Grumble

joined 2 years ago
[–] Grumble 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I honestly don't think the man has a grand plan. I think he "officially" ran for president partly to step up donations, partly to throw a wrench in the inevitable prosecutions he was facing last fall, and partly just to do something random to stay in the press.

Choking on a hamburder would solve a lot of problems, but I expect one of his creditors will buy off his kids to smother him with a pillow. Trump has done dirt with some shady people, and if Trump was facing jail time, God only knows what sort of embarrassing stories he might tell. I've been expecting Putin to send Trump a pallet of novichok Diet Coke for two years now.

[–] Grumble 13 points 2 years ago (3 children)

After watching a parade of January 6 tools catch nontrivial sentences, including for insurrection, the pampered heads of the GOP have decided that they don't want to wear a jumpsuit, too.

If it comes down to testifying or doing time, it's not really a choice is it? Testifying is only a liability if Trump gets re-elected, and if the man can't win the presidency from inside the White House, it's a good bet he can't win it from inside the jailhouse.

[–] Grumble 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)
  • Step 1: GOP loudly proclaims meaningless posturing and frivolous lawsuits to raise donations.
  • Step 2: GOP loses in court; sometimes their lawyers are sanctioned.
  • Step 3: GOP blames activist judges for the loss; demands more contributions; go back to step 1.

GOP uses governance the same way WWE uses athleticism - it's just a gimmick for quick money.

[–] Grumble 14 points 2 years ago

After the Citizens United ruling deciding that money is speech, it's clear that bribery is the most compelling legal argument.

[–] Grumble 2 points 2 years ago
[–] Grumble 1 points 2 years ago

I guess if I can't have democracy I'll support the nicer billionaire party, at least until the revolution comes. At that point, it's guillotines for all of those greedy bastards. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[–] Grumble 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The Dems and GOP have similar business models: trade policy and legislation for campaign donations, and deliver tribalism to voters.

That's not to say the two parties are the same - they differ significantly. One party is funded by the truly psychopathic billionaires, and the other party is funded by the usual greedy bastard billionaires. Chalk and cheese, as the British say.

[–] Grumble 9 points 2 years ago

The theory, such as it is, is that the president is accountable to the citizenry both through the congress (via impeachment) and to the public (via elections). So if the president does grossly incompetent things like declassify information without telling anyone, they could be impeached or voted out.

A fundamental problem with any government is that it relies on people of good character to function.

Once enough sociopaths and political partisans and greedy hacks get elected, we're basically screwed. The law can't save us from that much human poison.

[–] Grumble 6 points 2 years ago

The Navy nuclear power plant I trained on had exactly one IC in it - an opamp in the feed water control circuitry. Everything else was magnetic amplifiers, which were state of the art technology when invented in 1901. I was operating the plant in 1988.

After that, I ended up fixing aircraft on a carrier using automated test equipment based around a 1960 telephone switching matrix powered by a 24K 18-bit word core memory CPU. We had all the modern conveniences like magnetic tape, which was a lot nicer than mylar punched tape. The month before we shipped out for Desert Storm, we got a 1MB fixed disk cartridge that replaced one of the tape drives.

MILSPEC: It might be old, but it sure is expensive.

[–] Grumble 2 points 2 years ago

The US is at the point where government officials are still sheepish about having the public know that they accept bribes. The rich people and corporations already know they accept bribes - that's why there's an entire industry for "lobbying".

Seems to me that since we don't care enough to stamp out bribery, we must lean into it. Make all judges, elected folks, and various other functionaries wear jumpsuits with patches of the logos of their donors.

[–] Grumble 2 points 2 years ago

In our representative plutocracy, US parties pivoted their business model to deliver legislation to donors, and deliver tribalism and spectacle to voters.

Trump really upped the bar at delivering spectacle compared to Willard Romney. But Trump is/was shit at delivering legislation, and he wants a personal cut of all the donations. But he brought in new money.

The GOP leadership can't decide if they want him around because he's a pain in their collective asses. He brings in votes and money, but can't be relied on for legislation. What will unite the GOP is Trump having a stroke that leaves him unable to talk.

[–] Grumble 3 points 2 years ago

I think a lot of this boils down on what each person defines as "pay to win". This is vague and subjective - how does one "win" Destiny 2?

I don't hear anyone arguing with Cross saying Destiny 2 has a free trial but if you want to play the game, you have to pay, and Bungie intentionally makes it hard to know what to buy if you're on a budget.

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