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Are we witnessing the death of the Republican Party?

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SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
67,936
14,218
In a van.... down by the river
I wonder how they're going to spin this such that private *campaign* contributions are OK, but private donations "to help pay for any aspect of election operations, including voter registration" are out of bounds.


:rofl: Fucking morans. :mad:
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
Hey guys. Just started a new club called the Bowl Shuck Vicks. We're gonna play with things that kinda look like bowling balls but we're probably going to something different them since they don't have finger holes. Probably gonna hang out at a lot of rich peoples' houses and see what happens. It's fun!
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
21,887
9,180
Transylvania 90210

Such public dust-ups between businesses and members of the GOP are becoming more frequent, though the divide — possibly one of the most consequential in U.S. politics and society — is years in the making. The shift is the product of a Republican Party increasingly driven by "culture war" issues that animate a base invigorated by Trump and corporate powerhouses that are under more pressure than ever to align themselves with the left on voting rights, LGBTQ rights and anti-racist efforts.

The result is a fraying in relations between a GOP that has for years advocated for the kinds of libertarian economic policies that have widely benefited these businesses and companies that are using their might to help advance racial and social justice causes.

"We have long thought and still think of the big institutional drivers of this culture war as more in academia, the arts, the media, and corporate America has mostly sat it out until recently," retiring Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., told NBC News in an interview. He added that while he does not think of corporate America "as the biggest player yet," companies coming off the sidelines "can change the dynamic."
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
21,887
9,180
Transylvania 90210
Mitch making a stand! His shell must have hardened.

LOLZ @ this. Dems can’t use “our” tools against us! This whole thing is rich.

Our private sector must stop taking cues from the Outrage-Industrial Complex. Americans do not need or want big business to amplify disinformation or react to every manufactured controversy with frantic left-wing signaling," McConnell said in a lengthy statement on Monday. "Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order."

The cozy relationship between Republicans and business is no secret in Washington...
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
21,887
9,180
Transylvania 90210
... Corporate America: Well, we got the Reps to cut our taxes, and they won’t raise them back up without looking like fools, so let’s go do social justice to win consumers from the left.

Could be that big business figured out they can make more by swaying consumers than they can save by cutting taxes. Sales generates cash flow and maintains market share. Cutting taxes only cuts taxes.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
LOLZ @ this. Dems can’t use “our” tools against us! This whole thing is rich.

Our private sector must stop taking cues from the Outrage-Industrial Complex. Americans do not need or want big business to amplify disinformation or react to every manufactured controversy with frantic left-wing signaling," McConnell said in a lengthy statement on Monday. "Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order."

The cozy relationship between Republicans and business is no secret in Washington...
representative telling the corps that bought him how to behave....sit down bitch :rofl:
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
88,935
27,123
media blackout
LOLZ @ this. Dems can’t use “our” tools against us! This whole thing is rich.

Our private sector must stop taking cues from the Outrage-Industrial Complex. Americans do not need or want big business to amplify disinformation or react to every manufactured controversy with frantic left-wing signaling," McConnell said in a lengthy statement on Monday. "Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order."

The cozy relationship between Republicans and business is no secret in Washington...
why does moscow mitch hate the free market?
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
21,887
9,180
Transylvania 90210
representative telling the corps that bought him how to behave....sit down bitch :rofl:
it’s like the corner the housing market got painted into with falling rates. Well, we aren’t making competitively priced American products, but real estate is valuable. Let’s inflate the value by dropping the rates. As a bonus, homeowners can borrow against the inflated equity to spend more and feel good about it because of the lower cost of borrowing. Oops, we can’t ever bring the rates back up without tanking the economy. Ummm.... how about about another quantitative easement?

On the bright side, we have a “cost of housing” boogeyman to blame homelessness on.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
On the bright side, we have a “cost of housing” boogeyman to blame homelessness on.
Unfortunately the ground level effect of that boogeyman is very real.


But your larger point of 'we don make jackshit any more so have to keep inventing financial gymnastics routines to keep the machine running' is spot on.

The USA is just becoming baseline service industries, and then just fucking weird ways to invent value to place bets on.

see also: blockchain bullshit as a way to get teslabros to accept a new form of money laundering for millionaires :wave:
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
21,887
9,180
Transylvania 90210
Unfortunately the ground level effect of that boogeyman is very real
It’s definitely a factor, but not the only facet. There’s a lot of urban camping in my area that wouldn’t go away if rents were lower. It’s a lot easier to blame housing costs and shrug shoulders while proclaiming “what can we do?” (while not doing anything) than it is to work on creating and implementing the social assistance programs needed to help and house.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
88,935
27,123
media blackout
see also: blockchain bullshit as a way to get teslabros to accept a new form of money laundering for millionaires :wave:
i learned myself about NFT's the other day, and they immediately struck me as nothing more than a way for techbros to create something pointless and charge stupid amounts of money to other rich assholes for it. bernie madoff is gonna fuckin' hang himself once he learns about them.
 

jstuhlman

bagpipe wanker
Dec 3, 2009
17,363
14,199
Cackalacka du Nord
i learned myself about NFT's the other day, and they immediately struck me as nothing more than a way for techbros to create something pointless and charge stupid amounts of money to other rich assholes for it. bernie madoff is gonna fuckin' hang himself once he learns about them.
epstein too!
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,056
22,083
Sleazattle
It’s definitely a factor, but not the only facet. There’s a lot of urban camping in my area that wouldn’t go away if rents were lower. It’s a lot easier to blame housing costs and shrug shoulders while proclaiming “what can we do?” (while not doing anything) than it is to work on creating and implementing the social assistance programs needed to help and house.
Something like 50% of homeless in Seattle refuse assistance. I am sure some are just rugged individualists but we are looking at the results of opioids. Sure they may not be homeless if the can land a $50/week room but they would probably still be in the same jam if things were half as expensive.

Now the other 50% could be a lot better off if things were cheaper.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
It’s definitely a factor, but not the only facet. There’s a lot of urban camping in my area that wouldn’t go away if rents were lower. It’s a lot easier to blame housing costs and shrug shoulders while proclaiming “what can we do?” (while not doing anything) than it is to work on creating and implementing the social assistance programs needed to help and house.
biggest homeless population: here
dumbest housing market: here

Now we're also just the flat out most populous state so everything should be here by numbers, but the percentages don't bear that out. This place is fucked.


I see social programs as kind of an intermediate bandaid. We need them but until the drivers of the process are addressed (IE treating housing as solely investment potential), it's kind of just pissing in the wind.

You see this? Addresses a bit of what that 'driving demand' comes from.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-you-sell-a-house-these-days-the-buyer-might-be-a-pension-fund-11617544801

Non-paywalled version: https://remarkboard.com/m/if-you-sell-a-house-these-days-the-buyer-might-be-a/1fjn8z3qo8k9n
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
Something like 50% of homeless in Seattle refuse assistance. I am sure some are just rugged individualists but we are looking at the results of opioids. Sure they may not be homeless if the can land a $50/week room but they would probably still be in the same jam if things were half as expensive.

Now the other 50% could be a lot better off if things were cheaper.
Drugs as a lifestyle is a symptom of giving up.

chicken/egg


And the fact that 50% of eligibles are taking advantage of a social program is awesome!

If only the govt saw that kind of success rate with Ratheon...
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
not surprising.
It's not that people need housing that just isn't there, it's that the entities buying the houses aren't buying them for housing. My palatial 9th mountain mansion in westy's imagination aside, this is what I've been saying for a while now.

We're starting to treat the internet like essential infrastructure before we treat housing as such. That's fucked up.
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
21,887
9,180
Transylvania 90210
It's not that people need housing that just isn't there, it's that the entities buying the houses aren't buying them for housing. My palatial 9th mountain mansion in westy's imagination aside, this is what I've been saying for a while now.

We're starting to treat the internet like essential infrastructure before we treat housing as such. That's fucked up.
I’ve got encampments walking distance from my apartment. One direction is tents and an RV that can barely drive lived in by a guy who begs for income. The other direction is an RV where the guy living in it has an SUV and a motorcycle and a day job. Nearby, there’s also a modern mansion that rents out for $10k+ a weekend, while the other side of me is a nice 1 bed in a duplex that has been “for rent” for well over a month. It’s quite the variety pack.
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
21,887
9,180
Transylvania 90210
See: Norman Rockwell's Profile of America 2021©

You in LA county? Fuck that sheriff's department. Busting homeless camps doesn't solve homelessness.
Hollywood sure is. Sheriff here doesn’t bust camps. They can’t and won’t. Boise judgement changed things. It’s a different department that clears camps (when and if that happens), and cops are only on scene for the safety of the workers.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
Hollywood sure is. Sheriff here doesn’t bust camps. They can’t and won’t. Boise judgement changed things. It’s a different department that clears camps (when and if that happens), and cops are only on scene for the safety of the workers.
Well LAPD is certainly making up for it.

I forget....LASD is the fucking gang, like the literal gang masquerading as cops.

Muh bad.



And in that case no, LAPD most certainly was not there just for the safety of workers at the echo park fiasco. They fucked some people up. Press included.
 
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mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
21,887
9,180
Transylvania 90210
Well LAPD is certainly making up for it.

I forget....LASD is the fucking gang, like the literal gang masquerading as cops.

Muh bad.



And in that case no, LAPD most certainly was not there just for the safety of workers at the echo park fiasco. They fucked some people up. Press included.
LAPD has the same restrictions under Boise. It wasn’t the police shutting down the park. The city ordered the park closed and the cops were ordered to assist. I’m not saying they assisted in the warmest, fuzziest way, but they didn’t decide to bust up the camp. Outside of that high profile park closure, the cops (PD or SD) aren’t moving people. You and I won’t see eye to eye on this topic, but I’m the one living here and I’ve been to the neighborhood meetings with the local officers and council members. I’ve seen and heard what I’ve seen and heard in person.

This is the part where you reply with the ROFL reaction and catch phrase.
 

jstuhlman

bagpipe wanker
Dec 3, 2009
17,363
14,199
Cackalacka du Nord
hey! our city wants to play in the big leagues! we, too, recently saw a coordinated city/county effort to bust up tent city! because of an impending vermin problem and stuff and for reasons...
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
LAPD has the same restrictions under Boise. It wasn’t the police shutting down the park. The city ordered the park closed and the cops were ordered to assist. I’m not saying they assisted in the warmest, fuzziest way, but they didn’t decide to bust up the camp. Outside of that high profile park closure, the cops (PD or SD) aren’t moving people. You and I won’t see eye to eye on this topic, but I’m the one living here and I’ve been to the neighborhood meetings with the local officers and council members. I’ve seen and heard what I’ve seen and heard in person.

This is the part where you reply with the ROFL reaction and catch phrase.
Nah that's reserved for dano (RIP)

They've been busting homeless camps since january. Echo was just the big publicized recent one.

Cops will not solve this greater problem. I don't have to see eye to eye with you because you know it.

It's not just LA either.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,056
22,083
Sleazattle
hey! our city wants to play in the big leagues! we, too, recently saw a coordinated city/county effort to bust up tent city! because of an impending vermin problem and stuff and for reasons...

I am waiting for a cholera outbreak here. I stopped riding a tiny little trail system at the local park due to a proliferation of unburied human feces that drains directly into a popular lake for watersports that has no outlet. At least the RVs that dump shit in the streets goes into the sewer system.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
I am waiting for a cholera outbreak here. I stopped riding a tiny little trail system at the local park due to a proliferation of unburied human feces that drains directly into a popular lake for watersports that has no outlet. At least the RVs that dump shit in the streets goes into the sewer system.
Let me know if you need a truck to start driving that stuff to capitol hill to be distributed evenly and equitably amongst 2mil+ neighborhoods.




Can't be held responsible if some goes missing, later to be identified in front of empty lakeside mansions in an unnamed community to your south.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,056
22,083
Sleazattle
Let me know if you need a truck to start driving that stuff to capitol hill to be distributed evenly and equitably amongst 2mil+ neighborhoods.




Can't be held responsible if some goes missing, later to be identified in front of empty lakeside mansions in an unnamed community to your south.

Seattle/Capitol Hill is a budget wonderland compared to Mercer Island, Bellevue, Sammamish. There was a recent $26,000,000 "tear down" on the East Side.
 

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
41,902
19,227
Riding the baggage carousel.
I’ve got encampments walking distance from my apartment. One direction is tents and an RV that can barely drive lived in by a guy who begs for income. The other direction is an RV where the guy living in it has an SUV and a motorcycle and a day job. Nearby, there’s also a modern mansion that rents out for $10k+ a weekend, while the other side of me is a nice 1 bed in a duplex that has been “for rent” for well over a month. It’s quite the variety pack.
Our friends in Eagle Rock, their hood is like this. I find it both fascinating and horrifying in equal measure. The wealth disparity is more visible there than no where else I frequent.