Jwheel86

"Mattis is sort of a democrat"

I'm not sure it'll effect the General, but it'll probably push Primaries away from a Clinton like candidate by pissing off Progressives. 

Still having a better day than the Belgians:

Belgian F-16 shoots another F-16 during maintenance.

So we down to 160? Glad we got the F-35, oh wait the entire F-35 fleet is grounded. 

Sounds like a yes. 

5 minutes ago, SFLUFAN said:

The greatest threat that we face today is that there is no single "rational" political leader who is willing to entertain what I have outlined even remotely seriously.  If I was to suggest it to Barack Obama, this would be his reaction:

 

 

I don't blame them for recoiling from such notions.  I mean, what politician would say "Yeah, maybe we should start planning for the dissolution of the country", but to not at least contemplate this future in private moments seems to me as not-so-benign neglect.

 

I don't have very much going on in my life other than the work, the dog, videogames/reading, and thinking about stuff, so maybe I'm the problem

Or start discussing solutions to the fundamental issue of why the country is frozen. Not policy, just things that reinforce the basics of the Constitution. 

-End money in politics

-End partisan gerrymandering

-Paper ballots

-Open Primaries

-Same day voter registration

Do those things and you'll get a better class of politican who can deliver a New Deal before the country destroys itself. More dangerous is this idea that everything is fine and nothing needs to change. 

6 minutes ago, CayceG said:

And based on that, I'm trying to find a genesis point for where it all went wrong. 

 

Trump being elected is one thing, but the people that elected him were always here. You could say that 40,000 people initiated this, but that misses a larger point. These people were always here and always going to do something like this. And they were energized after...

The election of Barack Obama is the other moment I could think of. That was when things really really ramped up. But Obama's election was a response to the Bush Administration and the horrors that it wrought upon this Earth. Which really got set off by...

9/11. That fucked us up good. But our response was something that wasn't appropriate to the scale of the attack and the perpetrators. I think that this all happened because of...

 

The Fall of the Soviet Union. This left us with no enemy. No moderating factor. No Big Bad. Nowhere to focus our discontent, our factionalism, or our xenophobia. I agree with Putin--this event was the largest, most significant geopolitical catastrophe in modern times. I'm not saying I wished the bad old days were back, but I think that is genuinely where our demise began. 

No big bad is definitely part of it, but domestically I think it's deeper. When the Supreme Court opened the flood gates of money into the political system, the system started to slowly freeze. Statesmen got replaced by professional fundraisers who can't figure their way out of paper bag and only care about winning. The solutions they do implement are from Think Tanks that are equally compromised. With economic issues off the table, politics became about culture (why the South votes against it's interests). That division plus no movement on economic issues (except bailouts) is how you get a Trump. 

Money made relief valves impossible or flawed (like Obamacare).

1 minute ago, SFLUFAN said:

I'll cut to the chase: expansion of SCOTUS by the Left will result in the outright nullification of decisions by GOP-dominant states.

So Little Rock 2.0, except the 101st guarding Abortion Clinics.

54 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

Have you gained any super powers yet?

I held a beer a few weeks ago. 

Just added $125,000 to my $500,000 spine. Light mild headache, but a pretty easy dose. 

How much of a difference would it have made if Ford had testified after Kavanaugh?

This is brutal to listen to.

So none of the Committee Members will be questioning Ford? Cowards. 

We finally got power back!

<-- Eastern NC resident, people around here treat dogs, especially hunting dogs, like absolute shit. Almost every pet in my neighborhood was dumped on the side of the road originally. My neighbor was riding her bike miles from anything and found a box of kittens on the road.

There's some epic price gouging going on for tree removal. 

10 hours ago, sblfilms said:

How is the house?

Dry, few shingles gone and a tree down on the guest house but it didn't breach. Just ran the generator for 8 hours and it only used 4% of the 500 gallon tank so we're good for a few days but we heard the gas company trucks are out topping off tanks. On the drive home there was a massive convoy of utility trucks driving from Indiana driving into region. Current estimate is Friday. 

The yard is destroyed, about 40 trees down, house got surrounded by a foot of surge that brought in a ton of debris all the way up the driveway. Massive erosion on the beach and behind the bulkhead. Our rocks are scattered all over the place, my immediate neighbor completely lost their bulkhead (rip $50k). Our pool fence is completely gone. 

Worst areas are New Bern, Newport, and further south Wilmington. Local Base Commanders have been freed to just act so Camp Lejune and Cherry Point are sending out Marines and sheltering people. My area has had over 300 water rescues. Wilmington is the worst I think, every road in is cut off, and they've had over 500 rescues. Supplies are only able to get in by air. 

.

Things are coming back faster than I thought though, a few gas stations are open and grocery stores are letting people in a few at a time. 

We're home, no power for up to 2 weeks. 

Aasholes are spreading fake news about hurricane damage. Ones a picture of a major pier on Atlantic Beach being destroyed (it's not), another of the Highway 70 Bridge in New Bern being partially destroyed. 

18 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

God forbid the actual US government had people on the ground in the numbers they should for all hurricanes.

Not like they've got 40,000 Marines based right there (Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point is 15 minutes up the highway from New Bern).

25 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

But what about her emails?

She's our HOA President and refers to herself as "one L Hilary, the one who didn't lose".

Well, not going home under at least Monday. 24hr county curfew in effect until Sunday, massive flooding in town and a lot of swift water rescues underway. Only access to my neighborhood (12 miles away) is flooded out, probably lots of trees down between there and home. 

2 dead in Wilmington, tree fell on the house. A mother and baby.

Neighbor lost their Sea Wall.

View from my neighbor's house

I went to college there in Greenville, Tar River floods like a mofo. Campus and Downtown will absolutely flood, Football Stadium is safe though on College Hill!

In my neighborhood 2 hours away (around Morehead City if you're watching Weather Channel) my neighbor reports no power, 80mph gusts, and the storm surge is pushing up the Sound and is flooding our properties. Their house hasn't breached yet but the house is surrounded by water, a little higher and the waves will start hitting the houses full force.