Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Syrian Lannister
Aug 25, 2007

Oh, did I kill him too?
I've been a very busy little man.


Sugartime Jones
DB is back

https://twitter.com/duffelblog/status/1134414562202148864?s=21

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Proud Christian Mom
Dec 20, 2006
READING COMPREHENSION IS HARD
Ted has desire to become a lobbyist so he doesnt care about burning down this bridge. He's either going to become a Supreme Court Justice or live on Fox News.

KirbyKhan
Mar 20, 2009



Soiled Meat

Proud Christian Mom posted:

Ted has desire to become a lobbyist so he doesnt care about burning down this bridge. He's either going to become a Supreme Court Justice or live on Fox News.

It would be extremely on brand for him to gently caress the portion of the debate team who sell out. Jesus, I still remember his face melting in a frown like manner when he had to do donation calls for 45.

UP THE BUM NO BABY
Sep 1, 2011

by Hand Knit
WHY AM I PERSECUTED?!

FAUXTON
Jun 2, 2005

spero che tu stia bene

Yes, banned for life from being a lobbyist but I'm actually a legislative advisory partner so CASHIN CHECKS FROM DAY ONE BAYBEEEEEE

Handsome Ralph
Sep 3, 2004

Oh boy, posting!
That's where I'm a Viking!


UP THE BUM NO BABY posted:

WHY AM I PERSECUTED?!

:lol:

FrozenVent
May 1, 2009

The Boeing 737-200QC is the undisputed workhorse of the skies.

FAUXTON posted:

Yes, banned for life from being a lobbyist but I'm actually a legislative advisory partner so CASHIN CHECKS FROM DAY ONE BAYBEEEEEE

Yeah pretty much.

In Canada at least the definition of “lobbying” is pretty narrow; you can work for years for a registered lobbying organization and not need to register as a lobbyist because you don’t spend enough of your time doing actual lobbying for it to count.

Time Crisis Actor
Apr 28, 2002

by Hand Knit

UP THE BUM NO BABY posted:

WHY AM I PERSECUTED?!

I got this reference

Nuclear War
Nov 7, 2012

You're a pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty girl
I still don't really understand how lobbying works.

Vasudus
May 30, 2003
Lobbyists for the most part do the bulk of the writing of the laws that directly benefit them. They pass it along to the offices of politicians that are their allies, and enter it as law. These politicians then enjoy campaign donations (both the legal and quasi-legal kind) and most likely a cushy job after they're out of office.

In other cases, when something is being proposed that a client doesn't like, lobbyists use their connections and influence to either outright kill the proposed legislation, or insert specific exemptions on behalf of their client.

edit: the people that actually write the laws in the lobbying firms are almost entirely from congressional staff members that have since left government for whatever reason. Sometimes it's because they got fired, sometimes it's because their congresscritter got voted out, etc.

Vasudus fucked around with this message at 16:27 on May 31, 2019

FrozenVent
May 1, 2009

The Boeing 737-200QC is the undisputed workhorse of the skies.

Nuclear War posted:

I still don't really understand how lobbying works.

Politician goes “wow, we really need to legislate this poo poo!”
Lobbyist goes “here’s how this poo poo works, and here’s how we’d like you to legislate it.”
Politician: “thanks for saving me all the efforts of researching this poo poo!”
Lobbyist: “Our pleasure! Here we even wrote a draft regulation to help you out!”

Next level is getting the politician to go “wow, we really need to legislate this poo poo!” on demand.

Edit: the bribes are how you get “access” to the politician so he listens to you in the first place.

FrozenVent fucked around with this message at 16:25 on May 31, 2019

Xenoborg
Mar 10, 2007

FrozenVent posted:

Politician goes “wow, we really need to legislate this poo poo!”
Lobbyist goes “here’s how this poo poo works, and here’s how we’d like you to legislate it.”
Politician: “thanks for saving me all the efforts of researching this poo poo!”
Lobbyist: “Our pleasure! Here we even wrote a draft regulation to help you out!”


The Military Industrial Complex works the same way! Just replace Politician with Procurement Office and Lobbyist with Contractor.

Vasudus
May 30, 2003
I would argue that the MIC revolving door is slightly better than the legislative lobbying industry. It's not as world-altering when some 3-star goes to work for Boeing and rigs a few billion dollars in contracts vs. successfully deregulating entire industries.

edit: for the record I am very much against the MIC revolving door, even though it's my industry's lifeblood and I'm personally benefiting from it.

Crakkerjakk
Mar 14, 2016


Xenoborg posted:

The Military Industrial Complex works the same way! Just replace Politician with Procurement Office and Lobbyist with Contractor.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/01/the-tragedy-of-the-american-military/383516/


quote:

Jim Webb is a decorated Vietnam veteran, an author, a former Democratic senator, and a likely presidential candidate. Seven years ago in his book A Time to Fight, he wrote that the career military was turning into a “don’t break my rice bowl” culture, referring to an Asian phrase roughly comparable to making sure everyone gets a piece of the pie. Webb meant that ambitious officers notice how many of their mentors and predecessors move after retirement into board positions, consultancies, or operational roles with defense contractors. (Pensions now exceed preretirement pay for some very senior officers; for instance, a four-star general or admiral with 40 years of service can receive a pension of more than $237,000 a year, even if his maximum salary on active duty was $180,000.)

Webb says it would defy human nature if knowledge of the post-service prospects did not affect the way some high-ranking officers behave while in uniform, including “protecting the rice bowl” of military budgets and cultivating connections with their predecessors and their postretirement businesses. “There have always been some officers who went on to contracting jobs,” Webb, who grew up in an Air Force family, told me recently. “What’s new is the scale of the phenomenon, and its impact on the highest ranks of the military.”

Of course, the modern military advertises itself as a place where young people who have lacked the chance or money for higher education can develop valuable skills, plus earn GI Bill benefits for post-service studies. That’s good all around, and is part of the military’s perhaps unintended but certainly important role as an opportunity creator for undercredentialed Americans. Webb is talking about a different, potentially corrupting “prepare for your future” effect on the military’s best-trained, most influential careerists.
If more members of Congress or the business and media elite had had children in uniform, the United States would probably not have gone to war in Iraq.

“It is no secret that in subtle ways, many of these top leaders begin positioning themselves for their second-career employment during their final military assignments,” Webb wrote in A Time to Fight. The result, he said, is a “seamless interplay” of corporate and military interests “that threatens the integrity of defense procurement, of controversial personnel issues such as the huge ‘quasi-military’ structure [of contractors, like Blackwater and Halliburton] that has evolved in Iraq and Afghanistan, and inevitably of the balance within our national security process itself.” I heard assessments like this from many of the men and women I spoke with. The harshest ones came not from people who mistrusted the military but from those who, like Webb, had devoted much of their lives to it.

A man who worked for decades overseeing Pentagon contracts told me this past summer, “The system is based on lies and self-interest, purely toward the end of keeping money moving.” What kept the system running, he said, was that “the services get their budgets, the contractors get their deals, the congressmen get jobs in their districts, and no one who’s not part of the deal bothers to find out what is going on.”

Vincent Van Goatse
Nov 8, 2006

Enjoy every sandwich.

Smellrose
I never thought I'd say this, but there's no Army of the Potomac challenge coin and this needs to change because they sell loving R.E. Lee ones for poo poo's sake.

Handsome Ralph
Sep 3, 2004

Oh boy, posting!
That's where I'm a Viking!


Vincent Van Goatse posted:

I never thought I'd say this, but there's no Army of the Potomac challenge coin and this needs to change because they sell loving R.E. Lee ones for poo poo's sake.

What the gently caress?


Semi-related. I've been reading Gov. John Andrew's (gov of Mass during the Civil War) correspondence for the past few weeks for work. It can be really boring sometimes, but there's so much gold in these letters. Love that I'm getting paid to do this poo poo now.

Highlights include...

-Chaplain from a Mass regiment complaining that soldiers drink and swear too much. Wants the governor to appoint a new regimental commander in to get things fixed up. This is about a week before Bull Run lol.

-Whole lotta letters from people asking for commissions and such, but one dude straight up pushing to get a guy he knows from New Orleans a commission because he fled New Orleans rather than stay and take an oath to the confederacy. Other one is from a dude who was in the British army for 15 years and wants to help train volunteers and fight secessionists if need be.

-Our boy Sherman came up for a visit post Bull Run. Nothing super interesting, just mostly inquires about how many volunteer regiments the New England states can raise, etc.

Nothing about the 54th yet, though I'm still reading through 1861's mail.

FAUXTON
Jun 2, 2005

spero che tu stia bene

Vincent Van Goatse posted:

I never thought I'd say this, but there's no Army of the Potomac challenge coin and this needs to change because they sell loving R.E. Lee ones for poo poo's sake.



That (and similar GAR coins/medallions) are probably as close as you'd get to a proper challenge coin.

But yeah I'd be down for one with Meade's statue on the front and an unshackled arm fisting through a tattered confederate flag on the back, with the closing line of the Gettysburg address around the outer edges.

Vasudus
May 30, 2003
https://twitter.com/RiegerReport/status/1134469748614410240?s=20

It's only a matter of time.

colachute
Mar 15, 2015

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/business/facebook-google-wire-fraud.html

This story is old, but this guys is a hero.

LtCol J. Krusinski
May 7, 2013



If this happens I really hope it doesn’t do to the DNC what the impeachment of Clinton did to the RNC.

I have 0 hope that impeachment leads to conviction so I have to hope that a failed conviction isn’t the boost Cheeto Benito needs to win 2020. And that it leads to a blue wave somehow in 2020.

Somehow.

I’m kind of impeachment shy, and I despise the motherfucker.

Vasudus
May 30, 2003
I'm hoping that the recent Mexico tariffs and general increasing instability will eventually kick it off on the red side. Though I could see it being the overwhelmingly vast majority of democrats and the minimum number of republicans necessary (on the senate side) to stick it.

edit: there's a very strong possibility that with the current crop issues in the midwest in conjunction with retaliatory tariffs coming down the pipe there's a low-level famine coming to poor people. That's the thing with tariffs, they take a very long time to kick in but when they do hooooooo boy.

Nostalgia4Butts
Jun 1, 2006

WHERE MY HOSE DRINKERS AT

gop support of nixon broke only, what, a week before he resigned?

shame on an IGA
Apr 8, 2005

Re Challenge Coins:

I propose a General Sherman / Blue Lives Matter mashup

Syrian Lannister
Aug 25, 2007

Oh, did I kill him too?
I've been a very busy little man.


Sugartime Jones

Nostalgia4Butts posted:

gop support of nixon broke only, what, a week before he resigned?

Pres Pissbabby isn’t going to resign though.

Vasudus
May 30, 2003
I don't have the time to collect my sources from poo poo I've been reading this week, but there's some insanely bad poo poo going on right now with global crops. There's been record crop failures in central/southern america this year due to climate issues. In the US, a huge amount of corn and soy hasn't been planted yet - and the insurance for those crops expires this month, as in today. The absolutely bonkers weather has caused record crop damage, crop failures, and just overall delays in production. Then you add in the fact that global trade has been hosed all year due to tariffs and things are gonna get real bad for people that can't afford to take the hit - on both the production and consumption side.

shame on an IGA
Apr 8, 2005

Vasudus posted:

I don't have the time to collect my sources from poo poo I've been reading this week, but there's some insanely bad poo poo going on right now with global crops. There's been record crop failures in central/southern america this year due to climate issues. In the US, a huge amount of corn and soy hasn't been planted yet - and the insurance for those crops expires this month, as in today. The absolutely bonkers weather has caused record crop damage, crop failures, and just overall delays in production. Then you add in the fact that global trade has been hosed all year due to tariffs and things are gonna get real bad for people that can't afford to take the hit - on both the production and consumption side.

Wouldn't most of the now-nonexistent corn and soy have been exported?

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE

Nostalgia4Butts posted:

gop support of nixon broke only, what, a week before he resigned?

I thought he resigned because GOP support collapsed and Republican Senate leadership told him there were enough votes to remove him from office?

Best Friends
Nov 4, 2011

Syrian Lannister posted:

Pres Pissbabby isn’t going to resign though.

He's going to openly call for a coup if/when he loses the election (or if magic happens and republicans convict in the senate) and only in the event that call gets a wet fart in response, he'll quietly walk out the back door.

The big question is how republicans, both elected and the base, will respond to that call. I'm guessing nothing will happen but who knows.

CRUSTY MINGE
Mar 30, 2011

Peggy Hill
Foot Connoisseur
So what you're saying is, buy beans, bullets and bullion?

psydude
Apr 1, 2008

Heartache is powerful, but democracy is *subtle*.

Torrannor posted:

I thought he resigned because GOP support collapsed and Republican Senate leadership told him there were enough votes to remove him from office?

Basically yeah. But good luck getting any Republican senators other than maybe North Carolina and Maine to vote for conviction in this Senate.

Nostalgia4Butts
Jun 1, 2006

WHERE MY HOSE DRINKERS AT

Torrannor posted:

I thought he resigned because GOP support collapsed and Republican Senate leadership told him there were enough votes to remove him from office?

all im saying is that support eroded quickly then, I can't imagine how fast it could go in the age of twitter.

then pence steps in and blanket pardons everyone bc ford set the historical standard

Best Friends
Nov 4, 2011

I think the base is too lazy / comfortable to actually do poo poo, and see right wing politics primarily as a form of entertainment and personal branding rather than as a call to action, and the establishment Rs don't actually want to do a coup, yet. So I don't think anything will happen outside some true believers doing some terrorism.

But I also thought Trump would never get the support of the right so I'm biased towards thinking too highly of conservatives.

joat mon
Oct 15, 2009

I am the master of my lamp;
I am the captain of my tub.

Nostalgia4Butts posted:

gop support of nixon broke only, what, a week before he resigned?

Pretty much. GOP support in the House Judiciary committee to not impeach broke, then leading GOP Senators went to the White House and told Nixon that GOP support in the Senate to not convict had broken, then Nixon resigned.
What broke GOP support was the Supreme Court ordered release of "The Smoking Gun tape of Nixon and Haldeman discussing and planning the Watergate coverup.

joat mon fucked around with this message at 18:53 on May 31, 2019

Hot Karl Marx
Mar 16, 2009

Politburo regulations about social distancing require to downgrade your Karlmarxing to cold, and sorry about the dnc primaries, please enjoy!
https://twitter.com/cnnbrk/status/1...ingawful.com%2F

Crakkerjakk
Mar 14, 2016


shame on an IGA posted:

Wouldn't most of the now-nonexistent corn and soy have been exported?

Yeah, and domestic consumption is mostly as animal feed or ethanol. That said, corn and soy failures are indicators of wide scale climate poo poo that is ALSO loving with other crops, it's just corn and soy are the big producers so you get more visualization of "normally production is here, right now it's here."

Comrade Blyatlov
Aug 4, 2007


should have picked four fingers





Queen Elizabeth II needs to step in, fistfight Trump, then beat Pence into submission and declare herself High Ruler

No way she can do any worse

Crakkerjakk
Mar 14, 2016


joat mon posted:

Pretty much. GOP support in the House Judiciary committee to not impeach broke, then leading GOP Senators went to the White House and told Nixon that GOP support in the Senate to not convict had broken, then Nixon resigned.
What broke GOP support was the Supreme Court ordered release of "The Smoking Gun tape of Nixon and Haldeman discussing and planning the Watergate coverup.

Yeah, and even then you had 56 Democrats in the senate and 241 Democrats in the house, so Dems were already at 56% or so in both Chambers.

mlmp08
Jul 11, 2004

Prepare for my priapic projectile's exalted penetration
Nap Ghost
https://twitter.com/aaronmehta/status/1134085269853036544?s=21

Fister Roboto
Feb 21, 2008

Best Friends posted:

I think the base is too lazy / comfortable to actually do poo poo, and see right wing politics primarily as a form of entertainment and personal branding rather than as a call to action, and the establishment Rs don't actually want to do a coup, yet. So I don't think anything will happen outside some true believers doing some terrorism.

But I also thought Trump would never get the support of the right so I'm biased towards thinking too highly of conservatives.

Problem is that they don't really have to DO anything. They just have to make a lot of noise, and if Trump refuses to leave office, there's a non-zero chance that Congress won't do a drat thing about it. Because as the last three years have revealed, all of our government's checks and balances are based on gentlemen's agreements and can be completely undone by one party just saying "nah."

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Syrian Lannister
Aug 25, 2007

Oh, did I kill him too?
I've been a very busy little man.


Sugartime Jones
Bigly President had Dow down almost 300 thanks to Mexican tariff talks

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply