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bolverk

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by bolverk

  1. 3 hours ago, triplehorn said:

    This Chinese billionaire (?) has to be beyond hysterical, or something.  But while I'm not one to doubt Chinese efficiency, images of bodies being sent down flumes from upper stories isn't helping.

      Hide contents

     

     

    Read up on that Chinese billionaire here.

  2. Chinese government approves decision to ban consumption of wild animals

    China's top political body approved the decision on Monday to ban the consumption and the illegal trade of wild animals, which some experts believe to be the source of the virus.

    The National People’s Congress Standing Committee approved the ban on Monday in a bid to help “safeguard public health and ecological security," according to Chinese state media.

    The move aims to “completely ban the eating of wild animals” while also “cracking down on illegal trade of wildlife,” state media reports.

    The use of wild animals for scientific research, medicine and exhibition will now need to go through “strict examination and approval” by the supervising department in accordance with relevant regulations. 

    This comes after Chinese authorities suspended the trade of wild animals on January 26th in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus.

  3. 8 minutes ago, Voldemort86 said:

    Good.

     

    hopefully these numbers continue and Abbott / Goeb have to worry about re-election in 2022. I hate those idiots.

    They will. I'm on my phone and don't want to have to do the necessary research on it, but I think I read that Hispanics have accounted for 80-90 percent of all population growth in Texas since the last Census in 2010. By and large, 2/3 of Tejanos vote democratic.

    Anyone who is denying that Texas will soon flip has their head in the sand. The only obstacle so far has been very weak Latino turnout for various reasons.

  4. 7 minutes ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

    Kind of oblique to what you are saying, but I really believe that we here in our Texan and educated bubble don't understand the Sanders-Trump voter.

    There's this idea that many of them were Bros who voted Trump out of spite.

    I believe they are the engaged but disaffected who believed Trump's lies about draining the swamp and helping the little guy. Or that he was at least something new. They don't get that from mainstream Dems, except possibly Warren, and all her hedging in the primaries has not bolstered her appearance as standing on principle the way Bernie's unwavering position does. 

    I know you are in contact with Texas rurals, and so am I to a lesser extent. Are they a lost cause in 2020? Probably, because Texas is relatively prosperous and few rural Texans have any experience in voting Dem, ever. That is not the case in the Rust Belt, where a vote for Trump was a first since Reagan, probably. It is not ingrained in them that the only true and proper path to patriotism is the GOP the way it is down here, and if a Dem is actually paying attention, and offering proposals that could benefit them, and not hanging out in wine caves or figuratively blowing Goldman Sachs execs, that candidate could peel off enough of the disaffected but engageds in the Rust Belt to win.

    And there's also the Hail Mary route which I am beginning to think just might work in the idea that Sanders awakens the sleeping giant of the Texas Latino vote....

    I'm not trying to be oblique. I'm just saying a whole helluva lot of folks who don't like Trump may not stretch themselves far enough to vote for Bernie. And, yeah, I'll be thrilled if Hispanics voted according to their share of the population.

    But, here's the deal. Just read Xian's post.

    2 minutes ago, Xian said:

    I’m just not sure I can vote for Bernie. The “taking away”  ownership of 20% corporations and giving it to the workers and total ban on fracking is just too much. 
     

    I can understand giving workers a say on the board, but taking private property from US citizens is a step too far. 
     

    I’ll Probably Vote dem down the line and leave the president blank. 
     

    that said, I’m in texas so my presidential vote doesn’t matter. If I was in a swing state I’d probably reconsider.  

    That's a problem for us.

  5. 5 hours ago, triplehorn said:

    ----> Texas has added a million new voters in a year and a half, almost 2 mil since 2016. A third are under 25 and a lot are Hispanic (38% of pop.). 

    The GOP won Texas by 16% in 2012, then Trump beat Clinton by 9% in 2016.

    keep it going

    To further your point, that third of <25 year olds is a lot closer to +50% Hispanic than the figure you cited for the general population, which as of last year was 41.5% Anglo and 39.6% Hispanic for all ages.

    https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/TX/DIS010218

  6. 5 minutes ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

    And people's minds would not be already made up in a Trump vs Warren scenario? Or even Trump vs Biden?

    I get what you're saying, but there's already been more than one poster from the anti-Trump camp express reservations about voting for Bernie. Hopefully, that sentiment will subside as Trump will undoubtedly prove himself again and again to be wholly unfit for office, but I can't stop my brain from multiplying the three or four educated ones here by the millions of unwashed masses out there.

  7. 24 minutes ago, Lobo said:

    Anybody else blue in the fucking face from hearing Democrats over, and fucking over again complain about the Electoral College like it's Bush or Trump's fault?  

    There wasn't a Republican Party when it was conceived and it's not the Republican Party that keeps it from being amended/repealed/modified.  

    We've passed way more controversial amendments in this country, through much darker times, with an even more uneven party alignment in D.C. and the States.  

    It's real fucking simple, 2/3rds majority in each chamber of Congress.  And then 3/4ths of the States.  That's it.  Now you can get the Republicans from blue, but heavily populated states in Congress to go along with it.  I don't actually think in the end, the 2/3rds vote is that hard for this to come to pass.  But yeah, the 3/4ths of States is almost insurmountable.  But there have been tomes written about the failure of the Democratic party to focus on state legislatures (governors, yes...courts, yes...state legislatures, no).  Obviously the small states aren't gonna go for it, which is why you have to do that one thing...that thing that's been done almost every other amendment before this.  The one that gets states unlike the others to go along with an amendment or even just a bill.  Compromise.  Offer them something else.  What's 3 or 4 electoral college votes worth?  Figure it out and offer it to them.  

    The debate rages on about how the EC would favor cities over states, or it actually is more equitable or less equitable, or 7 states would control everything, or how rural and farm states control everything, etc., etc., etc.  Both sides have valid points.  What nobody discussed is, you don't like it?...amend the fucking thing.  The deals are there to be made in Congress.  The states are the tricky part, so start focusing on those houses.  Start picking up seats by running moderates in red states who'll adhere to the values of those states and pick up 1-2 states (by legislative body) each election cycle.  Be methodical and long-visioned.  Just throwing your arms up every four years about how unfair it is is fucking exhausting.  

    How have you not heard of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which completely avoids the Constitutional amendment problem you're ranting about?

    • Like 1
  8. 36 minutes ago, EMAWesome said:

      Has anyone besides me noticed how all of a sudden none of the non-socialist Democratic candidates have tossed this idea of abolishing the electoral college around once they were all trailing Sanders in the primary?  All of a sudden five out of six Democrats in the last debate aren't very excited about the concept of the popular vote being used to decide an election.

     

     

     

     

    "Most votes"

    Are you talking majority or plurality? Is there a runoff? How many rounds of voting at the convention?

    You do realize that's what happens, correct? If a majority isn't initially achieved, they keep voting until one is.

    I don't know why I'm wasting my breath other than to demonstrate what a disingenuous dumbass you are.

  9. 11 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

    You should think hard, about why the folks into qanon, Voat.co, the former Great Awakening subreddit and the current The_Donald subreddits, Free Republic, and occasionally TexAgs (although they seem to have some awareness about ZH) all like to reference zerohedge.

     

    6 minutes ago, Thetexashammer said:

    Only name I recognize is TexAgs. 

    Quotes Zero Hedge but doesn't recognize Zero Hedge.

    • Like 2
  10. 26 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

    Yep.  Have a relative who likes to send around zerohedge shit, along with Infowars, and they are a qanon idiot as well.

     

    11 minutes ago, Thetexashammer said:

    Your reading skills need some buffing up.

     

    8 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

     

    6 minutes ago, Thetexashammer said:

    You made a factual error. I didn't want to be a dick and point it out to you.

    What "factual error?" He stated that a relative, who posts zerohedge shit, is a qanon idiot. That's an opinion, albeit accurate, in my estimation.

    Lies cross the line.

     

  11. 16 minutes ago, Thetexashammer said:

    "I didn't marry me brother. I did not commit immigration fraud." 

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ilhan-omar-did-marry-her-brother-explosive-new-report-confirms

     

     

    Edmund Burke, the Irish statesman and philosopher, once said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Over the course of the past three years, I have watched good men and women, friends of mine, come and go in the Trump administration — all trying to do something — all trying to do their best. Jim Mattis, John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Sue Gordon, Dan Coats and, now, Joe Maguire, who until this week was the acting director of national intelligence.

    I have known Joe for more than 40 years. There is no better officer, no better man and no greater patriot. He served for 36 years as a Navy SEAL. In 2004, he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral and was chosen to command all of Naval Special Warfare, including the SEALs. Those were dark days for the SEALs. Our combat losses from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were the highest in our history, and Joe and his wife, Kathy, attended every SEAL funeral, providing comfort and solace to the families of the fallen.

    But it didn’t stop there. Not a day went by that the Maguires didn’t reach out to some Gold Star family, some wounded SEAL, some struggling warrior. Every loss was personal, every family precious. When Joe retired in 2010, he tried the corporate world. But his passion for the Special Operations soldiers was so deep that he left a lucrative job and took the position as the president of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a charity that pays for educating the children of fallen warriors.

    In 2018, Joe was asked to be the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a job he knew well from his last assignment as a vice admiral. He accepted, but within months of his arrival came the announcement of Coats’s departure as director of national intelligence. Maguire didn’t seek to fill the job; he was asked to do it by the president. At first he declined, suggesting that Sue Gordon, Coats’s deputy, would be better suited for the job.

    But the president chose Maguire. And, like most of these good men and women, he came in with the intent to do his very best, to follow the rules, to follow the law and to follow what was morally right. Within a few weeks of taking the assignment, he found himself embroiled in the Ukraine whistleblower case. Joe told the White House that, if asked, he would testify, and he would tell the truth. He did. In short order, he earned the respect of the entire intelligence community. They knew a good man was at the helm. A man they could count on, a man who would back them, a man whose integrity was more important than his future employment.

    But, of course, in this administration, good men and women don’t last long. Joe was dismissed for doing his job: overseeing the dissemination of intelligence to elected officials who needed that information to do their jobs.

    As Americans, we should be frightened — deeply afraid for the future of the nation. When good men and women can’t speak the truth, when facts are inconvenient, when integrity and character no longer matter, when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security — then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil.

     

    • Like 7
  12. 1 hour ago, Gil Bang said:

    William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, was commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014. He oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden.

    Edmund Burke, the Irish statesman and philosopher, once said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Over the course of the past three years, I have watched good men and women, friends of mine, come and go in the Trump administration — all trying to do something — all trying to do their best. Jim Mattis, John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Sue Gordon, Dan Coats and, now, Joe Maguire, who until this week was the acting director of national intelligence.

    I have known Joe for more than 40 years. There is no better officer, no better man and no greater patriot. He served for 36 years as a Navy SEAL. In 2004, he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral and was chosen to command all of Naval Special Warfare, including the SEALs. Those were dark days for the SEALs. Our combat losses from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were the highest in our history, and Joe and his wife, Kathy, attended every SEAL funeral, providing comfort and solace to the families of the fallen.

    But it didn’t stop there. Not a day went by that the Maguires didn’t reach out to some Gold Star family, some wounded SEAL, some struggling warrior. Every loss was personal, every family precious. When Joe retired in 2010, he tried the corporate world. But his passion for the Special Operations soldiers was so deep that he left a lucrative job and took the position as the president of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a charity that pays for educating the children of fallen warriors.

    In 2018, Joe was asked to be the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a job he knew well from his last assignment as a vice admiral. He accepted, but within months of his arrival came the announcement of Coats’s departure as director of national intelligence. Maguire didn’t seek to fill the job; he was asked to do it by the president. At first he declined, suggesting that Sue Gordon, Coats’s deputy, would be better suited for the job.

    But the president chose Maguire. And, like most of these good men and women, he came in with the intent to do his very best, to follow the rules, to follow the law and to follow what was morally right. Within a few weeks of taking the assignment, he found himself embroiled in the Ukraine whistleblower case. Joe told the White House that, if asked, he would testify, and he would tell the truth. He did. In short order, he earned the respect of the entire intelligence community. They knew a good man was at the helm. A man they could count on, a man who would back them, a man whose integrity was more important than his future employment.

    But, of course, in this administration, good men and women don’t last long. Joe was dismissed for doing his job: overseeing the dissemination of intelligence to elected officials who needed that information to do their jobs.

    As Americans, we should be frightened — deeply afraid for the future of the nation. When good men and women can’t speak the truth, when facts are inconvenient, when integrity and character no longer matter, when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security — then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil.

    Can we get a link to this article?

    I'd like to keep it handy so I can shove this in the face of any Trump supporter I come across who pretends to love our country.

    TIA

    • Like 3
  13. 11 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

    https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/21/grenell-trump-critic-116648

     

     

     

     

     

      Reveal hidden contents

    ive days later, in another since-deleted tweet, Grenell wrote, “If you think Trump knows foreign policy issues then absolutely yes, you are stupid.” Vox highlighted some of Grenell’s criticisms in March 2017, when Trump was considering nominating Grenell to be U.S. ambassador to NATO. Nisos was able to recover more than 1,000 deleted tweets belonging to Grenell’s account through a proprietary scraper that extracted and screen-captured archived tweets via the Wayback Machine. 

    Grenell did not respond to a request for comment, nor did he dispute the authenticity of the tweets, but a person close to him said: “As a foreign policy commentator, he opined on foreign policy issues and ideas. He strongly supported Donald Trump as the best GOP candidate overall.”

    Grenell’s appointment as acting DNI comes as Trump, in a post-acquittal victory lap, has begun purging his administration of anti-Trump career employees and political appointees. But the fairly conventional Republican view of U.S. foreign policy Grenell articulated in 2016 appears to be at odds with Trump’s complete dismissal of international organizations, treaties and alliances.

    “NATO only works when the US leads it,” reads another deleted Grenell tweet from March 24, 2016. “The UN, too.” Trump has berated the United Nations as “a waste of time and money,” and “just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.” 

    But Grenell also appeared to prefer Trump’s rivals for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, Kasich and Carly Fiorina. Even former Florida governor and GOP candidate Jeb Bush got some love: “@JebBush is right,” Grenell’s account tweeted on Oct. 28, 2015, during that campaign cycle’s third GOP debate. “@DonaldTrump talks about foreign policy like it’s a simple board game. #Unserious.” 

    During a GOP debate on Jan. 28, 2016, Grenell’s account heaped praise on Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO. “The GOP needs #CarlyFiorina,” reads one tweet from that night “.@CarlyFiorina for the win. #Loveher,” reads another. 

    By February, Grenell appears to have moved over to the Kasich camp. “John Kasich is presenting the most new ideas,” reads one tweet from February 13, 2016, the night of another GOP debate. 

    During the March 10, 2016 debate, Grenell’s account tweeted: “John Kasich is very good and comfortable on foreign policy.” During a March 22, 2016 Kasich, appearance on the Fox Business show “Varney & Co,” Grenell’s account tweeted: “@JohnKasich is on with @Varneyco talking the most intelligently about Brussels attacks. He is strong and yet thoughtful.” 

    On March 24, 2016, when a new Pennsylvania poll was released, Grenell’s account wrote: “Pennsylvania can save America by voting John Kasich,” adding in another tweet: “John Kasich needs to stay in this race until the end. Many people know [Ted] Cruz just can’t win in November.” 

    A former Kasich strategist, John Weaver, told POLITICO that Grenell was never involved with the campaign in any capacity. Though “he did show good judgment for a bit,” Weaver joked. 

    Grenell has long espoused hawkish views toward Russia. He was harshly critical of what he viewed as Obama's solicitousness toward Moscow: In 2014, for instance, he called for a larger missile defense shield in eastern Europe following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and a surge in funding for the U.S. government-funded outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 

    “NYT says Putin defies ‘the United States,’” Grenell wrote in March 2014. “Why isn’t it Putin defies Obama?” 

    There's no indication that Grenell, who Trump nominated to be U.S. ambassador to Germany in September 2017, has dialed back his criticism of Russia's policies.

    But he does appear to have atoned for his anti-Trump commentary. He began supporting Trump publicly after he became the GOP nominee, writing in June 2016 that he would support the Republican candidate over Hillary Clinton and, in August, that the election “is a choice between 5,000 conservative appointees and 5,000 liberal appointees.” 

    He also began to mock reports that said Russia had interfered in the election to boost Trump’s candidacy, writing in December 2016: “[T]hose Russians must have demanded that Hillary not campaign in Wisconsin and Michigan, too.” And he promoted the WikiLeaks disclosures, praising news organizations that reported extensively on the hacked DNC materials and criticizing those that didn’t. 

    “The WikiLeaks reporting is excellent,” he tweeted at conservative news outlets Daily Caller and Independent Journal Review on October 12, 2016, days after WikiLeaks released emails Russia had stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta. “Keep it up,” he wrote. On October 14, 2016, Grenell complained that the Twitter feed of MSNBC’s Katy Tur had “almost no WikiLeaks content,” and called on NBC News executives to “take action against her advocacy.”

    By that point, the Obama administration had released an unprecedented joint statement from intelligence officials—minutes before the Podesta emails WikiLeaks dump—accusing the Russian government of interfering in the election through hacking.

    But Grenell was undeterred. In January 2017, his account tweeted “this sums it up” above a meme of two dogs saying: “We’re glad you’re home! The Russians pooped in the hallway,” implying that Democrats were using Russia as a scapegoat for their loss. Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to boost his candidacy.

    As acting director of national intelligence, Grenell will oversee the very intelligence agencies that drew the conclusions about Russia’s interference that Grenell downplayed. “Russia always tries to interfere in elections,” Grenell wrote on April 3, 2017 in a now-deleted tweet. “Obama should have done something about the fact they hacked the DNC. He was President.” 

    At ODNI, Grenell will also have declassification authority, and has aligned himself with Trump’s claims that the Obama administration was “spying” on his campaign. In one deleted tweet from April 2017, Grenell wrote: “Obama team listened in on Trump team, then selectively leaked info. Most people call this spying.” 

    One of Grenell’s senior advisers at ODNI, Kash Patel, played a key role as a Hill staffer in helping Republicans, particularly former House intel chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), try to discredit the Russia probe in the year after Trump’s victory.

    “@DevinNunes is solid,” Grenell wrote on March 24, 2017 in another since-deleted tweet. Nunes had briefed reporters that day on his findings about potential surveillance of the Trump campaign. “Measured, focused, and serious,” Grenell added of Nunes. 

    Nunes stepped aside from the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe two weeks later as he came under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over reports he “may have made unauthorized disclosures of classified information.” He was ultimately cleared of wrongdoing.

     

     

    3 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

    All aboard the Trump Train. Leave your conscience at the station but bring your bags. Money makes the world go around and we are filling up!

    A perfect illustration of someone who has no moral center or core beliefs but is instead a yes-man, team-player or someone who is completely compromised or corrupted.

    • Like 1
  14. 1 hour ago, Voldemort86 said:

    Could you tell some of us on here who are too lazy to do the research who the strongest ones are at the bottom of the ballot?

     

    im mainly going to vote for president and senate.

    I tend to lean toward most of the endorsements given by the Austin Chronicle. Checking their page, and it looks like they align with Brisket's down ballot endorsements except for the Third Court of Appeals but they also praise Byrne.

    https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2020-02-14/chronicle-endorsements-for-the-march-3-primary-election/

    On the Senate primary, I disagree with them. But, by and large, the Chronicle is usually a really reliable source for endorsements for more obscure elected positions.

  15. 43 minutes ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

     

    There is also a D group, of which I am a part, that doesn't care who the nominee is this year.  I'm 100% certain to be a voter in November and am pretty uninterested in the primaries.

    Not even for nominations for lower ballot candidates?

  16. 41 minutes ago, Colonel Sanders said:

    It's amazing to me that with all the events happening at once CNN's article about coronavirus today is "What's spreading faster than coronavirus in the US? Racist assaults and ignorant attacks against Asians".

    Iran could be at the beginning of a major catastrophe,  South Korea is starting to lock down cities,  there seems to be outbreaks in North Korea. and this is your main story on COVID-19?

    You really do like to spread misinformation, don't you. That's only one of multiple stories they have on the coronovirus. It's splashed all over their website. That said, it's a valid concern if you'd actually bother to read the story and the numerous accounts being reported.

     

     

    • Like 1
  17. 4 minutes ago, Bevo said:

    When they say northern Italy do they mean the Dolomites or some crappy area like Genoa or Milan?

    Couldn't get the link on the above tweet to work, but:

    Officials told residents from three small towns some 60 km (40 miles) southeast of Italy’s financial capital Milan, to stay at home as doctors tested hundreds of people who might have come into contact with the six coronavirus sufferers.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-italy/six-coronavirus-cases-discovered-in-north-italy-hundreds-to-be-tested-idUSKBN20F0UI

    • Like 1
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