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  • Martin54Martin54 Suspended
    Belief vs. reason eh?
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Martin54 wrote: »
    Belief vs. reason eh?

    Bullshit vs. reason
  • Barnabas62Barnabas62 Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    He does have a substantial credibility problem and this didn’t help his cause.

    We’ll see how the vote goes. I suspect Trump might cast him aside if the stupidity and the uncovered lying get him into legal hot water. But otherwise, he’ll just line up the votes regardless of competence.

    Advise and Consent? Not really. From the POV of GOP senators it’s a different option. “Consent or look out for what damage I’ll do to you.”
  • He seems to have his fanboys, though, as do his masters.
  • At leat one of his cousins is unimpressed.
    Caroline Kennedy An unedifying insight into his character.
  • At leat one of his cousins is unimpressed.
    Caroline Kennedy An unedifying insight into his character.

    Or, an edifying insight into his unedifying character.
  • Martin54Martin54 Suspended
    edited February 5
    All of which assures his appointment by the Beast Trump, The Great Disruptor, Donny Liar, the chaos monster, the Lord of Hell. Putin on steroids. As Graeber & Wengrow identify in The Dawn of Everything he is establishing 'control over violence (sovereignty), control over information (bureaucracy), and charismatic competition (politics)', the latter has been noted elsewhere on site with regard to Farage.

    Imagine what Yaxley-Lennon will do with a billion.
  • TurquoiseTasticTurquoiseTastic Kerygmania Host
    Martin54 wrote: »
    Imagine what Yaxley-Lennon will do with a billion.
    I imagine he would squander it.

  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    Martin54 wrote: »
    Imagine what Yaxley-Lennon will do with a billion.
    I imagine he would squander it.

    A billion is pretty hard to squander, even for wee Tommy two names. You could spend a million a week and it would still last nearly 20 years.
  • Martin54Martin54 Suspended
    Musk can afford the pocket change necessary to turn the UK into the South African paradise of his childhood. He hates even our feeble, ineffectual strivings for social justice. We ruined South Africa for him!
  • Really?
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    The Elongated Muskrat has his own thread next door...
  • Alan Cresswell Alan Cresswell Admin, 8th Day Host
    Aye, but he keeps on pushing himself into places he has no right to be in.
  • Martin54Martin54 Suspended
    But he the might. Who's going to take it from him?
  • Leave that to the relevant Host
  • Martin54Martin54 Suspended
    Sorry, he (Musk) HAS the might, the mighty dollar. The relevant Host being the God who's there despite not? RFK is part of DT's disruption. Taking over the bureaucracy which is part of the troika of power. Musk is the DOGE, orthogonal to that, sideswiping bureaucracy.
  • Musk certainly seems to be getting everywhere, like a very unpleasant rash.
  • DafydDafyd Hell Host
    So he is. Back to the vaccine denier on this thread.

    Dafyd Hell Host
  • Barnabas62Barnabas62 Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Sworn in. I see Mitch McConnell was the only Republican to vote against. As he did against Hegseth and Gabbard. Pity he didn’t show such judgment when he had power.
  • The retrospectoscope is a wonderful thing🙄
  • I imagine this is one of the early results of the RFK appointment:

    https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/13/health/louisiana-mass-vaccination/index.html
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    I imagine this is one of the early results of the RFK appointment:

    https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/13/health/louisiana-mass-vaccination/index.html

    What price herd immunity eh?
  • BullfrogBullfrog Shipmate
    edited February 15
    Barnabas62 wrote: »
    Sworn in. I see Mitch McConnell was the only Republican to vote against. As he did against Hegseth and Gabbard. Pity he didn’t show such judgment when he had power.

    That guy is really something. Sadly I think his sort isn't capable of the kind of honesty it would take to write a genuine memoir. So instead the poor sod will have to settle for people writing about him, which is even sadder because I think - deep down - he makes an incredibly boring topic. The man is merely a political hack. There isn't much worth analyzing.
  • I rushed out today and got
    I imagine this is one of the early results of the RFK appointment:

    https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/13/health/louisiana-mass-vaccination/index.html

    It’s certainly going to encourage bad behavior among surgeon generals. Ugh. Like the medical version of how Trump’s bullying encourages others to act likewise. God help us.
  • Barnabas62Barnabas62 Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Children will pay the price. Some already are.
  • ChastMastrChastMastr Shipmate
    edited February 15
    I want to add lots of swearing here. Please consider it added.
  • DoublethinkDoublethink Admin, 8th Day Host
    It’s because the Trump regime believe in eugenics - or racehorse genes as I think Trump described it once. https://youtu.be/V6iSgqFahoM

  • LouiseLouise Epiphanies Host
    I see he's added people who take anti-depressants and folk with ADHD to the list for the camps.

    Eugenics indeed - as horseshit as it ever was.
  • They can pry my citalopram/Celexa from my cold dead hands… I have enough trouble keeping an even keel even with it!
  • ChastMastr wrote: »
    They can pry my citalopram/Celexa from my cold dead hands… I have enough trouble keeping an even keel even with it!

    I've been on Citalopram myself (not since 2015), and it was very helpful. I hope that your fears remain unrealised.
  • ChastMastr wrote: »
    They can pry my citalopram/Celexa from my cold dead hands… I have enough trouble keeping an even keel even with it!

    I've been on Citalopram myself (not since 2015), and it was very helpful. I hope that your fears remain unrealised.

    Yeah, years ago, when I ran out of it once and hadn’t gotten around to refilling it, Cubby noticed changes that I was unaware of, so I have made sure ever since to not let myself run out of it. (You think I’m easily stressed/depressed nowadays (as can be seen on various threads—not eating affects that too, though it does not seem to be blood sugar but something else, maybe hormonal?), you should have seen me before…)
  • I can’t begin to imagine what would happen here if the government just started interfering with people’s mental meds. Millions of us rely on those to get through the day, and more than just the kind of depression/anxiety I deal with…
  • Well, quite so.

    Maybe some of those reliant on various meds may soon be regretting voting for the God-Emperor...
  • It’s because the Trump regime believe in eugenics - or racehorse genes as I think Trump described it once. https://youtu.be/V6iSgqFahoM

    That is the common thread. Expect a lot more ugly in the future. Heck, I wonder if they're going to try to rationalize hereditary monarchy that way.

    Far as regrets, I'm reminded of stories of people literally being taken to ER's, dying of COVID, still spouting out conspiracy theories as they expired. I'd like to think people are going to get it, but it takes a lot for a person to admit that they've been conned. And so stupidly.
  • Barnabas62Barnabas62 Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    It looks like over 77 million voters regarded “woke” as a bigger threat to their way of life than the President they elected. Maybe that was the real battle that was lost? “Woke” was used originally I think in the context of racial injustice and that’s evolved into awareness of social injustice. How did it become a swear word?
  • EigonEigon Shipmate
    "Woke" replaced "political correctness" as an insult from the right - possibly because it's easier to spell.
  • Barnabas62 wrote: »
    It looks like over 77 million voters regarded “woke” as a bigger threat to their way of life than the President they elected. Maybe that was the real battle that was lost?

    Yep.
    “Woke” was used originally I think in the context of racial injustice and that’s evolved into awareness of social injustice. How did it become a swear word?

    It went far beyond "awareness of social injustice", into "if you don't agree with anything and everything we say then you're basically no better than Hitler" territory. When you declare that anyone who isn't completely, unquestioningly, and in all respects with you is against you then it should come as no surprise when many people decide that, actually, they're against you.
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host

    It went far beyond "awareness of social injustice", into "if you don't agree with anything and everything we say then you're basically no better than Hitler" territory. When you declare that anyone who isn't completely, unquestioningly, and in all respects with you is against you then it should come as no surprise when many people decide that, actually, they're against you.

    That's not actually a thing that happened though, is it? It's an absurd caricature to excuse people voting for fascists.

  • It went far beyond "awareness of social injustice", into "if you don't agree with anything and everything we say then you're basically no better than Hitler" territory. When you declare that anyone who isn't completely, unquestioningly, and in all respects with you is against you then it should come as no surprise when many people decide that, actually, they're against you.

    That's not actually a thing that happened though, is it? It's an absurd caricature to excuse people voting for fascists.

    It doesn’t excuse it, but I’ve definitely encountered the “If you don’t agree 100% on everything, you’re horrible and worth treating like crap” myself over the years from various people over various issues. I could imagine someone who isn’t as politically liberal as me, who doesn’t have highly specific reasons for what they believe politically, experiencing that, and then getting more easily radicalized by Fox News or worse. It doesn’t excuse it, but it might help explain it.
  • ChastMastr wrote: »
    It doesn’t excuse it, but it might help explain it.

    Quite so.
  • chrisstileschrisstiles Hell Host
    edited February 17
    Barnabas62 wrote: »
    It looks like over 77 million voters regarded “woke” as a bigger threat to their way of life than the President they elected.

    I think that's a laughable conclusion frankly. This may be true at the margins, but the average Trump voter is .. the average Republican voter (in his first term there were even a small but real number of Obama -> Trump swing voters).

    And the margins don't get much coverage in the 'liberal' parts of the press, let alone the channels that Red-Staters are likely to watch.
  • Barnabas62Barnabas62 Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    chrisstiles

    I was speculating provocatively! And at best prematurely.

    What is clear is that Harris’s message did portray Trump as a danger to democracy and that lost. What is also clear is that the Trump campaign via the rallies and the adverts sought to pigeonhole Democrats as the “woke” party, making particular use of the trans and abortion issues.

    I’m not sure the detailed analysis is in, or whether the “woke” factor in particular has yet been analysed. But I don’t think it was marginal.

    There are moves to the right in Europe as well as the USA and neo-nationalism, including intolerance of the different, is proving to be a bit of a vote winner.

    “Make Us Great Again. Never mind about Them. Charity begins at Home” etc.
  • LouiseLouise Epiphanies Host
    edited February 18
    It's male white supremacy, authoritarianism and eugenics. Finding a new label for opposition to these forces doesn't disguise what they are and how badly the whole package stinks.
  • Barnabas62Barnabas62 Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Louise

    I can’t figure the growing political attraction. I agree with you about the poisonous nature of those underlying ideas. They seem to be meeting underlying needs in the discontented and disillusioned.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited February 18
    Hatred. It's that basic. Someone must be to blame for things being shit - Woke people, immigrants, lefties, LGBT+, doesn't matter who. And anyone who blames them and legitimises hatred for them appeals to people looking for someone to blame.

    You've only got to be on a perfectly innocent social media thread when someone comes in spouting hatred for one group or another who "are to blame" to see what's going on. It's "fucking illegals, fucking Wokes, destroying our country"

    It scares me.
  • LouiseLouise Epiphanies Host
    There's also a kind of vicious circle a society can get into when needed public services and goods are mismanaged. To fix this and raise quality of life people need to pay taxes but if you let eg. private energy companies rip off people till they can't afford to heat their homes or employers pay poverty wages then they don't have the money to pay taxes to improve things eg. Health services

    They then become vulnerable to people who tell them the problem is 'Them' - the disabled, the immigrants, the trans people etc. because that offers an 'easy' way to improve things without raising taxes but the hidden or not so clear agenda is that it also avoids tackling real injustices - which suits the very rich. It's no accident that this fake 'solution' is so often purveyed by media and social media owned by the very rich.

    For some people though, as Karl says, the cruelty is the point. They get to let rip with their ids. Supremacists telling you - yes you! - you're supreme to all those inferior people and you don't have to worry how you speak about them any more - they will be made to know their place again! is attractive to some people.

    As the saying goes, men worry women will laugh at them, women worry men will kill them. The kind of members of the various 'master races' who think it's a thumb- sucking outrage if anyone vocally disapproves of them for being supremacists actually bring in legislation which kills, impoverishes and disenfranchises in response. People are already dying thanks to misogynists and other supremacists in power.

    But won't somebody think of the poor 'master races' eh? They might get called dreadful things like 'horrid' when they're being horrid or supremacist and that would never do...
  • Barnabas62Barnabas62 Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    edited February 18
    We might be getting a bit away from RFK! I suppose the link may be his willingness to challenge received wisdom? I can see that has an appeal to anyone discontented about something.
  • DafydDafyd Hell Host
    I appreciate that it's difficult to remember which over-promoted conspiracy theorist belongs on which thread, but this thread is for Kennedy and ill-health policy. Put general reflections on the Trump administration on his thread, or start a general Trump minions thread, or if you have something Purgatorial to say, say it in Purgatory.

    Dafyd Hell Host
  • LouiseLouise Epiphanies Host
    I think part of the appeal is like the appeal pseudohistory has to certain people- they know better than all those so-called experts who spent years studying a subject and they feel empowered and superior as they spout their nonsense about the Knights Templar or the Holy Grail or whatever. They're 'in the know', they're the 'rebels' socking it to 'The Man' - only they actually can't critically think their way out of a paper bag.

    With health pseudoscience it can also give people the idea that they are protecting their family and themselves- because they 'know' what will keep them healthy. That is until the bill comes due of course, and the child does die of measles or you do get cancer despite all the vitamins - but that can always be rationalised away or covered up or ignored by the others who keep the faith.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Arch-cretin David Wolfe is currently hawking the idea that UV from the sun doesn't cause cancer - sunscreen does.

    FB failed to recognise it as false information and didn't take it down.

    How many deaths will they be responsible for between them?
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