Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[JoeKitchen]

LBJ on loyalty: "I don't want loyalty. I want loyalty. I want him to kiss my ass in Macy's window at high noon and tell me it smells like roses. I want his pecker in my pocket."

That's a good one. 

Another LBJ classic, "I'd had more women by accident than [Kennedy] ever had on purpose.”

[Alan Klein]

Really? You mean Cuomo and deBlasio can't waive federal taxes? Well, that changes everything.

Were these that taxes that didn't involve money?

Fortunately for Amazon, Bezos figured that out.

Perhaps Amazon thought it would be a bigger win on its side of the win-win equation if it relocated to Virginia.

Cuomo and DiBlasio couldn't waive NYC and NYS taxes.  So we would benefit by taxes on the income of 25,000 employees.  Amazon changed their mind AFTER AOC opened her mouth.  They thought it was a great deal and decided on NYC before she complained. 

[faberryman]

A warehouse does not get you 25,000 jobs. A couple of thousand maybe.  Mainly low-tech, low paying jobs.  On the other hand, an Amazon Tech Campus would have brought in 25,000 jobs many high paying.  I would also create many lower-paying support jobs.  Buildings have to be cleaned and maintained, sidewalks swept and snow removed.  It would bring in small vendors selling food from carts helping smaller entrepreneurs. It would upgrade the neighborhoods helping the poorer people as well. Today, in some of the previously worse neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy, little homes go for over $600k and up in minority neighborhoods.  Comparing a warehouse with people moving boxes around to a technical facility of 25,000 is no comparison. NYC is great because it's the best in finance, communications, advertising, theater, museums, restaurants, etc.  It didn't get that way with warehouses.  It missed out on a big chance to bring in tech, something it's not known for.

You have been reading too many utopian novels. The other thing I would note here is that Cuomo and deBlasio are Democrats, so this Shangri-La couldn't possibly have come to pass. Somewhere along the way they would have turned this into a communist commune.

[faberryman]

On another note, I am glad to see that political discussion about Biden is in the realm of whether his policies are sensible or not or whether or not they're working. The usual political argy-bargy, in other words. Makes a change from the daily dose of insanity of the last 4-5 years.

There really weren't any policies to debate for the last for the past 4-5 years. We were just talking about what Trump was lying about that day.

[JoeKitchen]

Unfortunately, the left and Democrats refuse to credit Trump with anything, even if it was the right thing to do.  So they want to reverse everything he did in a knee-jerk reaction, rather than seeing if his policies made sense and then keeping them if they do. I do think that Biden is trying to walking a fine line there.  For example, he seems to maintaining the pressure in the South China Sea.  He's put off changing tariffs on China.  But I agree some of his other reversal policies will just hurt America and make the world more dangerous.

Putting troops back into Germany has told our NATO partners there it's OK to not keep their financial agreements on defense, again shifting more of the military burden and cost to the US.  Sitting down with Iran will put us back where we were and encourage them to be more aggressive in the Middle East and developing nuclear.  You know Biden's going to drop trade restrictions on them.  His shutting down the XL pipeline loses high-paying jobs for Americans just when we need them.  Shutting down fossil fuel exploration and fracking will raise the price of gas at the pump.  It will raise the cost of everything for Americans including food production and other products just at a time when we're broke.  We lost other 800K+ jobs last week. 

He must be getting economic advice from AOC. 

Israel was pretty close to bombing Iran during the Obama administration.  Him sitting down with Iran, while ignoring Israel and Saudi Arabia, creates the perfect storm for war in the Middle East.  It is only a matter of time before Israel decides to bomb Iran's nuclear, which I would not blame them for doing, with support from the Saudis. 

As they say, if you break it, you bought it. 

[faberryman]

Cuomo and DiBlasio couldn't waive NYC and NYS taxes.  So we would benefit by taxes on the income of 25,000 employees.  Amazon changed their mind AFTER AOC opened her mouth.  They thought it was a great deal and decided on NYC before she complained.

So Amazon figured out at the last minute it wasn't that great a deal after all. AOC burst their bubble, or let the cat out of the bag, or whatever.

[JoeKitchen]

When state and local officials make that determination. Biden isn't in control of that anymore than Trump was; though his administration is working at getting more money and support to schools to aid them in reopening efforts. How long has he been in office now?

Oh, so presidents no longer set precedents.  Good to know. 

Actually, Biden is actively working against reopening schools.  His CDC just released guidelines that directly contradicted themselves from a week earlier, after Psaki said the head was speaking from a personal position, that would require 99% of all of the schools in the country to shut down if we started following them. 

All the science shows the schools should just reopen now.  There is no scientific reason to keep them closed.  They are ignoring the science and only releasing these guidelines due to politics, and everyone sees it.  Even the crazed Morning Joe people are pointing it. 

[faberryman]

Israel was pretty close to bombing Iran during the Obama administration.  Him sitting down with Iran, while ignoring Israel and Saudi Arabia, creates the perfect storm for war in the Middle East.  It is only a matter of time before Israel decides to bomb Iran's nuclear, which I would not blame them for doing, with support from the Saudis.  As they say, if you break it, you bought it.

So you think Israel would commit suicide by nuking Iran?  I think this falls under MAD even if Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon.

[JoeKitchen]

You are showcasing your ignorance yet again. Here are the details of this "horrid" deal; Iran agreed to:

- Reduce the number of centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium, by two-thirds;
- Cap uranium enrichment at 3.67% for 15 years (must be 90% enriched for a weapon);
- Give up 97 percent of its low-enriched uranium stockpile;
- Halt all uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow facility for at least 15 years;
- Redesign its Arak heavy water reactor so that it will not produce weapons-grade plutonium, ever; and
- Agree not to build any additional heavy water reactors for 15 years.

And all of this was not based on trusting Iran but on a detailed and exhaustive schedule of on-site inspections.

All of our allies and essentially every nuclear weapons/disarmament expert praised the treaty. Yet of course Joe and all the right-wing blathering nincompoops know better, right?

But in their eyes there was a fatal problem with the treaty: it was an Obama accomplishment.

All while not allowing any UN nuclear inspectors in to inspect their military bases, exactly where the enrichment is suspected to be happening.  Once again, it is you that is showing your ignorance.  Trust but verify, and Iran was not allowing us to verify, therefore they do not deserve our trust. 

There is point in having inspections if the inspectors can inspect anywhere but the places we suspect it is happening. 

[JoeKitchen]

I don't know why this matters to you. You have been living your life from now on for what - six or eight months - without a mask. For the rest of us idiots who may or may not be convinced that masks work but don't mind wearing them if it makes others around us safer, whether it is this month or next month doesn't really matter. Whose job is not able to be performed wearing a mask? A birthday clown who can't blow up balloons and make animals out of them?

Well the gym kind of requires it. 

I sweat like a sinner in church normally, so when working out I'm soaked 30 minutes in.  I'm getting annoyed with water boarding myself at the gym. 

[faberryman]

Oh, so presidents no longer set precedents.  Good to know.

I agree. Trump was precedent setting. Which isn't always a good thing. There can be good precedents and bad precedents.
 

Actually, Biden is actively working against reopening schools.  His CDC just released guidelines that directly contradicted themselves from a week earlier, after Psaki said the head was speaking from a personal position, that would require 99% of all of the schools in the country to shut down if we started following them.

Yeah, we never saw the CDC change school opening guidelines under Trump. Actually, I don't remember if the CDC had any school opening guidelines to change. I thought Trump was leaving school stuff to state and local governments. It is why one school system does it one way the adjacent school system does it another. It is Alan's great experiment in federalism. Fifty states and 14,000 school districts all fucking up in different ways.

All the science shows the schools should just reopen now.  There is no scientific reason to keep them closed.  They are ignoring the science and only releasing these guidelines due to politics, and everyone sees it.  Even the crazed Morning Joe people are pointing it.

I agree. We need to get some scientists over to the CDC stat. (I learned the word "stat" from watching Gray's Anatomy.) Maybe Joe and Mikka could get a job there. They are obviously wasting their talents being talking heads on TV.

[JoeKitchen]

So you think Israel would commit suicide by nuking Iran?  I think this falls under MAD even if Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon.

There are more then one type of bombs, and I never said nukes.

Iran is an extensional threat to Israel.  They have for decades stated they want Israel destroyed and have shown no reason not to be taken seriously.  And, unlike us in North America, Israel does not have the luxury of two expansive oceans keeping enemies away, which was proven in 1948, 1967, 1973, and so on and so on. 

So they tend to take actions from enemies a little more serious then us.  We have no right criticizing them for it while living with the luxury of peace and no wars in our country for over a century. 

Iran is now becoming an extensional threat to other Arab nations too, like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Irac, etc. 

By making Iran stronger and taking away the sanctions, this will only increase the threat.  On top of that, we have no guarantee Iran will follow the deal since they will not allow inspectors onto the bases where we suspect the enrichment to be happening.  Israel is not stupid; they are not going to except this. 

[faberryman]

Well the gym kind of requires it.

You mean you are not telling the gym where they can shove their mask? I am kind of disappointed. I had this vision of you traveling around with your sidekick Sancho saving the world from gyms that made you wear a mask.

I sweat like a sinner in church normally, so when working out I'm soaked 30 minutes in.  I'm getting annoyed with water boarding myself at the gym.

I missed the part where you explain what that's got to do with masks. Is it only your upper lip that sweats like a sinner in church?

[JoeKitchen]

You mean you are not telling the gym where they can shove their mask?

I missed the part where you explain what that's got to do with masks. Is it only your upper lip that sweats like a sinner in church?

I sweat like you would not believe.  There are puddles of my sweat next to the machine after I am done working out.  Everything I wear is soaked completely after a workout, including a mask.  It is kind of hard to breath through a wet piece of cloth. 

[faberryman]

All while not allowing any UN nuclear inspectors in to inspect their military bases, exactly where the enrichment is suspected to be happening.  Once again, it is you that is showing your ignorance.  Trust but verify, and Iran was not allowing us to verify, therefore they do not deserve our trust.

Fortunately, Trump got us out of the agreement and now UN nuclear inspectors can inspect Iran's military bases, so there is no way Iran could make a nuclear bomb. Problem solved.

[faberryman]

I sweat like you would not believe.  There are puddles of my sweat next to the machine after I am done working out.  Everything I wear is soaked completely after a workout, including a mask.  It is kind of hard to breath through a wet piece of cloth.

I was watching the news the other night and this new web startup was spending its last dollar on a TV ad, and they were selling, probably for $9.99 and they would throw an extra one in for just a $14.99 shipping and handling fee, this new anti-perspirant that actually works. I have forgotten their name because the general rule for naming web startups in to pick a name which has nothing to do with your product or service.

[faberryman]

There are more then one type of bombs, and I never said nukes..

Okay. I don't know too much about their respective conventional arsenals, but after the first strike you sort of lose the element of surprise, so then you just bomb each other relentlessly until your allies get involved, in which case each side and its ally bomb the other side relentlessly, until both sides are piles of rubble. I am not sure how that helps Israel. Besides, Alan doesn't want us to get involved in any Middle East adventures. The other thing is Alan thinks we should let adversaries work out their own disputes, and besides we couldn't help anyway because we are broke. You know we could solve this Middle East problem if we just gave Israel South Dakota and moved all its people there. The British giving Palestine to Israel isn't really working out all that well.

[JoeKitchen]

Okay. I don't know too much about their respective conventional arsenals, but after the first strike you sort of lose the element of surprise, so then you just bomb each other relentlessly until your allies get involved, in which case each side and its ally bomb the other side relentlessly, until both sides are piles of rubble. I am not sure how that helps Israel. Besides, Alan doesn't want us to get involved in any Middle East adventures. The other thing is Alan's thinks we should let adversaries work out their own disputes, and besides we couldn't help anyway because we are broke.

So, your getting all your advice from Alan now?  That's interesting. 

[Peter McLennan]

Well, it seems you are now dragging your behind across the carpet, trying to change the narrative.

You are simply a victim of your own poorly written original question.  I knew the second I read it you were going to go ballistic when I posted the correct answer to your question.

Lets review:

Notice you did not ask, What were the first words uttered after LANDING on the surface of the moon?

Since that was NOT the question, the correct answer to your original was and will continue to be  "contact light", the moment the Lunar Module first touched the surface of the moon.

You are welcome.

A word of advice.  Don't take up law or politics as a profession. You'll starve.

Also, never, NEVER attempt to out-nerd me on space flight.  You'll lose.

[Robert Roaldi]

Your PM seems upset the XL pipeline was cancelled.  You lost more jobs because of Biden's decision than Americans did.

We'll see.