Lostwingman

Oh Solyndra, that brings back memories. Abound solar was a miniature version of that out here in Colorado. Basically, tens of millions of taxpayer dollars were funneled through Abound into the pockets of prominent Dems in the state, then the company declared bankruptcy.
 
We can all agree that reducing pollution is a good thing. However, some of us disagree with the proposed solutions to something that might not even be a problem that we can solve. For example, we use oil for so many things, we would have to find a frightening number of alternatives to a wide variety of products to end our dependency on oil. Only a fraction of it is burned as a fuel. We could very reasonably replace coal fired power plants with nuclear, but hippies are strangely opposed to cleaner, more efficient, reliable electricity production. This is compounded by a lack of even the most basic understanding of how our electrical system works.
 
I guess my complaints are that nobody is willing to look at realistic solutions to being more efficient and reducing pollution, and instead are trying to force through programs that are thinly veiled scams to enrich and entrench politicians and their donors.
 
I remember a local news segment a while back with one of the higher ups from Vestas, a large wind turbine manufacturer. There was talk about ending subsidies for wind energy, and his response was that doing so "would kill our business". If you business model relies on the government taking away money from people to alter the markets to make your product less uncompetitive (I'm not going to say that it makes it competitive, because no power in the universe can make wind competitive with any real form of electricity generation for an industrialized country) you don't have a business, you have a charity at best, and more realistically, a fraudulent enterprise.
 
Wind is garbage, solar is garbage, the numbers for "renewable energy" are skewed by the inclusion of burning biomass (wood, cow shit, etc). It's all a scam, and the people making money off of this are strong proponents of the Religion of Anthropogenic Climate Change, because it lines their pockets.

I don't think you're giving him enough credit. What he's saying is that consensus scientific opinion, historically speaking, has been wrong much of the time. As a layman, you cannot evaluate the science. However, you can note that there are some warning signs that typically accompany these sorts of mistakes, and they are stamped all over climate science.

That doesn't mean it's wrong. I wish that when I, or he, or anyone else says "it smells", we wouldn't get dogpiled by people who assume that's some kind of faggot dogwhistle for "hurr durr timecube is real!", because we're not saying that. I don't mean you, Walter, not unless you were planning on doing that, but it happens so often that I feel I need to preemptively defend myself.
 
But it does smell. Anyone with eyes to see can tell that. So, I would say the risk is high that it will eventually be proven wrong.

They can't even figure out that Trump isn't a dictator, much less such complexities as "not everyone is a bay area super progressive".
 
I don't think the zeitgeist in the left that's  holding it back right now is sufficiently damaged for a resurgence similar to the Republicans after they were crushed politically and socially in the 2000s. Things probably will only get worse for them.

Because of:
 
1)  Where it slots into the speech.  He says "believe me, if we have to <do outrageous, absurd thing>, we're <doing important thing>"  It's a stock rhetorical construction.
2)  The fact that he can't actually shut down the government.  The previous government "shutdown," which again, wasn't, was the result of Congress failing to pass a budget that would continue to supply discretionary funds for certain programs.  The Fiscal Year 2017 budget will expire in September of this year, so conceivably Trump could hold it hostage during negotiations.  If the negotiations dragged on for several weeks, some agencies would lack the discretionary funds to operate normally.  But, realtalk, that's a long, long damn way from "shutting down the government."
3)  The irrelevancy of what his supporters think.  They're clearly off in their own little world of cult worship, and quite frankly, it looks fun.  Reaching them is going to be hard, and the WaPo certainly isn't going to do it with their outrageously and obviously slanted coverage.  "OMFG Trump threatens to destroy the government!" is exactly the sort of hysterical, Southern belle fainting bench crap that they've been doing all along.
 
You know how the Romans referred to Attila the Hun as flagellum dei, the "scourge of God?"  They saw Attila as this sort of divine retribution for their sins, or something.
 
I see Trump as being very similar.  Not in the sense that he is a personal champion of The Peacock Angel, or whatever deity you approve of.  But in the sense that he punishes his opponents for making certain mistakes.  One of those mistakes is writing news in such a way that wide swathes of the population voted for Trump out of spite.  I see that the press is still making that mistake, and they will keep suffering for it until they stop.

Trump just preparing to enter the oppression Olympics by picking up a disability. 
 
5D chess against SJWs  #MAGA

Trump just preparing to enter the oppression Olympics by picking up a disability. 
 
5D chess against SJWs  #MAGA

If only the Antifa and Alt-Right could come together on their commonalities smh.

Man I don't even know what the fuck is going on at this point.

But that's how they stay elected, sure as fuck isn't their phenomenal job running that city.

FUCK YEAH POLAND
 

This bit from SSC bears repeating:
 
 
The internet acts as an extremely effective amplifier for crazy people.  If you were to assume the internet to be representative, you would expect that the world population is about 15% furries, 25% Turks and Kurds arguing about who is more subhuman, 20% neo-Nazis, 40% thirsty bros and 0% women.
 
The extreme right in the US has been emboldened by Trump's victory.  A lot of other previously marginalized political positions have been emboldened as well.  Trade protectionists, pro-settlement Israelis, climate change doubters, old-school DEA drug warriors who want to crack down on medicinal marijuana... and lots of others.  The only thing these people have in common is that they were previously marginalized.
 
Trump wasn't supposed to win.  All the analysts failed miserably at their jobs, turning what would have been a stinging reprimand into an eschatological calamity for the political establishment.  Now the world seems upside down, and a lot of people on the bottom are now feeling like it's their turn to get on top.

Two extremes of identity politics come to town and that is the result, not unlike those old Jerry Springer shows where they sit KKK members next to Black Panthers and the whole episode is just bleeps and the security pulling people away from each other.

Trump will have the mandate he needs after he shitcans all the Republicans and throws them in labor camps.

The. Best. Timeline.

To copy a post I made on another forum.
 
 

A reporter has a breakdown over the Trump Jr. emails:
 

Ill be fine with those two butt buddies Mccain and Graham leaving. Theyve seemed to just go harder and harder neocon as time passes. It seems to me at least that many Republican voters are generally aware that the party establishment is corporate money first. Hence the repudiation of establishment Republicans for awhile now. Democrats though? Might just need an entire new party. Who has time for the working class when youre making sure you have enough disabled trans black women in politics or w/e.

I've been saying this for years. Feinstein and Pelosi sound like senile old bitches every time they speak, hell Feinstein sounds like she getting alzheimer's. We must be paying for some very good healthcare for congress and the senate, I wonder what that costs us, bastards. 
 
Anyway, the republicans have the same problem with McCain and Graham. I really think politics will get better when all the Baby Boomers politicians on both sides die off. 

DEMOCRATS 2018
Losing fixed elections since 2016!

Democrats gearing up for 2018;
I am not an expert, but I do not think they should lean on Clinton again.

If the name "Andrew Kaczynski" sounds familiar, it may be because he was one of the writers spreading word that Sunil Tripathi might be guilty of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing back when he worked for Buzzfeed:
 
 
The actual story was that Tripathi was a depressed young man who had disappeared weeks before for completely unrelated reasons:
 
 
Kaczynski would later write this article clarifying that Tripathi was not a suspect, although he never once mentioned his part in spreading the erroneous story.