These days if the government has a cause you can count on a grift being behind it all. Whether is is a pandemic, a war, or ‘climate change’, it is the rent extracting elites that are pulling the strings for their own benefit. That mental framework should shape your worldview.
Because the pro-working class decision is to burn more fossil fuels to cause more droughts and cause food prices souring and less capacity to feed the global poor. Along with destroying god knows how much needed ecology to support life on this planet. Bc your paranoid ass thinks the government is going to force you to buy a $80,000 Tesla.
You GW deniers are going to get millions of ppl killed and displaced. God knows how much land will become unusable bc of you freaks. Nice try making fossil fuels seem pro working class. I’m guessing you think more accessible public transportation to compete against cars is a travesty also. What about all the working class ppl that will be hurt by the loss of securities backed by the accumulated interest on your car loan! Think of the children!
I do more for the environment(as an America first populist) really right?...left?......lose those terms boomer, dc is a uniparty) than all the asheville, NC "lefties" i see every..... single.... day. Don't paint with a broad brush. I produce food for people using absolutely no toxic sprays.....nothing. and I have my trump 2024 hat in my truck window.
“One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.” ― George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier
Personally I’m more for Direct Democracy. Enough market autonomy where price indicators aren’t canceled out (subsidies are fine keeping this in mind) but also freedom from rent extractors, monopolists and true freedom of travel ie you don’t have to use a car. No rent extraction, no interest, no monopolies, no corporate debt and overspeculation borrowing making everything more expensive.
So a kind of Democratic socialism I guess. With as little centralization as possible — keeping in mind limited economies of scale for natural monopolies and products that are highly unelastic/natural monopolies.
The British killed millions of ppl during the 1st half of the 20th century. I’m pretty sure you can’t discount the Nazis either. Or Vietnam and Korea on the American side of things. And did you forget the millions of ppl killed as a result of the war on terror during this century? The Japanese killing 10 million Chinese. God knows how many more examples are out there.
The numbers do not include millions killed in wars the communist regimes led against their own people: tens of millions in Stalin’s GULAG, during Chinese cultural revolution and in Cambodia by Red Khmers. We do not know how many of their own citizens the North Korean regime killed. Also in their satellite states, like drowning in blood Hungarian uprising of 1956 and sending hundreds of thousands to Siberia. Add to it people killed trying to escape North Korea or digging underneath or jumping over the Berlin Wall. The life in communist countries was so good, people risked their lives and died trying to escape. Ask Cubans, whose parents or grandparents came in boats, or Venezuelans, who walk across the continent from the horrors of communism.
Oh kyle , you ignorant sheep. At least on the right we admit the government sucks and manipulates everything. Here's a fact for you , you dumb turd.......solar and electric batteries use an assload of fossil fuels. Thats right snowflake, those solar panels and batteries contain all kinds of precious, mined metals causing brutal damage to the environment. Then........hmmmm....gosh, where do those batteries and solar panels go after their (very limited shelf life)?? YOU GOT IT!! you win kyle!!! Back into the environment with their dangerous levels of toxins. So the earth is warming up a little bit, suck it up buttercup.
The WHO already knows people will starve to death if the population isn't culled. Why the fuck do you think Bill gates , the cia, fauci and the dept. Of homeland security invented covid? Cull the herd and destroy those sperm counts. You can thank me later I never got the shot when its my offspring still populating the planet.......well and the other 30% of us populists that didn't get the shot. Now go get your booster shot and don't forget to triple mask!!
It depends on how lithium and cobalt are extracted and disposed. Same with wind blades. It’s not inherently just as toxic as fossil fuels, even under the worst circumstances. That’s an unregulated capitalism problem.
Gosh, everyone is trying to be patient with you. You come across as young and hyper idealistic. I wish I was still young and unaware, life is simpler.
If you read (and I doubt it, ya know the attention span of youth) the link you were supplied to the Moore film explained the monster sized corporate interest in these "green ventures ".
Lithium and cobalt are extracted and disposed of in the most economical fashion. Those giant wind blades (the size of a football field) dont have a green disposal solution. What are ya gonna do ? Melt them(with fossil fuels).
You wanna cast blame on capitalism for not regulating a government utopian solution to fossil fuels? This is exactly what the green turds wanted....electric, solar and wind. Now that it comes to light thats its ......yes inherently destructive......you blame capitalism? Huh?
You CANT KYLE.....extract lithium and cobalt in an environmentally green way. The power for the mining comes from fossil fuels. The toll on the animals in the deforestation of Bolivia and Brazil is profound. Those fucking , useless, giant , green turd, fart machines (wind energy) kill millions of birds a year.
There's just no logical comeback to that simple paragraph grasshopper. NIC TESLA
Figured out how to harness free electricity from the air essentially. He died, the feds showed up, took his work and laid the groundwork for today's fossil fuel conundrum.
We ALREADY have the solution for energy. Its whatever is powering those things pestering the navy fighter pilots that the navy released on video.. Those aren't aliens . They're either ours , the chicoms or Russian but they're energy source is next level. This bullshit we argue about is to keep the populace divided and distracted.
And your shitkicking ass will destroy far more trees and biodiversity burning fossil fuels. Your entire strategy is cherry-picking anything that isn’t perfect and ignoring the far worse effects we inflict with fossil fuels. You’re perfectly fine with many types of trees going extinct and mass wildfires with the fuels we burn now. You’re using a grain of truth to sell a much bigger lie. Most of this does with lack of regulation and planning. Not the tech being as bad as fossil fuels you dangerous moron. I should just send your comments to the junk. Arguing with an idiot is exhausting.
I own a tree nursery. I'm a populist tree hugger. I absolutely never said I love diesel spewing 80's era Mercedes. I simply pointed out(correctly) that the green energy initiative is a fraud. You should also be aware that it is common knowledge that when liberals get backed into a corner they name call. Ann coulter wrote a whole book about it. The mass wildfires are because California is choking the forest by not clearing or thinning. Did you know alaska was once TROPICAL? Did you know the Sahara desert was once a giant body of water.
Embrace change kster. Matt taibbi once spewed blue pill shit over at blue shit rolling stone. If you really aspire to be a journalist you must learn to think critically and keep your emotions in check.
I explained this already, you’re just cherry picking information you want to hear and ignoring everything else that contradicts you.
I don’t hear your retarded ass advocating the outlawing of mining in general. It’s not as harmful as any other form of mining. You can extract it from brine solutions without as many negative externalities. Nothing is perfect but you’re cherry-picking to justify the much worse extraction and burning we have now. Christ give up already you’re ignoring everything that contradicts you.
Well yes sort of. Inside the walls is a giant extension cord that plugs directly into an outlet at your nearest coal fired power plant. Then you get in your electric vehicle and use the same extension cord to drive around. When our ridiculous grid crashes because of the strain on it from "green power"and Kyle is eating shit sandwiches hell blame it on capitalism.
Current technology unfortunately doesn't allow 9 Billion people to live on this planet with the lifestyle they so desire. You would need to give up everything that requires any form of transportation other than a horse, your phones, your internet. everything. You would need to go back to living off of the land that is within walking distance of you.
It's well known that there are not enough resources available ( or enough 9 year old children to exploit for labor in Africa) to mine to make enough batteries that cause about as much environmental harm as the gas powered engine. The power grid you use to charge your Tesla is basically fueled by Coal. Solar and Wind simply wouldn't provide what you need. If it could it would require every single natural resource on this planet to just provide power for California.
Also, most people that bitch about oil fail to comprehend that oil is FAR more than just a means to transportation. Oil basically allows this planet to have 9 Billion people. The only way to stop global warming is to hold a lottery and slaughter 7 billion humans. That's pretty much it.
So, if you are willing, then let's start to fix the planet.
Also, as to your Oil company profits statement. You might want to do some math on that. Just assuming that Oil companies are only gaining profits from Gasoline (which if you believe that means you have no business discussing this topic), the profits to how many gallons of gasoline we consume is peanuts. 75% of your gasoline prices is government taxes and transportation costs.
You said it. We have to live on less. A much simpler life, the way it used to be. Just speaking for myself, I dont miss TV, professional sports, processed foods, airplanes, long ass drives, subdivisions, corporate America, the bank, fast food.......probably more but thats a good start.
Go back to Breitbart you crank. Citation fucking needed that green tech will send us back to the Stone Age and creating it causes just as much pollution. Do you think the government created covid also?
I said they make money off their stocks and financial investment you moron. That’s why even though they’re making record profits they won’t build new pipelines. Your reading comprehension sucks.
Let's just focus on the kung flu. You want to be a journalist but you are ignoring the mountains of evidence that point overwhelmingly to the fact that shit was man made? Stop it young man, you are getting taken to the woodshed on facts.
It’s all there in the first paragraph. I don’t know why we even bother providing references for beings like you who still won’t believe that which is patently obvious. I pity trolls like you and Karen...
Greta's back in school. Shouldn't you be there too?
You have a misguided idea of what the "working class" wants and needs collectively.
We need jobs that won't require us to live check to check, that won't make us want to take the gas pipe Sunday night after football. We need affordable gas and groceries. We need affordable gas because the bus doesn't run anywhere near frequently enough or come anywhere near where we live in the boonies, outside of a major city or suburb, and we're not all farmers or city dwellers (to speak with restraint), so it makes little collective sense to run bus lines out to every isolated town that's already dying because there's no work other than at the QuikStop, and those jobs are taken in perpetuity by the owner's family and cronies anyway.
We can't afford electric cars and aren't interested in utopian bullshit but in the here and now. What have you environmentalists done for us lately other than scare the shit out of us with predictions from an unfalsifiable gaggle of computer models and prognosticators who hate us for sullying their Perfect World, a world that requires the disappearance of us pesky breeders who are sucking up all the resources, which they alone are entitled to because they're the smartest, cleverest, and richest.
How about you develop "green" energy without depriving us of the means to amass at least some real wealth in the meantime?
And "the planet" will be just fine with or without the WEF's efforts to shame or force people into eating insects and living in tiny "houses" or pods.
That’s the fault of rent extractors, monopolists and interest on debt you moron. That’s what makes everything so much more expensive. Wtf does that do with global warming? You have more autonomy as a consumer if you don’t have to use a car and the money from building new infrastructure doesn’t get sucked up by the financial sector. Go watch more Tucker Clarkson. Sick of you rubes transparently using populist sounding language to launder your reactionary bullshit.
It isn’t populist to send food prices soaring or make most land not usable for growing crops.
This is like wac a mole. Ya know what trucks our food from California around the country......wait for it......diesel. did you know "rube" that those trucks CANNOT use electric? Thats right, we don't have batteries powerful enough. Now ......follow.......KMAN, if the government drives up the cost of diesel by 1)killing funding for domestic oil production and 2) participating in a proxy war against energy rich Russia then the markets react accordingly increasing the cost of diesel.
Then......hold on......this is where cause meets effect.....its delicious.......the cost of transporting food goes up and then Kyle pays more at the store for wonder bread.
They’re making record profits you dumbass. Yes I get how sanctions work. Russia reduced supply while demand remained the same and the cost push inflation drives everything up.
The lack of investment precedes the sanctions. Once again you still think alternatives to fossil fuels are worse than fossil fuels even though the sources you linked to didn’t even say that. Disposing in the most economical way is doing it the cheapest way so companies have more money left over for dividends and stock buybacks. Know what the words you’re using mean before using them. Christ. I should just put your comments in the junk. You just ignore everything g that contradicts you. You’re not a realist, just very dumb. You’ll cause global droughts and mass displacements with the path you advocate for. There’s plenty of sources that say certain wind blade technologies are disposable and a lot of the pollution from extracting ores can be mitigated. Even if it’s not perfect and needs to be regulated on a global level it’s still far more sustainable than fossil fuels.
You're missing subtlety "Disposing in the most economical way is doing it the cheapest way so companies have more money left over for dividends and stock buybacks'....that was my point. Big business is doing this for profit and its a fraud. Show me where I said I get a hard on smelling diesel.
I'd disagree. Norway is energized 100% with hydroelectric and Iceland by geothermal. Use what works best for the location, utilizing local resources, if possible.
You’re the kind of dumbass who was screaming for nuclear before we knew it was safe. Fucking primitive. I mean libertarian. That’s the politically correct term for you inebriates, right?
Yeah nuclear is fine and much safer than it was 30-40 years ago.
Okay, it wasn't clear before whether you were legitimate or just trolling, but you've now made it clear. No reasonable person would ever jump to the ridiculous extreme conclusions you do about the people you're responding to. Giving you the benefit of the doubt that you don't have mental issues, the only other possibility is that you're just trolling. So please stop wasting everyone's time, it's not very good trolling.
God knows because neither you nor anyone else knows.
Rising CO2 will create green belts in previously frozen territories. More land will become arable even as the travesty of California farming for the profit of a cabal of fortunate dynastic families literally dries up as we watch. Plummeting Western populations will use less of your precious fucking natural resources as India and Africa get kneecapped in their efforts to attenuate grinding poverty by amassing wealth using fossil fuels because of your sick drive to create an elitist Greta Thunbergian Utopia powered by wind and solar (we'll wait) where you yuppies will drive your e-cars using batteries mined by the perpetually poor who use gas-powered tools and vehicles to extract the metals needed. They can go starve and die of diseases contracted mining the shit you need to be a moral crusader for some twisted idea about "the planet" while you turn it into a prison devoid of poor people.
This is as plausible as the horrors you want to see happen if we don't bend the knee to environmentalists and the "leaders" who are either duped by them or stand to profit from the Green Deal Scam designed to make us all serfs in the service of the global bureaucracy headquartered either in China or the EU (the former is looking more likely by the day).
Finally, I would go fuck myself but my dick is in your mother's mouth.
Yes, and higher levels of that gas will create green belts in former deserts while southern California dries up and reverts to the desert it was before our genius leaders tapped the Colorado River and other natural water sources to create what are now rapidly evaporating reservoirs. The Central Valley was never supposed to be the "nation's salad bowl."
Everyone wetting himself about melting polar ice ought to think long term--the Great White North may become wildly fertile farmland.
Millions of people are going to starve or be displaced either way, unfortunately. I highly recommend Peter Zeihan's recent book The End of the World is Just the Beginning for a reality check on just how fucked we are, green tech or not. I doubt he's right on everything, but I suspect he's right on enough of the important stuff, especially sourcing of the critical materials needed for green tech (in its current form), that fossil fuels are the least of our problems.
Peter Zehein seems to be the current Dave Rubin. Even this guy on the left agrees with me.
There’s nothing logical about continuing to burn fossil fuels. We can distribute the resources to make it possible and financially feasible but we don’t have the political will.
In what way is Peter Zeihan "the current Dave Rubin"? Seriously. You might as well say "Steven Pinker seems to be the current Rachel Maddow" or some equivalently nonsensical statement.
How about you actually try reading what he's written and you might get an answer that challenges your assertions. I know you're not going to, but then at least just be honest and say you have no interest in actually knowing anything about it.
Some people can operate only in a crisis situation. From public health emergency to climate emergency. “Our planet is on fire” screams Elizabeth Warren. Reminds me hyperactive children who had too much candy or have ADHD. Why can’t we calmly and pragmatically work to benefit the country and the planet? The climate change is inevitable and has noting to do with humans. We can still take loving care of our forests, water and air in a smart way without getting hysterical.
Here are climate emergencies for the past 50. years. Hope you smile:
Climate changing over the course of millions of years is natural bc it evolves with the environment. Not decades you moron. Christ you idiots just gather together in your own echo chamber to make yourselves feel normal.
You are right about one thing: this is the place normal people gather to exchange thoughts in a civil way, with obvious exceptions. When you are not angry, click on the link I included about climate changes in the past 5 decades. And on the link to a letter signed by over 1,100 scientists from over the world, unless, of course, you prefer listening to a mentally disturbed teenager, who has not finished school: https://dailysceptic.org/2022/08/18/1200-scientists-and-professionals-declare-there-is-no-climate-emergency/.
You’re not normal you freak. That’s why it’s called an echo chamber. You surround yourself with other freaks and normalize yourselves. Not all electricity is produced by fossil fuels and lithium batteries can be recycled so you don’t have to do as much mining. It’s a matter of global regulation. When these facts are brought up you deny global warming is happening at all.
every industry run by greedy pigs is emulating the health care cartel that gets 1/6 of the US economy counterfeited into their bank accounts each year.
My God that was a long read but worth it. My builder who spent time in Bolivia 15 years ago helping the large cats cope with migratory issues from development is gonna have a stroke about the lithium coup.
Yeah. I mean it’s true, but I had a visceral reaction. My wife was across the street on West Street (she survived but was traumatized.) I didn’t need the cartoon.
Close your eyes. Or rather, please DON'T close your eyes. I know at least two people who lost loved ones in that mass murder, but I see the things our government is doing as making them more likely - inevitable even. I se thes way to preventing future such attacks is to wage peace, restrain those who exploit already poor, helpless, and hungry people who are easy pickings for those with their own agendas.
Our opinions are often formed by our experiences. You are welcome to yours.
I can’t ever really “close my eyes.” The entirety of my wife’s life was changed from that moment on. I agree with the sentiment behind the cartoon. It still didn’t sit well with me. I don’t need reminders of how things went to shit from there.
But as a follow up to my earlier comment, maybe you didn't get a gene altering toxic shot because you remembered the government really doesn't protect you.
True, profoundly true. A way of understanding others that I try to remember. The way we view the world is a function of what we have had to deal with in our own lives, and we cannot experience someone else's life. Thank you for those words.
I too prefer not to dwell on it. Time does not heal all wounds. Her wounds must be very painful even if not obviously physical. My compensation, if you will, is to focus on trying to help people see that continuing to do those things that brought this on is just digging a deeper hole. This was not unprovoked even if it was unjustifiable.
Agreed. I think it’s more than fair to say that our response to that day was terrible and wasteful without co-opting the message and tragedy of those that died.
Yes, visceral was my reaction as well. Then I thought about it. How in the world did the fbi, cia and nsa miss it? I used to hate the people that said it was an inside job,.but then do we really buy that they just missed it? I don't anymore, no way, it doesn't add up.
So I think the best way to honor those poor souls is to remind those living that the government most certainly does not have the country's best interest all the time, maybe half the time.....when it suits their best interests.
One of my oldest friends was in the Pentagon that day. He had to take early retirement because of PTSD.
I spent a lot of time thinking about this back in those days. My conclusion was that we were right up until the Republicans misled us into the Iraq debacle. Nothing can excuse what bin Laden did — waiters at Windows on the World and file clerks in offices were completely innocent.
Well Karen, you're friend might have been better suited to training trans acceptance classes at the pentagon. It was you're precious government (CIA) that gave Bush the intel on weapons and a lot of spineless democrats voted to invade.
What you say about the CIA is, in this case, simply flat-out wrong. At least some, maybe most, of the analysts in the CIA told the administration that Hussain had destroyed his WMDs, and the yellowcake story was bullshit. Cheyney and Bush cherry-picked some and simply confabulated the rest.
The CIA has its fingers in enough bad stuff that there's little point in making things up about them, it just dilutes the real stuff.
Technically it was Cheney’s ppl who cherrypicked CIA findings to fit their own conclusions. Try and have opinions about things you know about. Is that so much to ask?
I think the distinction is that you can argue that controlling access to weapons might prevent further tragedies, or at least honor the memory of those killed, while saying that the US used the tragedy of 9/11 to vastly expand the security state is a non sequitur for those who perished that day and their families.
But what the US did afterwards was an abomination, and to claim that we tried to avenge those dead does them dishonor. Indeed the US continues to this day to claim their deaths justify its continued actions. And that is simply despicable.
No! It's actually more than 8T over time. Wounded veterans, replacement of expended munitions and equipment. Interest, the non declared war's were fought on the credit card and social security money's.
No, the written figure says $8 billion+. That’s quite a “plus,” covering an extra 1,000 times the number given. So he’s not a numbers person. But really, he’s not much of a thinker, either. Sophomoric crap -- and I’m someone who would like to see Dick Cheney in jail, but for Iraq, not Afghanistan. I’d like to know what you think Al Gore would have done in response to the attacks. Somehow, “not much” doesn’t come to mind.
It's a terrible cartoon. Its meaning isn't even clear, and to the extent that we can guess at that meaning, the number it asserts is likely in any non-trivial sense false.
Neither the cartoon nor its cartoonist should be here. Matt should drop them, ASAP.
It partially is, but it also points out the interesting wrinkle in the recent arguments over the evils of ‘deplatforming’.
In form and function, what you’re calling for is what the SJW’s asking that Dave Chapelle or Trump be ‘deplatformed’ are calling for. The only difference is subject matter, that there are more of them, and that in the case of Trump they were successful.
Which speaks to my suspicion that a lot of those who complain about ‘censorship’ nowadays—because they are usually referring to *private* censorship on social media—are actually not that concerned about free speech. They’re perfectly content to call for ‘deplatforming’ and mass public shaming when it’s targeted at speech they don’t like.
I have to say that the best part of waking up to a Daniel Medina cartoon is watching the same people who constantly kvetch & moan about media platform censorship just aching to censor Dan from this media platform.
A perfect reason for me to vote for Ben Dover in the coming election since neither side appears to actually be trustworthy.
I suspect that if Trump or the Republicans were the ones pulling the strings on media censorship & their target was liberals & progressives many of the "censorship is bad, very very bad" crowd would either publicly or secretly just be tickled pink with it all.
It appears that neither side subscribes to the "what's good for the goose is good for the gander" philosophy.
I'm also loving the dichotomy of "Afghanistan good war" but "Iraq bad war."
Let's not forget while we're so busy "remembering" that Afghanistan didn't attack us.
Neither did the Taliban.
I also seem to remember that the Taliban offered to turn over Obama...oops...Osama to a neutral 3rd country until the US produced evidence for Obama's....oops...Osama's guilt.
Let's also not forget that the powerful elite who own our sorry asses most likely were jumping for joy over 9/11 because they knew that every tragedy for the owned is a manipulatable financial windfall for the owners.
But hey, much better to run on pure emotion. That strategy has served the country so well for now hasn't it?
Trump also had a habit of blurting out uncomfortable truths about American foreign policy.
I do believe it was Glenn Greenwald who wrote that piece about the intelligence document he found at Wikileaks where the intelligence branch gave Obama tongue baths because they thought his international image was useful to sell the American Empire.
Trump's image, not so much.
Trump has been useful in other ways though.
As much as Joe & Kamala prattle on about the danger Trump poses to Democracy both of them owe their tenure in office entirely to Donald Trump.
Once Donald Trump Fear completely corralled the liberals into a compliant & pliable mass, the Dems could have gotten a baboon & a wildebeest elected as P & VP.
Some would probably call that an improvement over J & K.
For me, watching the Dems & the media turn Donald Trump, at best a narcissistic blowhard with delusions of grandeur, into an orange Patrick Henry for half of the country while simultaneously turning him into Baba Yaga or Cthulhu for the other half has been completely fascinating.
The end of the Cold War in 1989 when the German West/East Wall was taken down threatened a bloated military and the defense contractors. They needed a new enemy so they groom Bin Laden to flourish and aided and abetted 9/11.
No, WE did not, though I’ll grant that many did. Fact is, didn’t matter how many were against it, even if it was the entire country. THEY were going to do whatever they damn well pleased.
What happened on 9/11 was horrific but I feel silly mourning 3,000 Americans when we turned around and started a war in Iraq that resulted in the violent deaths of 180,000+ Iraqi civilians.
Saddam and his cronies happily starved, tortured, raped, murdered and genocided millions, but I guess that’s okay as long as there’s no agenda at stake. But I guess that sort of thing is fine as long as it happens to someone else far away.
First ask yourself, WHO empowered Saddam? You may not like the answer. Zelensky is going to be the new Saddam in 10 years....watch for it. Ukraine = Iraq = place where USA tries out things on the captive natives. Free Ukraine from both Russia AND US/NATO and the Mafia.
Ukraine has been ruled by thugs for 3 centuries, but nobody talks about the problem of the Ukrainian underworld - neither US nor Russia....and I guarantee that same Ukrainian underworld has ties to the WEF/WHO and all other power brokers....
Never fail to exploit a crisis! Never fail to control the narrative. Never forget that Homo sapiens can believe anything, use it to your advantage. The memory hole always works, use it. Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, be that scoundrel. Jingoism makes the sheeple vulnerable, take advantage. Bread and circuses have always worked and the bread and circuses don't have to be good quality, sheeple are easily distracted.
"George W. Bush part of baseball’s 9/11 anniversary tribute
There were moments of silence, remembrances and tributes at ballparks across America on the anniversary of 9/11." Politico (?)
First he did a deal with Middle East Oil Money to Finance his useless energy company, then he ripped off the citizens of Texas by selling the Baseball Team with the stadium built on land owmed by a Texas Municipality both had used taxpayer support, then he cheated to get into the White House, with the help of FL Gov brother “Jeb”, which allowed the family to create and profit from the Iraq Invasion and destroy much of the Middle East, triggered (inaccurately) by the destructive attack on the NY City World Trade Center, caused by Bush Administration incompetency, at a minimum, as he protected the Saudi Nationals to leave the country, on the only private/commercial planes in the air, and then (NOW) he is back at the scene of the Original Crime, taking bows for something or other that seems to be connecting Baseball and War (isnt that supposed to be Football?) in and as a "Patriotic Event” with his head bowed ever so solemn and reverent.
Though I believe the American public was strongly for it, I think the invasion of Afghanistan was a mistake from the start. Even a strong president would have had a hard time resisting, GW Bush was not a strong president. Here are my reasons...
> It sought one man for which an unlimited number of people would be killed, all from families just as were the victims of 9/11. There's no evidence that the great majority of Taliban had any idea 9/11 was being planned. Their most rigorous training was in learning to recite the Quran in Arabic, a language they did not/do not speak.
> The planning of 9/11 could have been accomplished anywhere, even in someone's basement in the United States. The Tora Bora complex and military training camps in Afghanistan had nothing to do with the use of airplanes for suicide missions. The necessary flight training for that was conducted in the US.
> It was almost all Saudis, not Afghans, that did the planning and performed the execution of the plan. This was known almost immediately.
... Matt, you should drop this cartoonist from syndication. He's a poor fit, and that's putting it nicely.
"The government exploited 9/11 to enrich military manufacturing donors by $8,000,000,000+" is an ambiguous, unsourced and bizarre-to-the-point-of-being-nonsensical construction. (After all, "the government," per se, doesn't have donors, unless you're counting taxpayers who fund it on pain of legal jeopardy—which is of course not how anyone uses the term.) And whatever factual claim the artist is trying to assert might very well be false, since it seems unlikely that "military manufacturing donors" were only "enrich[ed]" by $8 billion out of trillions spent.
The artist's plain intellectual deficiencies extend to his bio, where there's even less excuse for such thoughtlessness and laziness. "My cartoons stand up firmly against racism, xenophobia, hate bigotry, and ignorance," he writes like a hammer looking for nails—and with as much epistemic humility and nuance as a literal hammer—followed by this arrogant, ungrammatical non sequitur: "Regardless of the political party one belongs to, if you try to take advantage of the people, you will not be safe from my pen."
This is the kind of person you've spent many columns calling out. Much like every bad actor in media, this artist cloaks themselves in virtues like truth and justice but routinely fails the most basic journalistic and intellectual standards. They're going to get you in trouble if you keep them around, not least by undermining the credibility of your platform.
I had trouble figuring it out at first too. I think he's referring to 'donors to Republican and Democrat campaigns who are part of the manufacturing industry'.
Be a little tolerant though. I can't see anything ideologically leftist about this piece. I also didn't hear anything objectionable in the quotes you put down, if you take them at face value.
But you don't actually know what he means, because he didn't bother to write a sensical, cogent sentence—a very simple thing to do. Being "tolerant" of such an abject failure helps nobody, most of all the person who failed.
And I literally pointed out why the items I quoted are objectionable. They indicate—in blinking Broadway lights—lazy, sophomoric, arrogant, and (yes) ideological thinking.
This artist has enough undue pride for a very long fall, and I'd rather he not take Taibbi with him. I'd also prefer that his tripe not be sent to my inbox, since tripe isn't what I've signed up or paid for.
The number’s unsourced, but the point is pretty clear: that the US government (and neoconservatives in general) exploited the tragedy of 9/11 in order to justify the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the public, along with a much-enlarged national security government apparatus, an act which funneled billions (possibly trillions) to military contractors while creating vast numbers of dead Americans, dead Iraqis, and a new, unprecedentedly intrusive surveillance state.
If you can’t read the subtext about the MIC, that’s on you. You may have a point on the unsourced number, but it’s also not a longstanding convention for political cartoons to cite where they’re getting their numbers.
While some of us knew it in 2001 and shouted it to deaf ears, if you haven't figured out that the neo-conservatives and neo-liberals are the same team in a different flavor, you are not paying attention. Of course Biden was salivating over the Patriot Act and the wars....
Just call them the neos...they play both "sides" so well and now they do not even hide that they are on the same "team." F#ck the NEOS and bring back verifiable (no voting machines) democratic elections and our Republic. The neos assembled themselves in the 70s and they are not friends of humanity. Forget left/right, dem/rep, light/dark...it's really We the People vs. the Neo elites that want to enslave the rest of us. Again, F@ck the neos! Time to take back the planet and all living on her from these enemies of life...and it won't work to fight them, because that is what they want for a justification for Martial Law. We have to get clever ;)
The artist's point isn't at all clear—again, because of the ambiguous and even nonsensical language they used to express what is in all likelihood a false idea (as I said in my first comment, the $8 billion figure looks absurdly low). And it's actually an especially big problem that the artist failed to include a source in this case, because, aside from evidencing whatever claim he thinks is so important to make, a source might have clarified the meaning of the single sentence he nonetheless couldn't manage.
You don't need to lecture me (or anyone of even minor intelligence and relevant knowledge) on the general depravities and corruptions of the so-called War on Terror. Your suspicion that I haven't picked up on the so-called "subtext" of the artist's mangled sentence is not only baseless but also evidence that it's you who has a problem grasping "subtext." After all, I couldn't have expressed in my first comment that the artist's $8 billion figure looks extremely low without knowing that, in fact, far more money was funneled to war profiteers.
Also to create the modern security state, don’t forget that. The “Patriot Act” is about as accurately named as the “Inflation Reduction Act”.
*USA PATRIOT Act
Because even in a time of crisis, the government has time to create a handy acronym to make it go down easier.
i read that as information reduction act :--)
These days if the government has a cause you can count on a grift being behind it all. Whether is is a pandemic, a war, or ‘climate change’, it is the rent extracting elites that are pulling the strings for their own benefit. That mental framework should shape your worldview.
Or Affordable Care Act
The unaffordable care act.. A master stroke by the insurance companies
The same can be said of most government programs enacted under crisis:
“NEVER FORGET...that the government exploited Climate Change to enrich the environmental industries”
Both parties suck on this
Because the pro-working class decision is to burn more fossil fuels to cause more droughts and cause food prices souring and less capacity to feed the global poor. Along with destroying god knows how much needed ecology to support life on this planet. Bc your paranoid ass thinks the government is going to force you to buy a $80,000 Tesla.
Go fuck yourself you far right fake populist. The financial sector won’t even invest enough in oil stocks despite record oil profits bc it’s not sustainable in the long term. Green tech is cost competitive. https://www.irena.org/newsroom/pressreleases/2022/Jul/Renewable-Power-Remains-Cost-Competitive-amid-Fossil-Fuel-Crisis
You GW deniers are going to get millions of ppl killed and displaced. God knows how much land will become unusable bc of you freaks. Nice try making fossil fuels seem pro working class. I’m guessing you think more accessible public transportation to compete against cars is a travesty also. What about all the working class ppl that will be hurt by the loss of securities backed by the accumulated interest on your car loan! Think of the children!
You commies have already killed off over 100 million in the last century. Why would you have us believe that you won't do the same this century?
Communists. Uh what?
It's his stock reply when he can't come up with anything. Everyone he doesn't agree with is a Communist.
The idiot right labels all environmentalists ‘communists.’ It is, in their world, nothing more than calling someone an asshole.
I do more for the environment(as an America first populist) really right?...left?......lose those terms boomer, dc is a uniparty) than all the asheville, NC "lefties" i see every..... single.... day. Don't paint with a broad brush. I produce food for people using absolutely no toxic sprays.....nothing. and I have my trump 2024 hat in my truck window.
“One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.” ― George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier
Over your head.
You mean capitalists have killed well over 100 million ppl. The British killed 60 million in India alone.
Weird thing to dick measure.
Personally I’m more for Direct Democracy. Enough market autonomy where price indicators aren’t canceled out (subsidies are fine keeping this in mind) but also freedom from rent extractors, monopolists and true freedom of travel ie you don’t have to use a car. No rent extraction, no interest, no monopolies, no corporate debt and overspeculation borrowing making everything more expensive.
So a kind of Democratic socialism I guess. With as little centralization as possible — keeping in mind limited economies of scale for natural monopolies and products that are highly unelastic/natural monopolies.
How on earth do you get there in a way that doesn’t butcher millions?
Not in the last century.
The British killed millions of ppl during the 1st half of the 20th century. I’m pretty sure you can’t discount the Nazis either. Or Vietnam and Korea on the American side of things. And did you forget the millions of ppl killed as a result of the war on terror during this century? The Japanese killing 10 million Chinese. God knows how many more examples are out there.
The numbers do not include millions killed in wars the communist regimes led against their own people: tens of millions in Stalin’s GULAG, during Chinese cultural revolution and in Cambodia by Red Khmers. We do not know how many of their own citizens the North Korean regime killed. Also in their satellite states, like drowning in blood Hungarian uprising of 1956 and sending hundreds of thousands to Siberia. Add to it people killed trying to escape North Korea or digging underneath or jumping over the Berlin Wall. The life in communist countries was so good, people risked their lives and died trying to escape. Ask Cubans, whose parents or grandparents came in boats, or Venezuelans, who walk across the continent from the horrors of communism.
Oh kyle , you ignorant sheep. At least on the right we admit the government sucks and manipulates everything. Here's a fact for you , you dumb turd.......solar and electric batteries use an assload of fossil fuels. Thats right snowflake, those solar panels and batteries contain all kinds of precious, mined metals causing brutal damage to the environment. Then........hmmmm....gosh, where do those batteries and solar panels go after their (very limited shelf life)?? YOU GOT IT!! you win kyle!!! Back into the environment with their dangerous levels of toxins. So the earth is warming up a little bit, suck it up buttercup.
The WHO already knows people will starve to death if the population isn't culled. Why the fuck do you think Bill gates , the cia, fauci and the dept. Of homeland security invented covid? Cull the herd and destroy those sperm counts. You can thank me later I never got the shot when its my offspring still populating the planet.......well and the other 30% of us populists that didn't get the shot. Now go get your booster shot and don't forget to triple mask!!
It depends on how lithium and cobalt are extracted and disposed. Same with wind blades. It’s not inherently just as toxic as fossil fuels, even under the worst circumstances. That’s an unregulated capitalism problem.
Gosh, everyone is trying to be patient with you. You come across as young and hyper idealistic. I wish I was still young and unaware, life is simpler.
If you read (and I doubt it, ya know the attention span of youth) the link you were supplied to the Moore film explained the monster sized corporate interest in these "green ventures ".
Lithium and cobalt are extracted and disposed of in the most economical fashion. Those giant wind blades (the size of a football field) dont have a green disposal solution. What are ya gonna do ? Melt them(with fossil fuels).
You wanna cast blame on capitalism for not regulating a government utopian solution to fossil fuels? This is exactly what the green turds wanted....electric, solar and wind. Now that it comes to light thats its ......yes inherently destructive......you blame capitalism? Huh?
You CANT KYLE.....extract lithium and cobalt in an environmentally green way. The power for the mining comes from fossil fuels. The toll on the animals in the deforestation of Bolivia and Brazil is profound. Those fucking , useless, giant , green turd, fart machines (wind energy) kill millions of birds a year.
There's just no logical comeback to that simple paragraph grasshopper. NIC TESLA
Figured out how to harness free electricity from the air essentially. He died, the feds showed up, took his work and laid the groundwork for today's fossil fuel conundrum.
We ALREADY have the solution for energy. Its whatever is powering those things pestering the navy fighter pilots that the navy released on video.. Those aren't aliens . They're either ours , the chicoms or Russian but they're energy source is next level. This bullshit we argue about is to keep the populace divided and distracted.
And your shitkicking ass will destroy far more trees and biodiversity burning fossil fuels. Your entire strategy is cherry-picking anything that isn’t perfect and ignoring the far worse effects we inflict with fossil fuels. You’re perfectly fine with many types of trees going extinct and mass wildfires with the fuels we burn now. You’re using a grain of truth to sell a much bigger lie. Most of this does with lack of regulation and planning. Not the tech being as bad as fossil fuels you dangerous moron. I should just send your comments to the junk. Arguing with an idiot is exhausting.
I own a tree nursery. I'm a populist tree hugger. I absolutely never said I love diesel spewing 80's era Mercedes. I simply pointed out(correctly) that the green energy initiative is a fraud. You should also be aware that it is common knowledge that when liberals get backed into a corner they name call. Ann coulter wrote a whole book about it. The mass wildfires are because California is choking the forest by not clearing or thinning. Did you know alaska was once TROPICAL? Did you know the Sahara desert was once a giant body of water.
Embrace change kster. Matt taibbi once spewed blue pill shit over at blue shit rolling stone. If you really aspire to be a journalist you must learn to think critically and keep your emotions in check.
So enlighten us then instead of being a dick.
I explained this already, you’re just cherry picking information you want to hear and ignoring everything else that contradicts you.
I don’t hear your retarded ass advocating the outlawing of mining in general. It’s not as harmful as any other form of mining. You can extract it from brine solutions without as many negative externalities. Nothing is perfect but you’re cherry-picking to justify the much worse extraction and burning we have now. Christ give up already you’re ignoring everything that contradicts you.
I blame lack of regulation you idiot.
https://interestingengineering.com/science/clean-evs-and-dirty-lithium-mining-business
Measure the carbon output beyond the tail pipe of an all electric car and you will find that it causes more pollution than a gas powered car.
I’ve seen people who think the electricity comes from the wall outlet lol
Well yes sort of. Inside the walls is a giant extension cord that plugs directly into an outlet at your nearest coal fired power plant. Then you get in your electric vehicle and use the same extension cord to drive around. When our ridiculous grid crashes because of the strain on it from "green power"and Kyle is eating shit sandwiches hell blame it on capitalism.
You’re insane lol. Citation needed. You are hilarious though, I’ll give you that.
Current technology unfortunately doesn't allow 9 Billion people to live on this planet with the lifestyle they so desire. You would need to give up everything that requires any form of transportation other than a horse, your phones, your internet. everything. You would need to go back to living off of the land that is within walking distance of you.
It's well known that there are not enough resources available ( or enough 9 year old children to exploit for labor in Africa) to mine to make enough batteries that cause about as much environmental harm as the gas powered engine. The power grid you use to charge your Tesla is basically fueled by Coal. Solar and Wind simply wouldn't provide what you need. If it could it would require every single natural resource on this planet to just provide power for California.
Also, most people that bitch about oil fail to comprehend that oil is FAR more than just a means to transportation. Oil basically allows this planet to have 9 Billion people. The only way to stop global warming is to hold a lottery and slaughter 7 billion humans. That's pretty much it.
So, if you are willing, then let's start to fix the planet.
Also, as to your Oil company profits statement. You might want to do some math on that. Just assuming that Oil companies are only gaining profits from Gasoline (which if you believe that means you have no business discussing this topic), the profits to how many gallons of gasoline we consume is peanuts. 75% of your gasoline prices is government taxes and transportation costs.
You said it. We have to live on less. A much simpler life, the way it used to be. Just speaking for myself, I dont miss TV, professional sports, processed foods, airplanes, long ass drives, subdivisions, corporate America, the bank, fast food.......probably more but thats a good start.
Go back to Breitbart you crank. Citation fucking needed that green tech will send us back to the Stone Age and creating it causes just as much pollution. Do you think the government created covid also?
I said they make money off their stocks and financial investment you moron. That’s why even though they’re making record profits they won’t build new pipelines. Your reading comprehension sucks.
Let's just focus on the kung flu. You want to be a journalist but you are ignoring the mountains of evidence that point overwhelmingly to the fact that shit was man made? Stop it young man, you are getting taken to the woodshed on facts.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coal-fired_power_stations_in_the_United_States
It’s all there in the first paragraph. I don’t know why we even bother providing references for beings like you who still won’t believe that which is patently obvious. I pity trolls like you and Karen...
Greta's back in school. Shouldn't you be there too?
You have a misguided idea of what the "working class" wants and needs collectively.
We need jobs that won't require us to live check to check, that won't make us want to take the gas pipe Sunday night after football. We need affordable gas and groceries. We need affordable gas because the bus doesn't run anywhere near frequently enough or come anywhere near where we live in the boonies, outside of a major city or suburb, and we're not all farmers or city dwellers (to speak with restraint), so it makes little collective sense to run bus lines out to every isolated town that's already dying because there's no work other than at the QuikStop, and those jobs are taken in perpetuity by the owner's family and cronies anyway.
We can't afford electric cars and aren't interested in utopian bullshit but in the here and now. What have you environmentalists done for us lately other than scare the shit out of us with predictions from an unfalsifiable gaggle of computer models and prognosticators who hate us for sullying their Perfect World, a world that requires the disappearance of us pesky breeders who are sucking up all the resources, which they alone are entitled to because they're the smartest, cleverest, and richest.
How about you develop "green" energy without depriving us of the means to amass at least some real wealth in the meantime?
And "the planet" will be just fine with or without the WEF's efforts to shame or force people into eating insects and living in tiny "houses" or pods.
That’s the fault of rent extractors, monopolists and interest on debt you moron. That’s what makes everything so much more expensive. Wtf does that do with global warming? You have more autonomy as a consumer if you don’t have to use a car and the money from building new infrastructure doesn’t get sucked up by the financial sector. Go watch more Tucker Clarkson. Sick of you rubes transparently using populist sounding language to launder your reactionary bullshit.
It isn’t populist to send food prices soaring or make most land not usable for growing crops.
This is like wac a mole. Ya know what trucks our food from California around the country......wait for it......diesel. did you know "rube" that those trucks CANNOT use electric? Thats right, we don't have batteries powerful enough. Now ......follow.......KMAN, if the government drives up the cost of diesel by 1)killing funding for domestic oil production and 2) participating in a proxy war against energy rich Russia then the markets react accordingly increasing the cost of diesel.
Then......hold on......this is where cause meets effect.....its delicious.......the cost of transporting food goes up and then Kyle pays more at the store for wonder bread.
They’re making record profits you dumbass. Yes I get how sanctions work. Russia reduced supply while demand remained the same and the cost push inflation drives everything up.
The lack of investment precedes the sanctions. Once again you still think alternatives to fossil fuels are worse than fossil fuels even though the sources you linked to didn’t even say that. Disposing in the most economical way is doing it the cheapest way so companies have more money left over for dividends and stock buybacks. Know what the words you’re using mean before using them. Christ. I should just put your comments in the junk. You just ignore everything g that contradicts you. You’re not a realist, just very dumb. You’ll cause global droughts and mass displacements with the path you advocate for. There’s plenty of sources that say certain wind blade technologies are disposable and a lot of the pollution from extracting ores can be mitigated. Even if it’s not perfect and needs to be regulated on a global level it’s still far more sustainable than fossil fuels.
You're missing subtlety "Disposing in the most economical way is doing it the cheapest way so companies have more money left over for dividends and stock buybacks'....that was my point. Big business is doing this for profit and its a fraud. Show me where I said I get a hard on smelling diesel.
It’s not like China doesn’t use high speed rails to deliver goods. Next
Here’s all we need to know: what do you think about nuclear power?
Wow, someone steps up with a meaningful question and all you can do is engage in name calling, labeling and finger pointing? YAWN...very boring.
Was this response meant for my post above?
I vote: All of the above, where appropriate, including nuclear power. I'd consider a micro molten salt reactor to energize my remote mining operation.
I’d suggest the only appropriate answer is nuclear. Everything else just doesn’t hold a candle.
I'd disagree. Norway is energized 100% with hydroelectric and Iceland by geothermal. Use what works best for the location, utilizing local resources, if possible.
Iceland is definitely an edge case. Norway probably too.
Through what they do is good.
I agree. Competitive advantage and staying in balance with an area’s ecosystem.
You’re the kind of dumbass who was screaming for nuclear before we knew it was safe. Fucking primitive. I mean libertarian. That’s the politically correct term for you inebriates, right?
Yeah nuclear is fine and much safer than it was 30-40 years ago.
Okay, it wasn't clear before whether you were legitimate or just trolling, but you've now made it clear. No reasonable person would ever jump to the ridiculous extreme conclusions you do about the people you're responding to. Giving you the benefit of the doubt that you don't have mental issues, the only other possibility is that you're just trolling. So please stop wasting everyone's time, it's not very good trolling.
U mad bro?
God knows because neither you nor anyone else knows.
Rising CO2 will create green belts in previously frozen territories. More land will become arable even as the travesty of California farming for the profit of a cabal of fortunate dynastic families literally dries up as we watch. Plummeting Western populations will use less of your precious fucking natural resources as India and Africa get kneecapped in their efforts to attenuate grinding poverty by amassing wealth using fossil fuels because of your sick drive to create an elitist Greta Thunbergian Utopia powered by wind and solar (we'll wait) where you yuppies will drive your e-cars using batteries mined by the perpetually poor who use gas-powered tools and vehicles to extract the metals needed. They can go starve and die of diseases contracted mining the shit you need to be a moral crusader for some twisted idea about "the planet" while you turn it into a prison devoid of poor people.
This is as plausible as the horrors you want to see happen if we don't bend the knee to environmentalists and the "leaders" who are either duped by them or stand to profit from the Green Deal Scam designed to make us all serfs in the service of the global bureaucracy headquartered either in China or the EU (the former is looking more likely by the day).
Finally, I would go fuck myself but my dick is in your mother's mouth.
Your post is exactly why I want to punch libtards in the face..
Hey now. Now need to punch people when the rapier of wit is so much more satisfying.
GW deniers? Why are the elites who are selling you this line of thinking buying beachfront property?
Do you know Obama didn't put 1 solar panel in his beach fortress. Went with a 2,500 gallon propane tank as back up......all ya need to know.
global warning is good for you. just like bacon n' eggs. plants love CO2.
Yes, and higher levels of that gas will create green belts in former deserts while southern California dries up and reverts to the desert it was before our genius leaders tapped the Colorado River and other natural water sources to create what are now rapidly evaporating reservoirs. The Central Valley was never supposed to be the "nation's salad bowl."
Everyone wetting himself about melting polar ice ought to think long term--the Great White North may become wildly fertile farmland.
Millions of people are going to starve or be displaced either way, unfortunately. I highly recommend Peter Zeihan's recent book The End of the World is Just the Beginning for a reality check on just how fucked we are, green tech or not. I doubt he's right on everything, but I suspect he's right on enough of the important stuff, especially sourcing of the critical materials needed for green tech (in its current form), that fossil fuels are the least of our problems.
Peter Zehein seems to be the current Dave Rubin. Even this guy on the left agrees with me.
There’s nothing logical about continuing to burn fossil fuels. We can distribute the resources to make it possible and financially feasible but we don’t have the political will.
In what way is Peter Zeihan "the current Dave Rubin"? Seriously. You might as well say "Steven Pinker seems to be the current Rachel Maddow" or some equivalently nonsensical statement.
How about you actually try reading what he's written and you might get an answer that challenges your assertions. I know you're not going to, but then at least just be honest and say you have no interest in actually knowing anything about it.
Love it , stealing.
Ah! The e.pierce I have grown to love and admire! Hahahaha!
Pierce doesn’t suffer fools, that’s for sure.
Some people can operate only in a crisis situation. From public health emergency to climate emergency. “Our planet is on fire” screams Elizabeth Warren. Reminds me hyperactive children who had too much candy or have ADHD. Why can’t we calmly and pragmatically work to benefit the country and the planet? The climate change is inevitable and has noting to do with humans. We can still take loving care of our forests, water and air in a smart way without getting hysterical.
Here are climate emergencies for the past 50. years. Hope you smile:
https://cei.org/blog/wrong-again-50-years-of-failed-eco-pocalyptic-predictions/.
Climate changing over the course of millions of years is natural bc it evolves with the environment. Not decades you moron. Christ you idiots just gather together in your own echo chamber to make yourselves feel normal.
You are right about one thing: this is the place normal people gather to exchange thoughts in a civil way, with obvious exceptions. When you are not angry, click on the link I included about climate changes in the past 5 decades. And on the link to a letter signed by over 1,100 scientists from over the world, unless, of course, you prefer listening to a mentally disturbed teenager, who has not finished school: https://dailysceptic.org/2022/08/18/1200-scientists-and-professionals-declare-there-is-no-climate-emergency/.
You’re not normal you freak. That’s why it’s called an echo chamber. You surround yourself with other freaks and normalize yourselves. Not all electricity is produced by fossil fuels and lithium batteries can be recycled so you don’t have to do as much mining. It’s a matter of global regulation. When these facts are brought up you deny global warming is happening at all.
Please read my reply to kyle. You're welcome.
every industry run by greedy pigs is emulating the health care cartel that gets 1/6 of the US economy counterfeited into their bank accounts each year.
even while they kill 250k to 400 each year. just by accident. but 12 die by mass shooting and everyone has to turn in their weapons.
My God that was a long read but worth it. My builder who spent time in Bolivia 15 years ago helping the large cats cope with migratory issues from development is gonna have a stroke about the lithium coup.
Try as well 'confessions of an economic hit man.'
But think of the profit margin when they execute the War On Terror: Home Edition! No costly shipping overseas!
Finally. Something built in the USA.
Don’t disagree...but this may not be the day to remember that.
Yeah. I mean it’s true, but I had a visceral reaction. My wife was across the street on West Street (she survived but was traumatized.) I didn’t need the cartoon.
Close your eyes. Or rather, please DON'T close your eyes. I know at least two people who lost loved ones in that mass murder, but I see the things our government is doing as making them more likely - inevitable even. I se thes way to preventing future such attacks is to wage peace, restrain those who exploit already poor, helpless, and hungry people who are easy pickings for those with their own agendas.
Our opinions are often formed by our experiences. You are welcome to yours.
I can’t ever really “close my eyes.” The entirety of my wife’s life was changed from that moment on. I agree with the sentiment behind the cartoon. It still didn’t sit well with me. I don’t need reminders of how things went to shit from there.
But as a follow up to my earlier comment, maybe you didn't get a gene altering toxic shot because you remembered the government really doesn't protect you.
True, profoundly true. A way of understanding others that I try to remember. The way we view the world is a function of what we have had to deal with in our own lives, and we cannot experience someone else's life. Thank you for those words.
I too prefer not to dwell on it. Time does not heal all wounds. Her wounds must be very painful even if not obviously physical. My compensation, if you will, is to focus on trying to help people see that continuing to do those things that brought this on is just digging a deeper hole. This was not unprovoked even if it was unjustifiable.
Agreed. I think it’s more than fair to say that our response to that day was terrible and wasteful without co-opting the message and tragedy of those that died.
Yes, visceral was my reaction as well. Then I thought about it. How in the world did the fbi, cia and nsa miss it? I used to hate the people that said it was an inside job,.but then do we really buy that they just missed it? I don't anymore, no way, it doesn't add up.
So I think the best way to honor those poor souls is to remind those living that the government most certainly does not have the country's best interest all the time, maybe half the time.....when it suits their best interests.
One of my oldest friends was in the Pentagon that day. He had to take early retirement because of PTSD.
I spent a lot of time thinking about this back in those days. My conclusion was that we were right up until the Republicans misled us into the Iraq debacle. Nothing can excuse what bin Laden did — waiters at Windows on the World and file clerks in offices were completely innocent.
Well Karen, you're friend might have been better suited to training trans acceptance classes at the pentagon. It was you're precious government (CIA) that gave Bush the intel on weapons and a lot of spineless democrats voted to invade.
What you say about the CIA is, in this case, simply flat-out wrong. At least some, maybe most, of the analysts in the CIA told the administration that Hussain had destroyed his WMDs, and the yellowcake story was bullshit. Cheyney and Bush cherry-picked some and simply confabulated the rest.
The CIA has its fingers in enough bad stuff that there's little point in making things up about them, it just dilutes the real stuff.
Technically it was Cheney’s ppl who cherrypicked CIA findings to fit their own conclusions. Try and have opinions about things you know about. Is that so much to ask?
Why not? That's like saying that the day 19 children are murdered is not the day to consider controlling access to murder weapons.
I think the distinction is that you can argue that controlling access to weapons might prevent further tragedies, or at least honor the memory of those killed, while saying that the US used the tragedy of 9/11 to vastly expand the security state is a non sequitur for those who perished that day and their families.
But what the US did afterwards was an abomination, and to claim that we tried to avenge those dead does them dishonor. Indeed the US continues to this day to claim their deaths justify its continued actions. And that is simply despicable.
Umm, that’s $8 billion. I think you are off by a few orders of magnitude.
No! It's actually more than 8T over time. Wounded veterans, replacement of expended munitions and equipment. Interest, the non declared war's were fought on the credit card and social security money's.
No, the written figure says $8 billion+. That’s quite a “plus,” covering an extra 1,000 times the number given. So he’s not a numbers person. But really, he’s not much of a thinker, either. Sophomoric crap -- and I’m someone who would like to see Dick Cheney in jail, but for Iraq, not Afghanistan. I’d like to know what you think Al Gore would have done in response to the attacks. Somehow, “not much” doesn’t come to mind.
It's a terrible cartoon. Its meaning isn't even clear, and to the extent that we can guess at that meaning, the number it asserts is likely in any non-trivial sense false.
Neither the cartoon nor its cartoonist should be here. Matt should drop them, ASAP.
We should censor anyone who doesn't agree with the groupthink. Two legs gooood, four legs baaaad.
What a hilariously stupid straw man.
It partially is, but it also points out the interesting wrinkle in the recent arguments over the evils of ‘deplatforming’.
In form and function, what you’re calling for is what the SJW’s asking that Dave Chapelle or Trump be ‘deplatformed’ are calling for. The only difference is subject matter, that there are more of them, and that in the case of Trump they were successful.
Which speaks to my suspicion that a lot of those who complain about ‘censorship’ nowadays—because they are usually referring to *private* censorship on social media—are actually not that concerned about free speech. They’re perfectly content to call for ‘deplatforming’ and mass public shaming when it’s targeted at speech they don’t like.
Four legs baaaad, baaaad, baaaad.
I have to say that the best part of waking up to a Daniel Medina cartoon is watching the same people who constantly kvetch & moan about media platform censorship just aching to censor Dan from this media platform.
A perfect reason for me to vote for Ben Dover in the coming election since neither side appears to actually be trustworthy.
I suspect that if Trump or the Republicans were the ones pulling the strings on media censorship & their target was liberals & progressives many of the "censorship is bad, very very bad" crowd would either publicly or secretly just be tickled pink with it all.
It appears that neither side subscribes to the "what's good for the goose is good for the gander" philosophy.
I'm also loving the dichotomy of "Afghanistan good war" but "Iraq bad war."
Let's not forget while we're so busy "remembering" that Afghanistan didn't attack us.
Neither did the Taliban.
I also seem to remember that the Taliban offered to turn over Obama...oops...Osama to a neutral 3rd country until the US produced evidence for Obama's....oops...Osama's guilt.
Let's also not forget that the powerful elite who own our sorry asses most likely were jumping for joy over 9/11 because they knew that every tragedy for the owned is a manipulatable financial windfall for the owners.
But hey, much better to run on pure emotion. That strategy has served the country so well for now hasn't it?
Trump also had a habit of blurting out uncomfortable truths about American foreign policy.
I do believe it was Glenn Greenwald who wrote that piece about the intelligence document he found at Wikileaks where the intelligence branch gave Obama tongue baths because they thought his international image was useful to sell the American Empire.
Trump's image, not so much.
Trump has been useful in other ways though.
As much as Joe & Kamala prattle on about the danger Trump poses to Democracy both of them owe their tenure in office entirely to Donald Trump.
Once Donald Trump Fear completely corralled the liberals into a compliant & pliable mass, the Dems could have gotten a baboon & a wildebeest elected as P & VP.
Some would probably call that an improvement over J & K.
For me, watching the Dems & the media turn Donald Trump, at best a narcissistic blowhard with delusions of grandeur, into an orange Patrick Henry for half of the country while simultaneously turning him into Baba Yaga or Cthulhu for the other half has been completely fascinating.
The end of the Cold War in 1989 when the German West/East Wall was taken down threatened a bloated military and the defense contractors. They needed a new enemy so they groom Bin Laden to flourish and aided and abetted 9/11.
Rest assured that, in whatever corner of Hell he now resides, Osama Bin Laden is laughing his ass off.
He got exactly what he wanted. We took the bait and ran. We're less free and have spent trillions on useless and unsuccessful military activities.
It's what terrorism is all about.
And we bought it hook, line and sinker.
Indeed.
No, WE did not, though I’ll grant that many did. Fact is, didn’t matter how many were against it, even if it was the entire country. THEY were going to do whatever they damn well pleased.
What happened on 9/11 was horrific but I feel silly mourning 3,000 Americans when we turned around and started a war in Iraq that resulted in the violent deaths of 180,000+ Iraqi civilians.
Is one American life worth over 60 Iraqi lives?
Saddam and his cronies happily starved, tortured, raped, murdered and genocided millions, but I guess that’s okay as long as there’s no agenda at stake. But I guess that sort of thing is fine as long as it happens to someone else far away.
As bad as Saddam was, what we delivered was worse.
And those houses. Ugh. Are the Bluths locked up yet?
First ask yourself, WHO empowered Saddam? You may not like the answer. Zelensky is going to be the new Saddam in 10 years....watch for it. Ukraine = Iraq = place where USA tries out things on the captive natives. Free Ukraine from both Russia AND US/NATO and the Mafia.
Ukraine has been ruled by thugs for 3 centuries, but nobody talks about the problem of the Ukrainian underworld - neither US nor Russia....and I guarantee that same Ukrainian underworld has ties to the WEF/WHO and all other power brokers....
Sure, but unless America's standard is "at least we're not as bad as Saddam", it's not really relevant.
I think it’s past your bedtime sweetie. Run along now.
As a Clinton shill you’d know all about that.
Never fail to exploit a crisis! Never fail to control the narrative. Never forget that Homo sapiens can believe anything, use it to your advantage. The memory hole always works, use it. Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, be that scoundrel. Jingoism makes the sheeple vulnerable, take advantage. Bread and circuses have always worked and the bread and circuses don't have to be good quality, sheeple are easily distracted.
"George W. Bush part of baseball’s 9/11 anniversary tribute
There were moments of silence, remembrances and tributes at ballparks across America on the anniversary of 9/11." Politico (?)
First he did a deal with Middle East Oil Money to Finance his useless energy company, then he ripped off the citizens of Texas by selling the Baseball Team with the stadium built on land owmed by a Texas Municipality both had used taxpayer support, then he cheated to get into the White House, with the help of FL Gov brother “Jeb”, which allowed the family to create and profit from the Iraq Invasion and destroy much of the Middle East, triggered (inaccurately) by the destructive attack on the NY City World Trade Center, caused by Bush Administration incompetency, at a minimum, as he protected the Saudi Nationals to leave the country, on the only private/commercial planes in the air, and then (NOW) he is back at the scene of the Original Crime, taking bows for something or other that seems to be connecting Baseball and War (isnt that supposed to be Football?) in and as a "Patriotic Event” with his head bowed ever so solemn and reverent.
What, Me Worry?
Find The Monarchy, Follow The Money
Frenkle: “Bush is the worst president in history.”
Biden: “Hold my beer...”
We went from a punitive SOF based action in Afghanistan to building democracy in Islamic stages. Absolute madness.
I was all for punitive, six month operations. Just as I was amenable to “two weeks to slow the spread”. You can NEVER trust the govt
Hear, hear.
Though I believe the American public was strongly for it, I think the invasion of Afghanistan was a mistake from the start. Even a strong president would have had a hard time resisting, GW Bush was not a strong president. Here are my reasons...
> It sought one man for which an unlimited number of people would be killed, all from families just as were the victims of 9/11. There's no evidence that the great majority of Taliban had any idea 9/11 was being planned. Their most rigorous training was in learning to recite the Quran in Arabic, a language they did not/do not speak.
> The planning of 9/11 could have been accomplished anywhere, even in someone's basement in the United States. The Tora Bora complex and military training camps in Afghanistan had nothing to do with the use of airplanes for suicide missions. The necessary flight training for that was conducted in the US.
> It was almost all Saudis, not Afghans, that did the planning and performed the execution of the plan. This was known almost immediately.
That morning many of us had the sinking feeling that the liberty we had grown up with was suddenly a thing of the past. It was great while it lasted.
... Matt, you should drop this cartoonist from syndication. He's a poor fit, and that's putting it nicely.
"The government exploited 9/11 to enrich military manufacturing donors by $8,000,000,000+" is an ambiguous, unsourced and bizarre-to-the-point-of-being-nonsensical construction. (After all, "the government," per se, doesn't have donors, unless you're counting taxpayers who fund it on pain of legal jeopardy—which is of course not how anyone uses the term.) And whatever factual claim the artist is trying to assert might very well be false, since it seems unlikely that "military manufacturing donors" were only "enrich[ed]" by $8 billion out of trillions spent.
The artist's plain intellectual deficiencies extend to his bio, where there's even less excuse for such thoughtlessness and laziness. "My cartoons stand up firmly against racism, xenophobia, hate bigotry, and ignorance," he writes like a hammer looking for nails—and with as much epistemic humility and nuance as a literal hammer—followed by this arrogant, ungrammatical non sequitur: "Regardless of the political party one belongs to, if you try to take advantage of the people, you will not be safe from my pen."
This is the kind of person you've spent many columns calling out. Much like every bad actor in media, this artist cloaks themselves in virtues like truth and justice but routinely fails the most basic journalistic and intellectual standards. They're going to get you in trouble if you keep them around, not least by undermining the credibility of your platform.
I had trouble figuring it out at first too. I think he's referring to 'donors to Republican and Democrat campaigns who are part of the manufacturing industry'.
Be a little tolerant though. I can't see anything ideologically leftist about this piece. I also didn't hear anything objectionable in the quotes you put down, if you take them at face value.
But you don't actually know what he means, because he didn't bother to write a sensical, cogent sentence—a very simple thing to do. Being "tolerant" of such an abject failure helps nobody, most of all the person who failed.
And I literally pointed out why the items I quoted are objectionable. They indicate—in blinking Broadway lights—lazy, sophomoric, arrogant, and (yes) ideological thinking.
This artist has enough undue pride for a very long fall, and I'd rather he not take Taibbi with him. I'd also prefer that his tripe not be sent to my inbox, since tripe isn't what I've signed up or paid for.
The number’s unsourced, but the point is pretty clear: that the US government (and neoconservatives in general) exploited the tragedy of 9/11 in order to justify the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the public, along with a much-enlarged national security government apparatus, an act which funneled billions (possibly trillions) to military contractors while creating vast numbers of dead Americans, dead Iraqis, and a new, unprecedentedly intrusive surveillance state.
If you can’t read the subtext about the MIC, that’s on you. You may have a point on the unsourced number, but it’s also not a longstanding convention for political cartoons to cite where they’re getting their numbers.
While some of us knew it in 2001 and shouted it to deaf ears, if you haven't figured out that the neo-conservatives and neo-liberals are the same team in a different flavor, you are not paying attention. Of course Biden was salivating over the Patriot Act and the wars....
Just call them the neos...they play both "sides" so well and now they do not even hide that they are on the same "team." F#ck the NEOS and bring back verifiable (no voting machines) democratic elections and our Republic. The neos assembled themselves in the 70s and they are not friends of humanity. Forget left/right, dem/rep, light/dark...it's really We the People vs. the Neo elites that want to enslave the rest of us. Again, F@ck the neos! Time to take back the planet and all living on her from these enemies of life...and it won't work to fight them, because that is what they want for a justification for Martial Law. We have to get clever ;)
The artist's point isn't at all clear—again, because of the ambiguous and even nonsensical language they used to express what is in all likelihood a false idea (as I said in my first comment, the $8 billion figure looks absurdly low). And it's actually an especially big problem that the artist failed to include a source in this case, because, aside from evidencing whatever claim he thinks is so important to make, a source might have clarified the meaning of the single sentence he nonetheless couldn't manage.
You don't need to lecture me (or anyone of even minor intelligence and relevant knowledge) on the general depravities and corruptions of the so-called War on Terror. Your suspicion that I haven't picked up on the so-called "subtext" of the artist's mangled sentence is not only baseless but also evidence that it's you who has a problem grasping "subtext." After all, I couldn't have expressed in my first comment that the artist's $8 billion figure looks extremely low without knowing that, in fact, far more money was funneled to war profiteers.
LOL - "Won't be safe from my pen." Wow, that's intimidating ...
watched the mainstream TV yesterday re 9/11. Traumatic. More so after 21 years. The US has been sinking since 1945. Afraid it hasnt hit bottom yet.
It has hit bottom… and then started to dig furiously.