politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
So, as a Majority Report fan... there's a bit here that makes this even more funny and ironic.
Putting this in Spoiler because its a gigantic wall of text
So, sometime last year, Emma (MR's primary cohost) went on Tim's show, actually on location in his compound.
During their exchange, Emma brought up how right wing shows such as Tim's, just generally have a whole lot more funding than similar left wing shows...
... alluding to how most right wing shows tend to have large donations or grants from wealthy right wing businessmen, or their 'foundations', whereas left wing shows tend to get much smaller donations from far more people, which sum up to a whole lot less than what right wing shows get.
(This is all like a year before the Russian funding story broke)
....Tim's response to this is to deny that his show has any large benefactors, begins talking about no, we just have a larger audience and thus better ad deals, and the suggests to Emma that the Majority Report should focus on stories people want to hear that draw a larger audience, and that they should a CTO to manage their finances better.
...
So ok fast forward to now, and it's all but certain that Tim got all this Russian money, assumed it was legit, and normal, despite it being a very large sum of money, for very little extra or specified work...
... and then he massively expanded his operation with this money.
And then he not only lied to Emma's face, in person, but also had the gall to magnanimously critique the financial operations of the Majority Report and pretend to be some kind of helpful, well intentioned business guru.
... And now that Tim's stupendous Russian donor that he lied about not having isn't funding the his operation any more, welp uh it appears to be time to close up shop.
...
So this is on its face just astoundingly, perfectly representative of the total falsity of the 'self made man, bootstrapped my empire from the ground up, I'm just better at business and thus life than you' narrative that basically all wealthy people, and certainly all wealthy conservatives in America promulgate.
...
But it gets even funnier.
You see, in the last, roughly two weeks....Sam Seder, MR's main host was invited to Tim's show, for an in person appearance and discussion with Tim... on November 1st.
If you don't follow online political drama much... basically no conservative talking head will agree to debate or even discuss anything with Sam, because he's been doing this shit for like 20+ years, and basically, in a rather composed manner, he always makes fools out of any conservative he's ever verbally sparred with, or the conservative ends up cancelling or backing out for some reason.
... So... November 1st is a Friday.
And Tim Pool appears to have stated that if the show does continue, well Fridays he won't be there, it'll just be his cohosts and guests.
... As it currently stands, Sam legitimately does not know if he will be appearing on Tim's show to, you know, talk to Tim.
... So....Tim may have also (inadvertantly?) added himself to the list of conservative talking heads that are too afraid to talk to Sam.
Excellent recap, love seeing a similarly obsessed Majority Report fan out in the wild. How's it going friend?
Well, after about a year of self directed physical therapy (can't afford healthcare, car got stolen so I couldn't get to it anyway), I'm now not in constant, screaming agony anymore, and I finally found a place I can actually afford to live at off of meager SSDI income.
So... things are looking up, actually!
I'm sorry to hear it but I'm also glad that things are looking up?
Been a rough one sounds like. I too am a year and a half out from a brain injury, thankfully my insurance covered most of it, but it didn't cover the basement flooding, wife's layoff or kids braces 😆. Election aside, things are also looking up for me.
In all honesty, take care, sorry you've been having troubles. I'm not trying to belittle them with mine, just know that you have friends out there who feel your pain.
Right back at you man.
I've had a number of concussions and contusions over the years, but never so severe I needed brain surgery.
Best of luck, I know that recovery from major surgeries, especially brain surgeries, can be extremely challenging in unexpected ways that are often dismissed or not understood by everyone around you.
Thankfully mine wasn't surgery, just a nasty knock to the noggin and subsaquent internal bleeding, but thank you. Up and forward, all we can do. Keep fighting the good fight friend, and keep listening to the right sort of people :)
What is it about being a conservative and lying about the size of your... audience? "I'm just very good at making deals" also has a certain right wing vibe to it.
It is literally part of the core definition of political conservatism that they support the status quo of a social hierarchy: some people are on the bottom some people are in the middle, and some people are on top... and that's how it should be.
Though exactly which attributes and qualities of a person determine the social pecking order vary from society to society, this basic definition holds up, universally.
Then, the next step is to come up with reasons this social pecking order should exist.
In modern day America, one of these reasons is the myth of meritocracy: Achievers, the gifted, the talented, the hard workers... well they have more merit, thus they are rewarded for it.
This is objectively false. There have been many, many studies showing this. The most successful people essentially always work just as hard, or even less hard, than the poor, they are no more intelligent or educated... what they have is a combination of dumb luck, social connections, and a considerably more stable and wealthy starting position than the unsuccessful.
But, the myth of meritocracy is very useful.
Successfuls like to believe they are special and better, after all, I wouldn't be so wealthy if I wasn't just better than you, and as a social phenomenon, it creates amongst the unsuccessful the idea that well i am just not working hard enough, if I keep my nose to the grindstone, I'll get wealthy too, and be able to escape poverty, and then finally be better than everyone else!
What that latter part does is gaslight/brainwash people into being subservient, exploited workers... which keeps the wealthy wealthy, and the poor poor.
Its been said that poorer Americans often view themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires, as opposed to... poor and exploited by the systems that they will one day be on top of!
Its a whole fun psycho pathology of reinforcing beliefs and socioeconomic systems.
Sidebar: What you're saying is genuinely interesting and I'm glad to have read it today, but can you back off on the italics usage? It made reading your comment kinda difficult :(
I'm doing my best on a shitty mobile phone with a ... still recovering from having multiple ligament torn, and wrist and finger bones broken in my right hand.
But sure, I'll try to switch it up with bold and 'quotes' for emphasis more in the future.
Random question: Your comments mention that you work in aerospace... have you ever heard of the TR-3B?
I realize I may sound like a lunatic, but, I've seen it 3 times over the years when I used to live in and near Seattle, and one time I saw it hovering, only hundreds of feet in the air, over the building that's marked as the Fly Away Cafe at Boeing Field on Google Maps.
You think there's anything potentially to that, or would I have to be commuting to work in Janet Airlines for a non redacted answer? =P
Unfortunately not, I'm in the space side of aerospace. If it flies in the atmosphere and isn't accelerating to orbital velocity I'm afraid I don't know
Ah well, figured I'd ask.
I have a cousin who I am 99% sure worked on the SR 72... but he of course could neither confirm nor deny this.
TR 3B is speculated to be basically a large, equilaterally triangular craft that has 3 ... more conventionally powered propulsive engines, near each point of the triangle... but makes very little to no sound... and the speculation part is that this all works because somehow the craft has some kind of exotic system which functionally reduces its mass by about 90%, reduces felt inertia by about 90%, thus allowing for significantly higher G Force tolerance, as well as less powerful conventional engines / thrust generation, less needed fuel, than what would otherwise be needed.
Its potentially a spacecraft and an atmospheric craft simultaneously, but if it does actually exist, its probably one of the most classified things ever.
https://www.military.com/video/aircraft/military-aircraft/tr-3b-aurora-anti-gravity-spacecrafts/2860314511001
https://howandwhys.com/black-triangle-ufo/
I realize this is all in the ufo/conspiracy theory zone, so reliable info is essentially impossible to verify, but that second link there has pictures and schematics that nearly perfectly match what I've seen.
You forgot the best part. The Russian deal had just come in within days of Emma being on his show. Likely around a week before.
Wait, it wasn't like a year ago?
... fuck.
I am apparently still brainfucked in the 'how does time pass' department from covid and the just non stop insano-hyper reality that US politics has been since.
Oh well, that does objectively make the story even funnier.
That is fucking glorious, thanks for taking the time to put that beautiful wall of text together.