The Rose Garden and White House happenings: Listening to voters’ concerns

Klinker said:
I take it proeasdf is a reincarnated troll.  Anyone know who it is or do I have to read its posts and figure it out for myself?

 not a troll.  

but the citing of a dictionary entry, an argument beginning with "many believe", and a demand that a person "explain to all of us" are reminiscent of an argumentative chap who was at one time a very frequent MOL contributor but hasn't been here in a while.

But who knows, maybe just someone inspired by him.

probably a leaf blower owner.   With a day job.

Robert_Casotto said:
probably a leaf blower owner.   With a day job.

 delete your account 

mtierney said:

nohero said:
 I was talking about GOP inaction to address the scourge of guns in the USA.  I don't know whether to call your attempt to divert using the Mueller investigation sad, or something worse.

 What is really scary, is your 110% trust in all things Democratic. With that mindset, collaboration and bipartisanship cannot exist.

 No, just a desire that both sides at least talk about the issue.  The GOP avoids it.

ml1 said:
 not a troll.  
but the citing of a dictionary entry, an argument beginning with "many believe", and a demand that a person "explain to all of us" are reminiscent of an argumentative chap who was at one time a very frequent MOL contributor but hasn't been here in a while.
But who knows, maybe just someone inspired by him.

 This is like "CSI:MOL"

Friedman on the immigration crisis

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/opinion/trump-immigration-border-wall.html

mtierney said:
Friedman on the immigration crisis
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/opinion/trump-immigration-border-wall.html

 Speaking for myself, the newspaper was delivered this morning, and I did read that column.

Nothing about it struck me as new, either from Friedman or on the issue in general.  If it was informative for anybody, then it was useful.

I was “struck” by the enormity of the issue — from a liberal’s perspective.

mtierney said:
I was “struck” by the enormity of the issue — from a liberal’s perspective.

 If that's the case, you haven't been reading enough.

Tom Friedman is not a liberal

So, thread drift: today, April 25, is ANZAC Day the day we commemorate the return of troops from WW1 and remember the fallen in all wars. Given what remains of the ANZUS Treaty (I gather mostly in tatters since this president doesn’t really want to discuss ambassadors let alone update regional strategic military alliances and equipment installations on friendly foreign soil), I’m wondering if there’s going to be any formal recognition in Washington this year?

ANZAC itself is mostly about Gallipoli (so modern Turkey has a hard time handling our govt’s growing fantasies of the glories of ‘our’ war), the WW1 aspect includes early land grabs for mid-East history and oil, plus rescuing European civilisation from rabid savagery. But that’s just the early history; these days even WW2 and Korea veterans are thinning out, so the reality is more of the veterans and families participating today have been involved in international action lead by USA military. (Not saying USA started the wars)

(We also have Remembrance Day in November.)

These fires in Norway are pretty scary, and fast-moving. I guess no-one got around to regular raking in recent weeks...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48035682

Seriously, though, the worldwide lack of rain (not floods, usable rain), and fast-moving destructive fires over vast areas that we’ve seen this year especially really worries me (and saddens me). Even if you don’t believe in climate change, this isn’t a usual pattern. 

Has anyone else read this article on reporting the president’s language?

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/i-have-the-best-words-on-berengere-viennots-la-langue-de-trump/

It neatly sums up the challenges we have, even when English is used, of explaining sense and context efficiently to underscore any confusion/disbelief/amusement/denial or any other immediate reaction to communications from a person who rarely seems to fact- or spell-check his announcements. Translating for any kind of accurate reporting let alone for the formation of public opinion is made almost impossible due to the poor quality of the original messages.

How does the country deal with the steady flows of lies from our leader's twitter feed?

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/25/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-twitter/index.html

jamie said:
How does the country deal with the steady flows of lies from our leader's twitter feed?
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/25/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-twitter/index.html

 Surrender?

Klinker said:

jamie said:
How does the country deal with the steady flows of lies from our leader's twitter feed?
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/25/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-twitter/index.html

 Surrender?

To Russia?

Archivists and historians will have totally different understandings of of their professional ethics, in that case. That’s incredibly sad. 

New Jersey alert:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/us/marijuana-california-legalization.html

mtierney said:
New Jersey alert:


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/us/marijuana-california-legalization.html

This is what happens when you legalize and turn it into a joke by burdening with high fees, taxes and regulations. Resulting in illegal pot being cheaper than legal. Naturally, consumers will buy from cheaper suppliers. Isn't that what capitalism is about?

The few Republicans in California could help by pushing to relieve the burdens on legal pot suppliers. Will they? No.

They claim they want to relieve us of burdensome governmental regulations, high taxes and fees. Doing so would enable legal suppliers to get the upper hand. OTOH they also feel a constant need to regulate our personal lives - abortions, pot use, marriage, etc. As usual, when it does not conflict with big corporate, that constant need to regulate us personally takes precedence over relief.  

Illegal suppliers also have the advantage of being able to illegally export out of state.

mtierney said:
New Jersey alert:


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/us/marijuana-california-legalization.html

 Which particular part do you say is a particular "New Jersey alert"?  There are a number of issues discussed in the article.

nohero said:

mtierney said:
New Jersey alert:


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/us/marijuana-california-legalization.html

 Which particular part do you say is a particular "New Jersey alert"?  There are a number of issues discussed in the article.

 Legalization of marijuana in NJ .

mtierney said:
 Legalization of marijuana in NJ .

 very little of what's going on in CA is applicable to NJ. 

perhaps there is hope yet...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/us/politics/trump-infrastructure-plan.html

mtierney said:
perhaps there is hope yet...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/us/politics/trump-infrastructure-plan.html

 We’ll see if he remembers what he said in 3 weeks.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/apr/4/donald-trump-vows-1-trillion-infrastructure-plan-w/

mtierney said:
perhaps there is hope yet...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/us/politics/trump-infrastructure-plan.html

 as always with Trump, he can't be believed until the check clears 

If Trump says something, you can be sure it isn't true.  Look at Syria.  Just a month or two ago, Trump said ISIS had been defeated and we were bringing our forces home.  Well, ISIS is still beheading people and our troops are still fighting them.

If the man said it was raining, we would all know we could leave our umbrellas at home.

hope springs eternal — pessimism promotes defeat

mtierney said:
hope springs eternal — pessimism promotes defeat

mtierney said:
hope springs eternal — pessimism promotes defeat

Doveryai, no proveryai.

Trump would be more credible on infrastructure if he'd put the Gateway funding back on track.