Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[Rhossydd]

I saw a peculiar clip of King Charles speaking to Congress during which he called for the support of Ukraine. Both Mike Johnson and JD Vance stood up to applaud. What?

Too stupid to realise how they'd been trolled.

[digitaldog]

Too stupid to realise how they'd been trolled.

As for stupidity:

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Thursday said that it is not necessary for Congress to weigh in on the Trump administration’s military action in Iran because the United States is currently “not at war.”

[Rob C]

And we all imagined Catch 22 was fiction!

[Robert Roaldi]

Too stupid to realise how they'd been trolled.

That's world-class stupid.

[Rob C]

I guess we simply end up speechless under this deluge of governmental madness and mendacity. That's how they win nowadays: folks just give up.

[Robert Roaldi]

I guess we simply end up speechless under this deluge of governmental madness and mendacity. That's how they win nowadays: folks just give up.

Speechless is about right.

[Robert Roaldi]

In case you missed it, Trumpistan is still on the alert about the Covid Lab Leak conspiracy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwtVwVq_n-A.

[digitaldog]

Classic TACO Man!

For months, President Donald Trump has suggested that outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell might have committed a crime because the cost of renovating the Fed’s headquarters increased by about 30% on his watch.
But the cost of Trump’s own prized renovation — the White House ballroom — has increased even more, as a percentage of his original estimate.

And it’s looking more and more like Trump wasn’t telling the truth when he said the project would involve “no charge to the taxpayer whatsoever.” The big news Monday was that the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee has requested $1 billion in funding that could go to security related to the $400 million ballroom.

The money, which is tucked into an expected party-line bill that is otherwise focused on immigration enforcement, is designated for “security adjustments and upgrades.” The security uses “include” work on the White House grounds “to support enhancements by the United States Secret Service relating to the East Wing Modernization Project.”

[Robert Roaldi]

The cost of Trump's new ballroom is all over the map, $200 million to $1 billion, now $400 million, who knows what tomorrow. It was going to funded by private donations, now it's not.

First the US was at war, now it's over, maybe, maybe not. Some in the administration are complaining about allies not helping out. What allies, Russia? If I were the parent of someone in the military, I'd be annoyed as hell that my kid might die for this. I read somewhere that the US military was having trouble recruiting enough personnel. No shit?

The Trump-o-sphere was upset about Jimmy Kimmel's wisecrack about Melania's eventual widowhood. Pretty rich coming from Trump a guy who threatens to kill people all the time.

On a more positive note, relatively speaking, I recommend the recent podcast series by the author Michael Lewis, in which he revisits some of the people involved in the 2008 crash, https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/against-the-rules. The season's title is "The Big Short Companion".

I also wanted to point out a youtube channel about a photographer who converses with and takes portraits of strangers in public situations, https://www.youtube.com/@modelstrangers. Each episode is short, 3 to 6 min, and highly watchable.

[Robert Roaldi]

I almost forgot this one, a story about an American scientist who was arrested by officials for some reason or other, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwtVwVq_n-A&t=386s. That is, I don't really know the cover story but the objective was to obviously scare any scientists who dare come up with findings that do not line up with the current nomenklatura. It was a nice touch to not let him dress. The KGB would be proud.

Land of the freedom to conform.

[Robert Roaldi]

Here's a depressing TED talk about the state of dissent in the US, https://www.ted.com/talks/miles_taylor_the_rising_cost_of_dissent_in_america_may_2026. It's about 20 min in long. The speaker recounts his problems with authority during the Trump terms and threats from strangers after voicing his opinions.

[Rob C]

I’m no student of American history, but can anyone accurately pinpoint a time when there was a golden age of freedom there?

Playboy and Hefner’s long treatise on the Playboy Philosophy, which I found fascinating reading, must have been penned at least back in the seventies, if not earlier. In no way was American culture of the period, as discussed therein, one of emancipation for all, nor a triumph of spiritual or sexual freedom. From Catholic to evangelical bible-belt fanaticism, life for the magazine appeared to be a perpetual battle against repression, attempts to close down circulation, and the vilification of everything to do with pleasure, itself seen as the the very work of the devil.

As the old song declared: “If I knew you were coming, I’d have baked a cake…” a national fruit one, no doubt.

But don’t worry, the UK isn’t far behind you: we boast politicians unable to state what defines a woman; we have a Greens-propped SNP government that allows a convicted male sex offender reside in a female-only prison on his declaration that he is a woman; gay-priders are lauded, whereas females who want protected female-only toilets are harassed… no bloody wonder I haven’t set foot in my “homeland” since 2004. That homeland no longer exists, usurped by a dystopian product of enlightened modern thinking… God help my children and theirs.

[Robert Roaldi]

I’m no student of American history, but can anyone accurately pinpoint a time when there was a golden age of freedom there?
.
.
.

Depends. The real US or the mythical one. Most of what people think of as history is what Hollywood made up.

[degrub]

Freedom for who ?
Perhaps from the time of the end of the war with England until the mid 1800s - those pushing west filling the continent with Anglo settlers.
Then we fought an uncivil war over non-anglo's freedom, disguised as "states rights",  which established the principle, but not so much the practice. It has been oscillating since then between WASPs and related dominance and "freedom" of non-anglos. Currently in a negative phase.
Women's right have followed a similar pattern of gains and retreats since the time of a husband being able to commit a wife by declaring her insane with no evidence other than his word if she was not willing to adhere to "family duty" as defined by the husband. MAGA being the latest example.
Throughout the existence of the US, the capitalists and ruling oligarchy have been dominated by male anglos with rare exceptions. So, maybe only the "billionaires" have freedom today.

Everyone else gets "legislated freedom" . Well, almost everyone else...... up to 16 months ago....

[Robert Roaldi]

I saw this funny post on FB somewhere, no idea if it's a joke or an actual statement from someone real:

The Iranian navy, which has been destroyed eight times, closed the Strait of Hormuz again, because the United States for the seventh time won the war that wasn’t a war, so the United States can open the Strait of Hormuz that was open before the not war.

The not-war that started to get the uranium that was completely obliterated, so that the Iranians can’t build the nuclear bomb that they weren’t building for the not-war that the United States started.

Then the United States, which has nuclear weapons, threatening to use nuclear weapons to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons because having nuclear weapons is dangerous.

If the United States saw what the United States is doing in the United States, the United States would invade the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States.

- Mohamed Safa, United Nations ECOSOC diplomat

[Jonathan Cross]

I’m no student of American history, but can anyone accurately pinpoint a time when there was a golden age of freedom there?

Freedom for who ?

New Hampshire motto,
"Live Free or Die"

Jonathan

[Rob C]

I saw this funny post on FB somewhere, no idea if it's a joke or an actual statement from someone real:

The Iranian navy, which has been destroyed eight times, closed the Strait of Hormuz again, because the United States for the seventh time won the war that wasn’t a war, so the United States can open the Strait of Hormuz that was open before the not war.

The not-war that started to get the uranium that was completely obliterated, so that the Iranians can’t build the nuclear bomb that they weren’t building for the not-war that the United States started.

Then the United States, which has nuclear weapons, threatening to use nuclear weapons to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons because having nuclear weapons is dangerous.

If the United States saw what the United States is doing in the United States, the United States would invade the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States.

- Mohamed Safa, United Nations ECOSOC diplomat

Priceless! A shame that those in charge - somebody is in charge, yes? - who should read it wouldn’t get any of it. As neither would their supporters, for if they could, then they would no longer be supporters unless under medication, official or clandestine. It really is a shame to see our transatlantic cousins flush themselves down the pan just as we are doing in the mother country.

In the latter, we have the lame excuse of national senility.

What we share, apparently, is a breed of politician whose single concern is holding onto office, price to the nation irrelevant.

[Chris Kern]

New Hampshire motto,
"Live Free or Die"

As our own Internet savant Rob Campbell recently said: Apropos of not a lot:

The renowned Dartmouth College drama professor Warner Bentley (that's the Hanover, New Hampshire, Dartmouth, not that other one) told this story to illustrate the politics of his adopted state.

As an undergraduate at Dartmouth in the 1930s, the the Hollywood screenwriter and producer Budd Schulberg was an avid communist.  He often struck out into rural areas of New Hampshire and neighboring Vermont to hawk copies of The Daily Worker.

One crisp New England morning, Schulberg knocked on a door and, when the man of the house answered, held up the newspaper and offered a free subscription.

The farmer stared intently at the front page, which had a banner headline and several stories excoriating Democratic Party President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal as a fraud.

The farmer reluctantly shook his head and told Schulberg: "I already take a paper.  Don't see as how I need another one.  Looks like a good Republican rag, though."

[Robert Roaldi]

That Trump Mobile phone thing is going well, isn't it?

[Jonathan Cross]

“Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called, and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.”
John Stuart Mill, philosopher in ‘On Liberty’ (1859) as reported in The Times UK newspaper, 15th May.

Jonathan