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Grandioso

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Posts posted by Grandioso

  1. Quote

    medieval history

    So, Ignautius J. Reilly? Excellent.

     

    United States Attorney's Office

    Washington, DC

    USA

    Mr. Robert Mueller, Mongoloid, Esq.:

    We have received via post your absurd comments about Mr. Trump's statements, the comments revealing, as they did, your total lack of contact with reality. Were you more aware, you would know or realize by now that the offending statements were made with our full knowledge that they were dishonest.

    “Why? Why?” you are in your incomprehensible babble, unable to assimilate stimulating concepts of commerce into your retarded and blighted worldview.

    The tweets were sent to you (1) as a means of testing your initiative and (2) as a means of testing your ability to meet the standards requisite in a special prosecutor. 

    We do not wish to be bothered in the future by such tedious complaints. Please confine your correspondence to orders only. We are a busy and dynamic organization whose mission needless effrontery and harassment can only hinder. If you molest us again, sir, you may feel the sting of the lash across your pitiful shoulders.

    Yours in anger,

    Andrew Ekonomou

    • Like 2
  2. 16 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

    They better fucking record this.

    I guarantee you they will and there will be a vinyl and video. He's got fuckin' Don Was as the music director. You don't bring in that guy and not record it. I'm sure he'll also run sound at the show and do the mixing/mastering of the live album/DVD. Mark it down. 

    • Like 1
  3. I saw this on instagram and immediately went to the link for the presale. $189/ticket and that's not including flying to NOLA, etc. 

    I'd pay a lot to see this but this would be a $1,000 weekend.

  4. Why did we need this appropriations rule put into permanent law? Reasonably popular politicians like Obama get these gifted through private donations. Spending on paintings have been prohibited by appropriations rules for 3 years. No one in Congress is clamoring for the return of fancy oil paintings. 

    Only reason I see for passing this bill is to make Trump sign a law banning any type of government-funded vain artistic tribute to himself.

  5. 39 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

    Thatisaweomegif.

    Soon as he is out, rescind bill.

    Well, actually some of those sponsors have been crusading against this type of thing for a while as a little pet publicity issue. But man, calling it the "EGO" Act, introducing it on January 23, 2017, etc. And the preamble to  the first committee report starts with this:

    Quote

    S. 188, would prohibit Federal funds from being used to pay for the costs of painting portraits of officers and employees of the Federal Government, 
    including the President, the Vice President, a Member of Congress, the head of an Executive agency, and the head of an office of the Legislative Branch.

    and then it includes this:

    Quote

    Typically, official portraits for the President, the First Lady, and certain Members of Congress (including committee chairs) are commissioned with private funding,\22\ though the 
    House of Representatives has traditionally allowed appropriation of funds for portraits of the Speaker of the House.\23\ By prohibiting Federal spending on official portraits, the bill would encourage Congress as well as Federal agencies to adopt this same fiscally responsible approach of relying on private donations.

    Oh, and hey - these have been banned anyways by federal appropriations laws since 2014! Ha! The CBO analysis:

    Quote

     Appropriation laws have prohibited the use of federal funds 
    for such portraits since fiscal year 2014.
    CBO is unaware of 
    any comprehensive information on spending for official 
    portraits before 2014, but we expect that most portraits of 
    federal officials are for those in the line of succession to 
    the presidency, members of the legislative branch, and military 
    service personnel. The cost of such portraits appears to be 
    about $25,000 per portrait, based on contract awards for a few 
    federal portraits.
        Implementing S. 188 could reduce future discretionary costs 
    because the prohibition on using appropriated funds for such 
    portraits is not in permanent law. However, those effects would 
    be less than $500,000 annually because CBO expects that fewer 
    than 20 portraits would be purchased with federal funds in most 
    years. Enacting S. 188 could affect direct spending by some 
    agencies not funded through annual appropriations; therefore, 
    pay-as-you-go procedures apply. CBO estimates, however, that 
    any net changes in spending by those agencies would be 
    negligible. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues.
        CBO estimates that enacting S. 188 would not increase net 
    direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four 
    consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.

    So unless the appropriations rules change, it is financially MEANINGLESS. 

  6. This is a troll job. Act specifically mentions the President, VP, etc. Was rolled out 3 days after Trump's inauguration. Look at its sponsors:

        Sen. Cassidy, Bill [R-LA] 

    Sen. Johnson, Ron [R-WI]*    01/23/2017
    Sen. McCaskill, Claire [D-MO]*    01/23/2017
    Sen. Fischer, Deb [R-NE]*    01/23/2017
    Sen. Ernst, Joni [R-IA]    03/21/2017
    Sen. Tester, Jon [D-MT]    04/24/2017
    Sen. Kennedy, John [R-LA]    09/19/2017
    Sen. Heller, Dean [R-NV]

  7. The Cold War never stopped, save for a brief window in the 90's. I posted and recommend this about 4 different times on Shaggy and I'll post it here. It aired almost 3 years ago and everything in it is relevant and still ongoing currently.

    4:55-7:00 discussion of "containment," Ukraine, and interview clips with Lavrov. 

    12:20-15:30  Sanctions for Crimea and economic impact on Russia and discussion with Dmitry Peskov (Deputy Chief of Staff)

    20:00-24:30 Interviews with Diamond Joe Biden (dude is so fucking smart) and Barry Obamz

    24:30-27:00 Discussion of propaganda and interview with Margarita Simonyan (editor in chief of RT)

    33:30-34:30 Interview with Victoria Nuland, US Assistant Secretary of State

    40:00-41:30 More clips of interviews with Peskov and Obama

     

     

    • Like 2
  8. 20 hours ago, Seasick Sailor said:

    Saw the White Stripes at Stubbs in '02 or '03. Had tickets to the early and late shows.

    I was at the early one. IIRC, one of the roadies/guitar techs accidentally gave Jack White a guitar that was tuned incorrectly for "Seven Nation Army." When he got to the slide guitar part, it sounded awful and had to stop the song and swap out guitars. Seven Nation Army was probably the biggest song in the world at that moment. It was funny.

  9. What you got? I need more of these.

    Some of my favorites though:

    @natureisscary - Self-explanatory

    @infinite_scream - This just always cracks me up when I see it pop up in my feed

    Comedy Writers - These people are 10 times better at twitter than big name famous comedians.  Two really good ones:

    @McJesse 

    @kashanacauley

     

  10. 'You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, 'You are free to compete with all the others,' and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates. - LBJ

    • Like 1
  11. 1 hour ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

    white nationalism ideology.

    It would be apparent to everyone if they analyze it through the prism of Putin's overarching dream goals and ambitions. Then, you ask: how does this action further that agenda? The media and our own government does a terrible job of tying Russia's actions here to its broader strategies. People talk about "meddling" and just kind of stop there. "Sowing discord" is not the endgame. Zoom out and look at shit the way an imperialist autocrat does: broadly, historically, and geopolitically.

    With respect to white nationalism, I think this is the desired causal chain a la Yoda "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate..."

    White nationalist movements support right wing nationalism. The right wing nationalism agenda is against so-called "globalism," hostile to immigrants and outsiders, and just generally supports policies that steer a country toward isolation. Isolationism means states pulling out of multi-lateral treaties and alliances. When those start to break down, for Russia, it means no more sanctions no more NATO military threat. Any threat of punishment for behaving badly is gone. It's every man for himself and the weaklings are totally exposed to predators. The international order has devolved into prison rules and along comes Russia...

    nY5Gczc.gif

     

    So...

    Bigots support policies and ideologies of economic, military, and national isolationism. When powerful countries isolate, they pull out of the alliances and international relationships (e.g., NATO and the EU) that keep Putin's imperialist ambitions and aggression in check. If those structures dissolve, Russia can pick off any country over which it has economic or military superiority. 

     

    Other thoughts:

    Putin's general goals aren't much different from any other country: Strengthened economic power, military power, and political power (including both sphere of influence via friendly regimes and literal territorial influence like with the Crimea).

    Then you can see how Putin's specific objectives, i.e., the stuff Hillary was talking about when she referred to "Putin's Wish List," advance those goals. NATO is a massive cockblock on political and military influence and expansion. The EU fucks with their economy by pulling trading partners to the west (economic influence) and sanctioning Russia for misdeeds. It throws up giant market barriers.

    Only way to break those up is from within. The state actors themselves have to either opt out or weaken the organization. And only the big ones with their own relative economic, political, and military influence can do this. Brexit involved the second most powerful country in the EU pulling out. Our election involved the most powerful country in NATO electing a guy who wanted to stop paying for it. It's no wonder Russia put so much effort in inserting its troll army into those debates. 

    • Like 2
  12. 23 minutes ago, Chad Fuck said:

    I already posted the Coco. Does that not count?

     

    Fine by me.

    But we need someone to purchase a guitar out of pure selfish and obsessive addiction. Even better if there's no special justification for it and it's a totally reckless financial decision.

  13. Trump made a made a fantastical promise he never thought he'd be in a position to have to honor and it will be embarrassing for him if he doesn't get it done. So now our current president is trying to chisel billions of dollars away from the military to protect his ego.

    C_46wBdXcAQAqKw.jpg

     

     

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