I don't know, Trump strikes me as the kind of manbaby who would quit in a heartbeat when he got fed up unless he knows his "enemies" want him gone, at which point he will stubbornly cling to his office until he is physically dragged out.
I was going to suggest that we keep a track of the impeachment process in this thread, since it ties in with the overall topic. A senator has already started the first stage, yes? Filed for an investigation? I didn't have much hope of it going any further since the senator in question was a Democrat, so I expect the Republicans will block it on lack-of-principal.
The nuclear football guy is bothering me more and more because it's so weird - what do you even do there? If I was working in news, maybe I'd blur his face?
He's someone that anyone who wanted to - good or bad - could figure out just by looking at pictures and doing a fair bit of research. He maybe even does an interview or two every presidency about "Holy cow what a crazy job!" It's not like his name is right out there all the time, and there's so many people with the president all the time it wouldn't be obvious - but it's not exactly a closely guarded secret.
But now, because that post is everywhere, that dude is screwed here in DC. I know the bars where Secret Service hangs out and drinks, and if I know that, I'm sure worse people than me know that. And whereas before you'd be like "Oh look random agents." now it's going to be INCREDIBLY easy to go up to him BY NAME and know he's the nukes guy. Either because you drunkenly want your selfie, or because you're a spy and are trying to make contact.
Like, that is SO fucked up.
PSN: mxmarks - WiiU: mxmarks - twitter: @ MikesPS4 - twitch.tv/mxmarks - "Yes, mxmarks is the King of Queens" - Unbreakable Vow
I honestly can't decide if it's more horrifying that there is a person following Trump around with the nuclear codes while he hangs out at his golf course, or if the entire world now knows how laughably easy it is to find out who that person is, and stand next to him.
I think I'm just going to file the whole thing under *screaming internally*
That guy has always existed. It's just that normally you only find him near the President who is in... The White House, The Pentagon, or The Capitol building. In a pretty secure place, overall.
I honestly can't decide if it's more horrifying that there is a person following Trump around with the nuclear codes while he hangs out at his golf course, or if the entire world now knows how laughably easy it is to find out who that person is, and stand next to him.
I think I'm just going to file the whole thing under *screaming internally*
That guy has always existed. It's just that normally you only find him near the President who is in... The White House, The Pentagon, or The Capitol building. In a pretty secure place, overall.
I mean I know there's always been weirdness with the nuclear football (didn't Bill Clinton manage to lose the damn thing once?) and I suppose if I'd ever thought about it, it made sense that the US President could order a nuclear strike wherever he was. It's just... I honestly didn't know this was a thing. I was happy not knowing this was a thing. Particularly since I found out it was a thing because of some random rich guy's Facebook photo posing with the guy who carries it around.
It's just another chapter in the unfolding horror. Every time I think I've gotten a handle on the consequences of this administration in all their awfulness, reality just goes "Ha ha ha ha nope!"
I'd like to think that competent intelligence organizations had already identified and compiled a dossier of the officer carrying the nuclear football long before this incident. That said, you want to make the effort as difficult as possible as it can force your adversary to reveal their own sources and methods.
Black lives matter.
Law and Order ≠ Justice
ACNH Island Isla Cero: DA-3082-2045-4142
Captain of the SES Comptroller of the State
I'd like to think that competent intelligence organizations had already identified and compiled a dossier of the officer carrying the nuclear football long before this incident.
True, but it's less than ideal having 'every nutcase and terrorist organization in the world' get a head start on who he is as well.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Nuclear authority in the US was developed when the implications of nuclear weapons was just starting to be understood. Nuclear deterrent relies on the idea of retaliation, you have to make sure everyone knows not to fuck with you or nukes will start flying. Congress and the Supreme Court take too long to decide, the military has its own councils, but the president is in a unique political position to make a quick choice.
There was even talk just after WWII that the cable to send the launch order be secretly disabled, for humanitarian reasons. Once the nukes are launched we are already dead, why kill millions ourselves as well?
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Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
That guy is a soldier following orders, they don't have that luxury.
The betting pool, they mean.
Ohhh. That makes more sense.
I'd go "Impeached, but not removed"
Ahh, the "Ireland Wins But Krum Gets The Snitch" approach.
Really, I'd take anything at this point. Kick him out, piss him off til he quits or does something really stupid/treasonous to the point where he HAS to be impeached, imprisonment, whatever.
The thing that worries me about this is that it seems like our president will assume that if you pay him money, you are his friend and confidante.
A potential international crisis was treated like a particularly rowdy sleepover because it never even crossed his mind that wealthy people who paid him money could be anything but fun to have around during the situation.
The thing that worries me about this is that it seems like our president will assume that if you pay him money, you are his friend and confidante.
A potential international crisis was treated like a particularly rowdy sleepover because it never even crossed his mind that wealthy people who paid him money could be anything but fun to have around during the situation.
Where else is he supposed to go to work? We know he doesn't have an office down there.
The thing that worries me about this is that it seems like our president will assume that if you pay him money, you are his friend and confidante.
A potential international crisis was treated like a particularly rowdy sleepover because it never even crossed his mind that wealthy people who paid him money could be anything but fun to have around during the situation.
The thing that worries me is how comparatively penny ante all of the grifting is.
Vladimir Putin, as an example, is estimated to be worth somewhere between $40 and $200 billion. No one knows for sure, of course, but he has probably made at least a couple of billion every year since coming to power in 1999. Whatever else one might say, some one like that cannot be easily influenced by money. A Mar-A-Lago membership is, comparatively, nothing. The Trumps (both Donald and the family) seem to mainly operate scams on the level of shitty designer clothes, time shares, and the like. It is not just the Trump can be bought, but that he can be bought for a comparative song. This is particularly galling considering that one of the "selling points" of Trump back during the Republican primaries is that he wouldn't be in the pocket of lobbyists. The reality is that Trump is in the pocket of anyone who could afford a luxury automobile.
The thing that worries me about this is that it seems like our president will assume that if you pay him money, you are his friend and confidante.
A potential international crisis was treated like a particularly rowdy sleepover because it never even crossed his mind that wealthy people who paid him money could be anything but fun to have around during the situation.
The thing that worries me is how comparatively penny ante all of the grifting is.
Vladimir Putin, as an example, is estimated to be worth somewhere between $40 and $200 billion. No one knows for sure, of course, but he has probably made at least a couple of billion every year since coming to power in 1999. Whatever else one might say, some one like that cannot be easily influenced by money. A Mar-A-Lago membership is, comparatively, nothing. The Trumps (both Donald and the family) seem to mainly operate scams on the level of shitty designer clothes, time shares, and the like. It is not just the Trump can be bought, but that he can be bought for a comparative song. This is particularly galling considering that one of the "selling points" of Trump back during the Republican primaries is that he wouldn't be in the pocket of lobbyists. The reality is that Trump is in the pocket of anyone who could afford a luxury automobile.
Any time we talk about his wealth I always think of this:
I think saying someone who is rich cannot be influenced by money makes a dangerous assumption.
You might not be influenced by having a little bit more or less money if you had that much. It would be a reasonable position.
Other people do not have to be reasonable.
I find the idea that "blank is so rich they can't be bought" to not hold up to reality. Buying influence only requires the seller to care about having more money. How much money they already have is only loosely correlated, if at all.
I think saying someone who is rich cannot be influenced by money makes a dangerous assumption.
You might not be influenced by having a little bit more or less money if you had that much. It would be a reasonable position.
Other people do not have to be reasonable.
I find the idea that "blank is so rich they can't be bought" to not hold up to reality. Buying influence only requires the seller to care about having more money. How much money they already have is only loosely correlated, if at all.
It is more the scale of money. It's like Indecent Proposal. Of course almost anyone is going to be tempted by a life changing amount of money. The thing is, that, by scale, Trump would be like some one who would seriously consider an Indecent Proposal style scenario, but instead of offering him a million dollars for a night with his wife, you offer him a bucket of Popeye's chicken.
I think saying someone who is rich cannot be influenced by money makes a dangerous assumption.
You might not be influenced by having a little bit more or less money if you had that much. It would be a reasonable position.
Other people do not have to be reasonable.
I find the idea that "blank is so rich they can't be bought" to not hold up to reality. Buying influence only requires the seller to care about having more money. How much money they already have is only loosely correlated, if at all.
The logical fallacy with that thinking is more fundamental because it ignores the source of the wealth.
If said person was born to that money then they may have a need to create their own fortune on their own terms. If said person generated that wealth over the course of their life so far, who's to say that they don't have avarice coloring everything they do. It all comes down to the faulty assumption that wealth indicates goodness and that being poor is an indication of how evil you are. Our old friend the Prosperity Gospel.
All opinions are my own and in no way reflect that of my employer.
People do a lot of things based on relatively minor gifts or favors. Giving small favors or buying pretty small connections is a very common method of ingratiating oneself and can be done regardless of how wealthy the giver and recipient are.
Edit: Like making sure you are part of the same clubs has been a common way to purchase access for centuries.
I think saying someone who is rich cannot be influenced by money makes a dangerous assumption.
You might not be influenced by having a little bit more or less money if you had that much. It would be a reasonable position.
Other people do not have to be reasonable.
I find the idea that "blank is so rich they can't be bought" to not hold up to reality. Buying influence only requires the seller to care about having more money. How much money they already have is only loosely correlated, if at all.
I often liken the 1% to dragons because once you make about 3 to 4 million dollars you literally never actually need more money than that. There's no point but to be like a dragon, hoarding as much gold as you can simply to sleep on it.
I think saying someone who is rich cannot be influenced by money makes a dangerous assumption.
You might not be influenced by having a little bit more or less money if you had that much. It would be a reasonable position.
Other people do not have to be reasonable.
I find the idea that "blank is so rich they can't be bought" to not hold up to reality. Buying influence only requires the seller to care about having more money. How much money they already have is only loosely correlated, if at all.
I often liken the 1% to dragons because once you make about 3 to 4 million dollars you literally never actually need more money than that. There's no point but to be like a dragon, hoarding as much gold as you can simply to sleep on it.
You be surprised how many broke millionaires there are down in LA. Dragons are more the people clearing millions annually.
I do get what you are saying, they could live smaller but at the same time they are definitely not hording.
I think saying someone who is rich cannot be influenced by money makes a dangerous assumption.
You might not be influenced by having a little bit more or less money if you had that much. It would be a reasonable position.
Other people do not have to be reasonable.
I find the idea that "blank is so rich they can't be bought" to not hold up to reality. Buying influence only requires the seller to care about having more money. How much money they already have is only loosely correlated, if at all.
I often liken the 1% to dragons because once you make about 3 to 4 million dollars you literally never actually need more money than that. There's no point but to be like a dragon, hoarding as much gold as you can simply to sleep on it.
You be surprised how many broke millionaires there are down in LA. Dragons are more the people clearing millions annually.
I do get what you are saying, they could live smaller but at the same time they are definitely not hording.
Broke and a millionaire seem like mutually exclusive states.
I think saying someone who is rich cannot be influenced by money makes a dangerous assumption.
You might not be influenced by having a little bit more or less money if you had that much. It would be a reasonable position.
Other people do not have to be reasonable.
I find the idea that "blank is so rich they can't be bought" to not hold up to reality. Buying influence only requires the seller to care about having more money. How much money they already have is only loosely correlated, if at all.
I often liken the 1% to dragons because once you make about 3 to 4 million dollars you literally never actually need more money than that. There's no point but to be like a dragon, hoarding as much gold as you can simply to sleep on it.
You be surprised how many broke millionaires there are down in LA. Dragons are more the people clearing millions annually.
I do get what you are saying, they could live smaller but at the same time they are definitely not hording.
Broke and a millionaire seem like mutually exclusive states.
Basically, when folks get flush with cash and have no idea how to handle it all, the situation of getting yourself a mix of drugs and a million people you owe money for everything from payments and insurance on your Bentley to fixing the plumbing in your mansion is all too easy
Basically, when folks get flush with cash and have no idea how to handle it all, the situation of getting yourself a mix of drugs and a million people you owe money for everything from payments and insurance on your Bentley to fixing the plumbing in your mansion is all too easy
That's not broke, that's just shitty at managing money.
Also when a fairly small half century old house near the coast starts at 1million the general rules about financial priorities and where a large chunk of your monthly income goes gets weird.
Basically, when folks get flush with cash and have no idea how to handle it all, the situation of getting yourself a mix of drugs and a million people you owe money for everything from payments and insurance on your Bentley to fixing the plumbing in your mansion is all too easy
That's not broke, that's just shitty at managing money.
This is before you get into stocks and investments and purchasing power, where your debt becomes an asset of sorts until the economy shifts and it totally fucks you.
Basically, when folks get flush with cash and have no idea how to handle it all, the situation of getting yourself a mix of drugs and a million people you owe money for everything from payments and insurance on your Bentley to fixing the plumbing in your mansion is all too easy
That's not broke, that's just shitty at managing money.
Pretty much exactly.
That's unequivocally not being a millionaire.
Getting a million and then blowing it fabulously is not being a millionaire.
I'm talking getting 4 million in the bank, and then spending it wisely over the course of 40 years at 100,000 a year including in that spending depositing into a retirement account and covering yourself in decent insurances.
Anyone can blow a million dollars easily, and those aren't the folks I'd compare to dragons. It's the folks that get billions and have enough to fund 250+ such lifetimes and still think taking some of their money would be a grand tragedy that I'm talking about.
The thing that worries me about this is that it seems like our president will assume that if you pay him money, you are his friend and confidante.
A potential international crisis was treated like a particularly rowdy sleepover because it never even crossed his mind that wealthy people who paid him money could be anything but fun to have around during the situation.
The thing that worries me is how comparatively penny ante all of the grifting is.
Vladimir Putin, as an example, is estimated to be worth somewhere between $40 and $200 billion. No one knows for sure, of course, but he has probably made at least a couple of billion every year since coming to power in 1999. Whatever else one might say, some one like that cannot be easily influenced by money. A Mar-A-Lago membership is, comparatively, nothing. The Trumps (both Donald and the family) seem to mainly operate scams on the level of shitty designer clothes, time shares, and the like. It is not just the Trump can be bought, but that he can be bought for a comparative song. This is particularly galling considering that one of the "selling points" of Trump back during the Republican primaries is that he wouldn't be in the pocket of lobbyists. The reality is that Trump is in the pocket of anyone who could afford a luxury automobile.
Any time we talk about his wealth I always think of this:
I honestly can't decide if it's more horrifying that there is a person following Trump around with the nuclear codes while he hangs out at his golf course, or if the entire world now knows how laughably easy it is to find out who that person is, and stand next to him.
I think I'm just going to file the whole thing under *screaming internally*
That guy has always existed. It's just that normally you only find him near the President who is in... The White House, The Pentagon, or The Capitol building. In a pretty secure place, overall.
Nope the guy with the nuclear football goes with the president whenever he's away from secured locations.
I honestly can't decide if it's more horrifying that there is a person following Trump around with the nuclear codes while he hangs out at his golf course, or if the entire world now knows how laughably easy it is to find out who that person is, and stand next to him.
I think I'm just going to file the whole thing under *screaming internally*
That guy has always existed. It's just that normally you only find him near the President who is in... The White House, The Pentagon, or The Capitol building. In a pretty secure place, overall.
Nope the guy with the nuclear football goes with the president whenever he's away from secured locations.
Yes, but usually the president spends most of his time in massively pre-secured and protected locations which are occasionally dressed up to look like public places. Such having a dinner in the white house ballroom. If Obama was hosting a big state dinner in the white house ballroom, and this missile went up, he would step out to a secured situation room. If it was a massive crisis, the ball would be immediately ended, and since the whole thing being a happy ball was always just a costume that the fortress white house was wearing for the night, everyone would be out of the way in minutes.
Mar a Lago is not that. As we just saw with the President dealing with a missile crisis while having secure documents photographed by bystanders.
I honestly can't decide if it's more horrifying that there is a person following Trump around with the nuclear codes while he hangs out at his golf course, or if the entire world now knows how laughably easy it is to find out who that person is, and stand next to him.
I think I'm just going to file the whole thing under *screaming internally*
That guy has always existed. It's just that normally you only find him near the President who is in... The White House, The Pentagon, or The Capitol building. In a pretty secure place, overall.
Nope the guy with the nuclear football goes with the president whenever he's away from secured locations.
Yeah, and the president is usually spending way more time in secure locations, not chillin most of his time at the country club.
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You overestimate rich assholes in private clubs.
My money would be on the "You can't impeach me! I quit!" scenario.
Law and Order ≠ Justice
ACNH Island Isla Cero: DA-3082-2045-4142
Captain of the SES Comptroller of the State
I was going to suggest that we keep a track of the impeachment process in this thread, since it ties in with the overall topic. A senator has already started the first stage, yes? Filed for an investigation? I didn't have much hope of it going any further since the senator in question was a Democrat, so I expect the Republicans will block it on lack-of-principal.
Ohhh. That makes more sense.
I'd go "Impeached, but not removed"
He's someone that anyone who wanted to - good or bad - could figure out just by looking at pictures and doing a fair bit of research. He maybe even does an interview or two every presidency about "Holy cow what a crazy job!" It's not like his name is right out there all the time, and there's so many people with the president all the time it wouldn't be obvious - but it's not exactly a closely guarded secret.
But now, because that post is everywhere, that dude is screwed here in DC. I know the bars where Secret Service hangs out and drinks, and if I know that, I'm sure worse people than me know that. And whereas before you'd be like "Oh look random agents." now it's going to be INCREDIBLY easy to go up to him BY NAME and know he's the nukes guy. Either because you drunkenly want your selfie, or because you're a spy and are trying to make contact.
Like, that is SO fucked up.
That guy has always existed. It's just that normally you only find him near the President who is in... The White House, The Pentagon, or The Capitol building. In a pretty secure place, overall.
I mean I know there's always been weirdness with the nuclear football (didn't Bill Clinton manage to lose the damn thing once?) and I suppose if I'd ever thought about it, it made sense that the US President could order a nuclear strike wherever he was. It's just... I honestly didn't know this was a thing. I was happy not knowing this was a thing. Particularly since I found out it was a thing because of some random rich guy's Facebook photo posing with the guy who carries it around.
It's just another chapter in the unfolding horror. Every time I think I've gotten a handle on the consequences of this administration in all their awfulness, reality just goes "Ha ha ha ha nope!"
I believe he lost the code card, not the actual communications bag/thing.
Edit: strike that, seems it was the actual case;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/328442.stm
Law and Order ≠ Justice
ACNH Island Isla Cero: DA-3082-2045-4142
Captain of the SES Comptroller of the State
True, but it's less than ideal having 'every nutcase and terrorist organization in the world' get a head start on who he is as well.
There was even talk just after WWII that the cable to send the launch order be secretly disabled, for humanitarian reasons. Once the nukes are launched we are already dead, why kill millions ourselves as well?
Ahh, the "Ireland Wins But Krum Gets The Snitch" approach.
Really, I'd take anything at this point. Kick him out, piss him off til he quits or does something really stupid/treasonous to the point where he HAS to be impeached, imprisonment, whatever.
A potential international crisis was treated like a particularly rowdy sleepover because it never even crossed his mind that wealthy people who paid him money could be anything but fun to have around during the situation.
Where else is he supposed to go to work? We know he doesn't have an office down there.
The thing that worries me is how comparatively penny ante all of the grifting is.
Vladimir Putin, as an example, is estimated to be worth somewhere between $40 and $200 billion. No one knows for sure, of course, but he has probably made at least a couple of billion every year since coming to power in 1999. Whatever else one might say, some one like that cannot be easily influenced by money. A Mar-A-Lago membership is, comparatively, nothing. The Trumps (both Donald and the family) seem to mainly operate scams on the level of shitty designer clothes, time shares, and the like. It is not just the Trump can be bought, but that he can be bought for a comparative song. This is particularly galling considering that one of the "selling points" of Trump back during the Republican primaries is that he wouldn't be in the pocket of lobbyists. The reality is that Trump is in the pocket of anyone who could afford a luxury automobile.
Also on Steam and PSN: twobadcats
Any time we talk about his wealth I always think of this:
You might not be influenced by having a little bit more or less money if you had that much. It would be a reasonable position.
Other people do not have to be reasonable.
I find the idea that "blank is so rich they can't be bought" to not hold up to reality. Buying influence only requires the seller to care about having more money. How much money they already have is only loosely correlated, if at all.
It is more the scale of money. It's like Indecent Proposal. Of course almost anyone is going to be tempted by a life changing amount of money. The thing is, that, by scale, Trump would be like some one who would seriously consider an Indecent Proposal style scenario, but instead of offering him a million dollars for a night with his wife, you offer him a bucket of Popeye's chicken.
Also on Steam and PSN: twobadcats
The logical fallacy with that thinking is more fundamental because it ignores the source of the wealth.
If said person was born to that money then they may have a need to create their own fortune on their own terms. If said person generated that wealth over the course of their life so far, who's to say that they don't have avarice coloring everything they do. It all comes down to the faulty assumption that wealth indicates goodness and that being poor is an indication of how evil you are. Our old friend the Prosperity Gospel.
Edit: Like making sure you are part of the same clubs has been a common way to purchase access for centuries.
I often liken the 1% to dragons because once you make about 3 to 4 million dollars you literally never actually need more money than that. There's no point but to be like a dragon, hoarding as much gold as you can simply to sleep on it.
You be surprised how many broke millionaires there are down in LA. Dragons are more the people clearing millions annually.
I do get what you are saying, they could live smaller but at the same time they are definitely not hording.
Broke and a millionaire seem like mutually exclusive states.
Finances are weird and that situation does happen
Having money means you have options.
That's not broke, that's just shitty at managing money.
little bit of column a, little bit of column b
Pretty much exactly.
That's unequivocally not being a millionaire.
Getting a million and then blowing it fabulously is not being a millionaire.
I'm talking getting 4 million in the bank, and then spending it wisely over the course of 40 years at 100,000 a year including in that spending depositing into a retirement account and covering yourself in decent insurances.
Anyone can blow a million dollars easily, and those aren't the folks I'd compare to dragons. It's the folks that get billions and have enough to fund 250+ such lifetimes and still think taking some of their money would be a grand tragedy that I'm talking about.
But we're far off the topic at this point so.
I think of this.
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/the4zg/comedy-central-presents-donald-trump
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Nope the guy with the nuclear football goes with the president whenever he's away from secured locations.
Yes, but usually the president spends most of his time in massively pre-secured and protected locations which are occasionally dressed up to look like public places. Such having a dinner in the white house ballroom. If Obama was hosting a big state dinner in the white house ballroom, and this missile went up, he would step out to a secured situation room. If it was a massive crisis, the ball would be immediately ended, and since the whole thing being a happy ball was always just a costume that the fortress white house was wearing for the night, everyone would be out of the way in minutes.
Mar a Lago is not that. As we just saw with the President dealing with a missile crisis while having secure documents photographed by bystanders.
Yeah, and the president is usually spending way more time in secure locations, not chillin most of his time at the country club.
That's...literally what Nixon did.
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It’s not a very important country most of the time
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