering. He never put forth HOW he would do anything. Apparently, his audience just didn’t care. He just kept repeating his slogan-mantras and his bot crowds ate it up.

At the risk of jumping into this conversation way too early (I haven’t read beyond this point yet, and it is a long thread that I opened several hours ago, and may be even longer now), I have to say that I think this oversimplifies the Trump supporters. This is a broad brush here, Billy, and like all broad brushes, it coats too many people with insufficient color.

I believe Trump supporters have a legitimate gripe.

I don’t believe Trump will address their grievances with policies. I believe he just throws word salad at them. But the Trump supporters are not wrong about everything. And I think Trump THINKS he will help them, like all narcissists, he believes whatever he happens to be saying at any given moment, but like many fools, he thinks that what is best for him is best for everybody. So he will do what is best for billionaire real estate developers and tell the cameras that it will make everybody better off, but that is just the way narcissists think. They don’t actually have the ability to see things from other people’s points of view. That what he says aligns with the grievances of rural white men is totally an accident. Not a conviction of principle. But I don’t think he is a master deceiver leading dummies around with slight of hand. I don’t agree with that perception at all.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-consequences-trumps-victory-are-coming-focus

The consequences of Trump’s victory are coming into focus
11/09/16 09:09 AM
By Steve Benen
David Axelrod, the former senior strategist for President Obama, has long espoused an interesting theory about national elections. As Axelrod explained in January, “Open-seat presidential elections are shaped by perceptions of the style and personality of the outgoing incumbent. Voters rarely seek the replica of what they have.”

By Axelrod’s reasoning, it’s expected that voters will choose a new president who is roughly the opposite of the departing executive – an assertion that looks quite sound this morning.

Some of this will be obvious immediately, because the shifts in presidential style will be jarring. President Obama is measured; Donald Trump is erratic. Obama is intellectual; Trump is incurious. Obama is honest; Trump is pathological. Obama is serious and committed to sound policymaking; Trump is clownish and dismissive of the details of public affairs.

But come next year, the stylistic differences will be an inconsequential afterthought by the time a Trump/Pence administration begins governing alongside a far-right, radicalized Republican majority in the House and Senate. The New Republic’s Brian Beutler had a good piece on this overnight:
At a minimum, Republicans are going to do incredible violence to President Barack Obama’s accomplishments…. Trump will almost certainly abrogate Obama’s international climate agreement and the global powers agreement preventing Iran from creating their own nuclear arsenal. Republicans will send Trump legislation undermining Obama’s legacy everywhere they can find congressional majorities to do so, and Trump will sign those bills. Republicans don’t know how to repeal Obamacare, let alone replace it. But they will try.

The Supreme Court will return to conservative control, and over the next four years, it may very well become far more conservative. Voting rights will be further weakened; the constitutional right to abortion is vulnerable to abolition.

But things could get much, much worse.
There’s a temptation among some to try to look for comfort where available. We collectively hit an iceberg, but maybe we can cling to some floating debris for a while until help arrives. Americans are resilient, and we’ve been through rough times before.

I’d like to offer some kind of assurances along these lines, but I can’t do so with any honesty.

Millions of families are going to lose their health benefits. Efforts to combat the climate crisis will end and move backwards. The tax system will become radically more regressive. Wall Street will be freed from safeguards and recently created layers of accountability, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be decimated.

Immigrants who consider the United States the only home they’ve ever known will be forced from the country. Minority communities will experience less justice and fewer voting rights. Higher education will be further out of reach for many young people.

The United States will lose the world’s respect. The Supreme Court will move even further to the right, and the clock on reproductive rights will be turned back a half-century.

This is really just a sampling. At no point in modern American history have we seen a political party as radicalized as the contemporary Republican Party, and as a result of the decisions voters made this year, that GOP will dominate federal policymaking for the next several years – making changes that will affect the nation and the world for generations.

And if we look beyond legislative measures, we also see the worst major-party presidential candidate in history who will have access to nuclear codes.

Yes, there are some political structures and institutions in place that may offer us some semblance of protection, but Trump has made no secret of his hostility towards democratic norms, his indifference towards traditions, and his affinity for authoritarian ideals.

I’m looking for a silver lining. I don’t see one.

Mackeyser wrote:

Oh I imagine the damage will be substantial. Worse than under Clinton. Thing is that there won’t be a ton of STFU from the Dems for Progressives to not upset the corporate apple cart.

Progressives will have a chance to get on the vanguard and lead.

That was what progressives were saying in December.

I mean…the good news is the Clinton machine is dead.

The bad news is that four years from now, any big progressive kickback will be too little, too late.

We are dead.

And four years from now when everything is substantially worse than it is right now, the Trump supporters will blame democrats. Not the lunatic in the White House.

Dude, that is rad.

Now I can, like, totally get it. Ya know?

Well, I want a GSOT offense combined with the Rams’ 1970s Rams defense.

Well, the flame has just officially been turned up, in’nit?

People all around is sharpening their pitchforks, and wrapping branches with rags and pitch.

I think the talent is better than this on offense. Anyone think Norv Turner would score more points with this group? I do.

bnw wrote:

For at least the past 12 years this Rams team has been an organized crime.

LOL.

You sure it’s been organized?

Comes up twice a year:

Who doesn’t hate the time change?

Why do we still do it?

a loss to the Panthers essentially cuts the chord completely.

Sometimes I wish I wasn’t an English teacher.

nittany ram wrote:

We have a funny way of celebrating it.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2016/11/05/nightmare-dystopias-busting-out-all-over/

Hard to imagine a scene like this in the Hamptons, isn’t it?