Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[digitaldog]

More good stuff:

[Robert Roaldi]

Did social media cause the recent British riots? This is kind of a chilling analysis https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/18/inciting-rioters-in-britain-was-a-test-run-for-elon-musk-just-see-what-he-plans-for-america.
I've never quite understood why we give power to people just because they're rich.

[dreed]

So, if an average Canadian can have 12 guns, it is not so unbelievable that many Americans have way more than a single firearm.

Absolutely and they all love getting the money from those sales, praying to NRA that it never stops!

[digitaldog]

Great analysis of Trump's 'meltdown' at his "press conference" Thursday:

Trump’s team did their best for him on Thursday. Someone went to a local supermarket and stocked up on groceries, including Cheerios, tubs of coffee and ketchup, and provided Trump with charts showing the high cost of goods in the Biden era.
As his remarks stretched into a second hour, a squadron of flies assembled, likely attracted by several packs of breakfast sausages sweating in the summer heat. The bizarre spectacle only heightened the incongruity of using Trump’s private golf club as the backdrop for an event meant to illustrate the pain faced by millions of Americans at grocery checkouts.

Analysis by Stephen Collinson

[digitaldog]

Shares of former President Donald Trump’s social media company on Monday touched their lowest price since they began public trading on the Nasdaq nearly five months ago after a merger.
Trump Media, the company that owns the Republican presidential nominee’s preferred social messaging platform Truth Social, traded below $22.40 per share before noon ET, a nearly 3% decline on the day.
The previous low point for the stock, which trades under the DJT ticker, was in mid-April when the price plummeted to $22.55 following the company’s slingshot rise in its frenzied public trading debut.

Meanwhile, today, the Dow is approaching 41K. The record is 41,595.

[digitaldog]

Until now, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster has held his fire about his stint in the Trump White House. McMaster served with distinction in key American conflicts of the past decades: the Gulf War, the Iraq War, and the Afghan War, but as McMaster recounts in his new book, “At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House,” in some ways, his most challenging tour as a soldier was his last one: serving as the national security adviser to a notoriously mercurial president.

In his blistering, insightful account of his time in the Trump White House, McMaster describes meetings in the Oval Office as “exercises in competitive sycophancy” during which Trump’s advisers would flatter the president by saying stuff like, “Your instincts are always right” or, “No one has ever been treated so badly by the press.” Meanwhile, Trump would say “outlandish” things like, “Why don’t we just bomb the drugs?” in Mexico or, “Why don’t we take out the whole North Korean Army during one of their parades?”

[Rob C]

A fine mixture of photography, art (drawing) and political thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO6lG_qL3v8

Though America-centric, I think the piece applies just as much to the British psyche - especially as demonstrated in recent years.

I suppose that different people will take from it as they choose, but to me, it seems that it confirms a suspicion that I have long held: I think it confirms I represent the world in microcosm; it, as am I, appear fated to repeat the same basic mistakes time after time after time. I seriously doubt that we ever really manage to overcome our underlying nature to eventually become, chrysalis-like, the finely honed creatures we perhaps aspire to be. There are more feet of clay in motion at any one time than feet of any other kind.

[PeterAit]

Has anyone read word-for-word Trump's response to being asked what he would do about the high cost of child care? It's a doozy even for him!

[Robert Roaldi]

Has anyone read word-for-word Trump's response to being asked what he would do about the high cost of child care? It's a doozy even for him!

Why do people expect child care to be cheap?

Trump's public statements sound increasingly incoherent, but I don't think he ever was very coherent to begin with. It's all repeat and remix these days, and it's not as if he has ever been driven by a consistent set of ideas. The guy is old, repetitive, and was never very bright. The only reason he became a celebrity was because he was loud and brash, which is highly regarded in US popular culture, at least for rich white guys. The child care statement is just the latest example. He has no real opinion on child care, he has no opinion on anything. Why would Trump care about the cost of child care.

The latest is that he seems to think that there is a risk of children being forced to undergo gender change surgery in schools. Of course he doesn't really believe that, nor do his supporters, not the sane ones anyway. Outlandish hyperbole is his schtick and he's a one-trick pony. He was never a leader in any sense. Would you climb out of the foxhole to attack on orders from a twerp like him.

There were two major shooting incidents in the news this week, but at least yesterday's didn't take place in a school. It happened on an interstate, which is almost understandable in an insane way. Sitting in cars commuting on busy highways is a lousy way to live, we just think it's normal, so I can see where it might affect people in a bad way.

I saw a funny comment online this week, I'll paraphrase, 'Imagine the outcry if Harris had 5 kids from three different husbands.'

I saw that Trump wants to appoint Musk to some government job so he can make the civil service more efficient. What could go wrong.

[digitaldog]

I saw that Trump wants to appoint Musk to some government job so he can make the civil service more efficient. What could go wrong.

Because he only hires the BEST people.... Wait:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Trump_administration_dismissals_and_resignations