All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[numberthirty]

It would’ve only happened given the opportunity provided by the allowance of dark money and corporate financing of elections.

Politely...

That is just looking for an out for folks who probably do not deserve it.

If I have to constantly bend arms to get a group of people to act in an ethical fashion when right around "Nothing..." is actually stopping them from doing so no matter what the rules are?

Any John/Jane Public will be able to easily see that, and it will undermine how the voter views said party.

No need for some plant working to undermine them when they regularly do that just fine all by their lonesome.

[numberthirty]

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/...n-donated-body

Researchers test pig-to-human kidney transplant in donated body

[Tami]

Ann Coulter: The message in the polls: Trump's done

So how is it possible that 77% of “Republicans” — net — have a favorable opinion of Trump? There’s no other subgroup of the electorate that has even a third of that.

The only explanation is that an awful lot of Republicans are now calling themselves “Independents.”

Huh. Why might that be?

Maybe it’s because, day in, day out, the media tell us that the GOP is “the Party of Trump”! Apparently, this has led a lot of Republicans to conclude that they must not be Republicans, after all. (At least, among the Republicans contacted by these pollsters. I assume they didn’t have any respondents in Florida, where “Republican” has a much more favorable connotation.)

Thanks to the media’s lies, the only people calling themselves “Republicans” these days are the Trump die-hards. In other words, the blockbuster conclusion of this poll is: Trump die-hards like Trump!

Yes — and they’re the only ones who do. While Trump fanatics are indeed fanatical, everyone else is sick and tired of his nonsense.

Give voters a populist conservative who’s not a conman and a liar and they’ll be “Republicans” again. No wonder Trump hates DeSantis.

Is she right? Is the Republican Party dwindling to the point where the majority of those left are just teh Trump fanatics?

[numberthirty]

Take this...

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics...ade-stock-bans

Pelosi reverses course, signals openness to banning congressional stock trades

https://fortune.com/2022/01/21/one-d...es-open-to-it/

One day after Trump said Nancy Pelosi should be banned from stock trading, she said she’s open to it

[numberthirty]

When it was...

https://fortune.com/2021/12/15/nancy...elated_article

Nancy Pelosi doesn’t think that members of Congress should be banned from trading stocks

[numberthirty]

Regular folks can see that...

- Not only did you not deal with this when you were in the driver's seat just because it would be the "Ethical..." thing to do...

- You only came around to, maybe, doing the "Ethical..." thing after you were called on it.

No one needs a Green Party plant to undermine a party that is doing that. It is in the middle of undermining itself all on it's own.

[Malvolio]

Let's not kink-shame Tucker Carlson.

That's right. Maybe he got his wife to dress as the green M&M last Halloween and now he's upset that they won't sell the costume any more.

[Malvolio]

Ann Coulter: The message in the polls: Trump's done





Is she right? Is the Republican Party dwindling to the point where the majority of those left are just teh Trump fanatics?

"...a populist conservative who's not a conman..." Does that even exist?

[numberthirty]

https://www.cbr.com/matrix-resurrect...ampaign=CBR-TW

REPORT: Matrix Resurrection's Keanu Reeves Under Fire in China Over Tibetan Benefit

[Kirby101]

I first read that as Marxist Keanu Reeves.

[JB]

Biden weighs deploying thousands of troops to Eastern Europe and Baltics
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/01/...r-fears-mount/

President Joe Biden is considering deploying several thousand U.S. troops, as well as warships and aircraft, to NATO allies in the Baltics and Eastern Europe, an expansion of American military involvement amid mounting fears of a Russian incursion into Ukraine, according to administration officials.

The move would signal a major pivot for the Biden administration, which up until recently was taking a restrained stance on Ukraine, out of fear of provoking Russia into invading. But as Russian President Vladimir Putin has ramped up his threatening actions toward Ukraine, and talks between American and Russian officials have failed to discourage him, the administration is now moving away from its do-not-provoke strategy.

Also, the State Department just issued level 4 travel advisories, "Do Not Travel", to Russia and Ukraine.
https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...-advisory.html
https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...-advisory.html

Do not travel to Russia due to ongoing tension along the border with Ukraine, the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens, the embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia, COVID-19 and related entry restrictions, terrorism, harassment by Russian government security officials, and the arbitrary enforcement of local law.

Do not travel to Ukraine due to the increased threats of Russian military action and COVID-19. Exercise increased caution in Ukraine due to crime and civil unrest. Some areas have increased risk.

[shooshoomanjoe]

I really hope Putin is just flexing his muscle and pulls away when/if the west starts to send soldiers to back up Ukraine. But when Putin invaded and occupied two areas in Ukraine a decade or so ago, the west didn't send boots on the ground so who knows how th dois will play out.

[seismic-2]

The Baltic states (former USSR republics) are worried about maintaining their independence from Russia. Since they are now members of NATO, the USA and other NATO members are obligated to defend them militarily against attack. Positioning troops there is not unreasonable, although it would of course give Putin another excuse for telling the Russian people that the West is threatening their borders, and that cannot be allowed to happen in Ukraine also.

[seismic-2]

Why are conservatives so bent over the change to the green and brown M&M's??

Not wanting the status quo to change is the definition of a "conservative".

[BeastieRunner]

Who knew the female M&Ms were responsible for so many boners?