Politics & Stuff

[Fernando 6,463]

1 minute ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Think that might be hypothetical. His mental faculties have been shown to be lacking in the last few weeks, more degenerative than Biden, and thats being kind - a second term would mean he would end up being 86 definitely not fit for office.

But if this is true, why has Obama not run for presidency?

If it's true that you need to sit 4 years break before running again?

I don't know where that info came from, but I wanted to check to see if you guys where aware of this supposedly "loop"

[Vesper 28,818]

1 hour ago, Fulham Broadway said:

We’d get out our glass pipes and smoke our rocks while listening to only the hardest Jamaican dancehall.

Tiger - Ram Dance Hall

Label: Steely & Clevie Records
Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM
Country: Jamaica
Released: 1988
Genre: Reggae
Style: Dancehall

[Vesper 28,818]

15 minutes ago, Fernando said:

I have a question if anyone can answer. 

I heard this from someone but I just don't believe it. It does not make senses to me. 

He said that if Trump wins he can do another term after because he took a 4 year break after his first presidency. That they can't do 2 terms consecutive but that if you took a break like Trump did after his presidency, in theory if he get elected he can run again for another term. 

Example he did his 4 years, took a break for 4 years now running for presidency and if he wins it will be his second term after a break. so 4 years plus 4 year break, plus a second term of 4 year. 

This person says that he would in theory run for a third term.....so 4 years plus 4 year break, plus a second term of 4 year and a potential third term of 4 years because of the break?

I don't believe this guy that mentioned this but I want to confirm because of the 4 year break he had, thus no consecutive terms. 

100 per cent pure bullshit

that bloke is utterly delusional

Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution

 

Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2. This Article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress.

 

Congress approved the Twenty-second Amendment on March 21, 1947, and submitted it to the state legislatures for ratification. That process was completed on February 27, 1951, when the requisite 36 of the 48 states had ratified the amendment (neither Alaska nor Hawaii had yet been admitted as states), and its provisions came into force on that date.

[Vesper 28,818]

If Trump wins, blame the New York Times

America’s paper of record refuses to sound the alarm about the threat Trump poses to democracy

https://www.salon.com/2024/10/20/if-wins-the-new-york-times/

Traffic and pedestrians pass by the New York Times building on 8th Avenue on December 30, 2023, in New York City. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)

If

If Donald Trump wins the Nov. 5 election, the New York Times will be partly responsible.

As the dominant voice in American journalism, the Times could have fundamentally changed the way Trump has been covered not just by its own journalists but by the political media as a whole. It could have stopped using soft, empty language and false equivalence, and made it crystal clear to the public that if elected Trump would turn America into a racist, authoritarian regime where facts don’t matter.

But rather than call out the dangerous lunacy in plain view, the Times has chosen to engage in tortured euphemisms, passive construction, and poor news judgment.

Here are a few examples of the troubling coverage — or lack thereof: 

• When Trump seized up at a rally this week and bizarrely swayed to music for 39 excruciating minutes, the Times called it an “improvisational departure.”
• Trump’s racist threats to deport millions of undocumented people are actually just full of “hyperbolic rhetoric” and “fury.” 
• When it was reported that Trump’s top general, Mark Milley, called him “fascist to the core” the Times buried what should have been front-page news deep in an article about something else entirely.
• Times journalists refuse to call Trump’s “false claims” what they are: malicious lies.
• Hurling racist invective at a vulnerable community to fire up a hateful and bigoted base is just “rabble rousing” to the Times. It’s “combative conservatism.”
• And even in an otherwise admirable article on Trump’s cognitive decline, the Times couldn’t bring itself to use the term “cognitive decline.” 

Meanwhile, the day-to-day coverage treats Trump like a normal candidate, rather than as the wildly dangerous and unhinged felon that he is. Day in and day out, the Times “sanewashes” his dark and unintelligible ramblings. Day in and day out, it treats the divisions about basic facts and democratic rule as just so much partisan squabbling. 

Related

"His brain is completely out of commission": Moderator repeatedly calls out Trump for rambling

Day in and day out, Times reporters use the passive voice to muddle responsibility for heinous acts committed by Republicans, find fault with “both sides,” and create false equivalencies between two parties, only one of which respects facts and the rule of law.

This weakness —- this failure to rise to the occasion – is not a coincidence nor an accident. It is also not, despite the insistence of some on social media, because the institution is somehow rooting for Trump. 

The fault lies with the Times’ selfish, smug, and self-destructive leadership. To be specific: New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger and editor Joe Kahn have made it abundantly clear time and again that they prize their so-called “journalistic independence” over any obligation to sound the alarm that electing Trump would be a disaster for the country.

Rather than call out the dangerous lunacy in plain view, the Times has chosen to engage in tortured euphemisms.

And by “journalistic independence” they don’t mean the freedom to speak truth to power. They mean the freedom to triangulate between the two parties to occupy some sort of mythical middle, which they consider morally superior to “taking sides” in any kind of political battle – even one as unbalanced as this one.

Kahn gave away the game in a recent interview with NPR. “In people's minds, there's very little neutral middle ground,” he said. “In our mind, it is the ground that we are determined to occupy.”

But the “people” are right about this one. There is no middle ground between the two parties these days. And there’s certainly no middle ground between truth and lies.

Kahn’s resistance to sounding the alarm is shared by none other than his boss, the Times’ publisher. Sulzberger has said quite definitively that he doesn’t think that’s something the Times should be doing. “I see no lack of passionate, morally confident actors sounding the alarm,” Sulzberger said in a speech this past spring.  “Indeed, the alarm seems so loud and so constant that much of the public has by now put in earplugs.” 

He described independent reporting as “the kind that doesn’t fully align with any one perspective.” It requires being “willing to take a simple, easy, or comfortable story and complicate it with truths that people don’t want to hear.”

I think the message that sends to the newsroom is: If partisans are happy with your work, you’re doing something wrong, so make sure they never are – even if the facts support their view.

It’s easy to blame the reporters whose bylines appear on Times news articles for their pusillanimity. And I often do. But the fault actually lies further up the food chain, with their editors and their editors’ bosses.

The way the Times covers Trump comes directly from the top – as did the disastrous decision in 2016 to devote so much front-page real estate to Hillary Clinton’s emails instead of to the danger represented by Trump.

What we’re left with is this conclusion: If Trump wins in part because the public was insufficiently alarmed by the press coverage of the 2024 election, the people who run the Times will have the extremely dubious distinction of having gotten Trump elected twice.

• Campaign official admits Trump "refusing" interviews because he's "exhausted": report
• "Not true": Univision debunks Trump's Harris town hall teleprompter conspiracy theory

[Fulham Broadway 16,851]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

one in the stink for you

from your Piraeus milf

with ἔρως

It was the finger first, then the flag

[Vesper 28,818]

37 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

It was the finger first, then the flag

 

a conundrum of cosmic proportions

[Fulham Broadway 16,851]

4 minutes ago, Vesper said:

 

a conundrum of cosmic proportions

That 'logic' is in a lot of posts 🤣

and if its proved wrong then 'here's a totally unrelated anecdote of 1960 Greece'  that makes as much sense as Trumps covid cures

[Vesper 28,818]

12 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

That 'logic' is in a lot of posts 🤣

and if its proved wrong then 'here's a totally unrelated anecdote of 1960 Greece'  that makes as much sense as Trumps covid cures

Aristotle Onassis takes Sir Winston Churchill for a drive near the Temple of Apollo at Delph, 1959.

 

[Fulham Broadway 16,851]

1 minute ago, Vesper said:

Aristotle Onassis takes Sir Winston Churchill for a drive near the Temple of Apollo at Delph, 1959.

 

Checkout Churchills face - Jackie Onassis definitely has a finger up his Arris(totle)

[Vesper 28,818]

33 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Checkout Churchills face - Jackie Onassis definitely has a finger up his Arris(totle)

That is not Jackie. She was still married to JFK in 1959.

 

[Vesper 28,818]

1 hour ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Checkout Churchills face - Jackie Onassis definitely has a finger up his Arris(totle)

this is how that car looked

 

Hidden For Decades, We Found Gianni Agnelli’s Custom Fiat 500 And It Has Some Incredible Stories To Tell

https://petrolicious.com/articles/hidden-for-decades-we-found-gianni-agnellis-custom-fiat-500-and-it-has-some-incredible-stories-to-tell

The watch over the sleeve. The short tie sans tie bar. Rugged boots against the finest Italian suits. It’s no revelation that The Rake of the Riviera, to us known as Gianni Agnelli, was a style god. Tailor-made wasn’t just a fashion for Agnelli; it was a lifestyle which was famously the case in his taste for cars as well because, let’s face it, a man of his stature couldn’t just have any average Fiat or Ferrari – they had to be his.

To rattle off a few familiar ones – the one-off Lancia Delta Integrale Spider, Ferrari Testarossa Spider, the jaw-dropping custom Ferrari 375 America.

Though these are all incredibly tasteful in their own right, they don’t fully represent a critical part of Gianni’s lifestyle: leisure and entertaining. You know, a little something for beach days, playboying, hob-knobbing with heads of state – just the usual R and R. For this purpose, he looked to his company’s greatest triumph and pride: the Fiat 500. Charming, unassuming, and unmistakably Italian, the 500, more specifically the 500 Jolly, fit the bill for this purpose like none other.

To the best of our research, Gianni commissioned two Fiat 500 ‘Spiagginas’ from Mario Boano of Carrozzeria Ghia. The second car was a personal gift for his dear friend, shipping magnate and second husband of Jackie Kennedy, Aristotle Onassis (because dessert cake, though appreciated, doesn’t quite cut it at this level of royalty). The Onassis Spiaggina has since disappeared, but after decades off the radar the Agnelli commission has resurfaced.

This happy little car you’re staring at is what records show to be Gianni Agnelli’s personal and custom Fiat 500 Spiaggina. Friend of Petrolicious, Simone Bertolero of Auto Classic Italy, discovered the car intact and unused, retired in a Northern Italian garage. The paperwork accompanying the car show Agnelli’s tenure with number plate TO25879 ended in 1973 when he gifted the car to his driver of nearly 30 years, who then ceded the car to Mario Rossi, a lifelong friend of Gianni’s. Simone, a collector and purveyor, tends to fancy niche cars with significance to Italy’s rich automotive history, notably including his 1960 Fiat-Abarth 1000 Bialbero La Principessa.

Mr. Agnelli’s tastes are immediately evident when comparing his Spiaggina to a standard one. The chassis was elongated, likely to better accommodate the inevitable movie stars or diplomats climbing aboard. Wood trim handsomely surrounds the body, making the car look a bit more substantial and ‘Riva-like.’ Boano also took liberties with the front styling and removed much of the trim, still retaining the distinct Fiat 500 look but sedating it ever so slightly.

Gianni stationed his prized Spiaggina at the famous Villa Leopolda on the French Riviera. Think of the conversations, the jokes, the glances, the emotions, and the moods that took place in these cars. They were at the epicenter of ‘50s and ‘60s nirvana, experiencing the world’s elite at arguably their most vulnerable. Pictured below are just a few of their best memories including Winston Churchill riding shotgun, Aristotle Onassis attempting to resolve a breakdown, and Marella Agnelli posing with the car for Vogue Magazine.

The Spiaggina’s innocent simplicity in contrast to the larger-than-life, regal characters that puttered around in these cars is oddly quite beautiful. Whether you’re in a mass produced Fiat 500 or a special commission of Agnelli’s, there is a common denominator – joy. A Fiat 500 really doesn’t care who you are, fun is the name of the game. Some may consider this to be over-assigning credit to Agnelli, but doesn’t it feel like this effect was intentional? Well respected by most of Italy, he frequently humbled himself before his fellow countrymen. Something tells me he understood that pictures of him on vacation in the people’s car would feel less conceited.

Only doing the lightest of maintenance to get car running and keep it as original as possible, the Agnelli Spiaggina will be at Simone’s side making its first official showing at Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este this weekend. Unofficially, if you happened to be in Monaco during the historic races a few weeks ago you might have seen our team bouncing around town and the paddock while tirelessly (joyfully) creating this article.

All told, the best illustration of the Spiaggina is that it meets at the intersection of two lovely sentiments: ‘La Dolce Vita’ and ‘what a time to be alive.’ Without a doubt, we know Simone will enjoy the car the way Gianni intended. Smiles per gallon, baby.

Edited October 21 by Vesper

[Fulham Broadway 16,851]

9 minutes ago, Vesper said:

That is not Jackie. She was still married to JFK in 1959.

 

It must be that Greek prostitute Comic was on about. 'Fingerin' Foteini'

[Fulham Broadway 16,851]

2 minutes ago, Vesper said:

this is how that car looked

 

Hidden For Decades, We Found Gianni Agnelli’s Custom Fiat 500 And It Has Some Incredible Stories To Tell

https://petrolicious.com/articles/hidden-for-decades-we-found-gianni-agnellis-custom-fiat-500-and-it-has-some-incredible-stories-to-tell

The watch over the sleeve. The short tie sans tie bar. Rugged boots against the finest Italian suits. It’s no revelation that The Rake of the Riviera, to us known as Gianni Agnelli, was a style god. Tailor-made wasn’t just a fashion for Agnelli; it was a lifestyle which was famously the case in his taste for cars as well because, let’s face it, a man of his stature couldn’t just have any average Fiat or Ferrari – they had to be his.

To rattle off a few familiar ones – the one-off Lancia Delta Integrale Spider, Ferrari Testarossa Spider, the jaw-dropping custom Ferrari 375 America.

Though these are all incredibly tasteful in their own right, they don’t fully represent a critical part of Gianni’s lifestyle: leisure and entertaining. You know, a little something for beach days, playboying, hob-knobbing with heads of state – just the usual R and R. For this purpose, he looked to his company’s greatest triumph and pride: the Fiat 500. Charming, unassuming, and unmistakably Italian, the 500, more specifically the 500 Jolly, fit the bill for this purpose like none other.

To the best of our research, Gianni commissioned two Fiat 500 ‘Spiagginas’ from Mario Boano of Carrozzeria Ghia. The second car was a personal gift for his dear friend, shipping magnate and second husband of Jackie Kennedy, Aristotle Onassis (because dessert cake, though appreciated, doesn’t quite cut it at this level of royalty). The Onassis Spiaggina has since disappeared, but after decades off the radar the Agnelli commission has resurfaced.

This happy little car you’re staring at is what records show to be Gianni Agnelli’s personal and custom Fiat 500 Spiaggina. Friend of Petrolicious, Simone Bertolero of Auto Classic Italy, discovered the car intact and unused, retired in a Northern Italian garage. The paperwork accompanying the car show Agnelli’s tenure with number plate TO25879 ended in 1973 when he gifted the car to his driver of nearly 30 years, who then ceded the car to Mario Rossi, a lifelong friend of Gianni’s. Simone, a collector and purveyor, tends to fancy niche cars with significance to Italy’s rich automotive history, notably including his 1960 Fiat-Abarth 1000 Bialbero La Principessa.

Mr. Agnelli’s tastes are immediately evident when comparing his Spiaggina to a standard one. The chassis was elongated, likely to better accommodate the inevitable movie stars or diplomats climbing aboard. Wood trim handsomely surrounds the body, making the car look a bit more substantial and ‘Riva-like.’ Boano also took liberties with the front styling and removed much of the trim, still retaining the distinct Fiat 500 look but sedating it ever so slightly.

Gianni stationed his prized Spiaggina at the famous Villa Leopolda on the French Riviera. Think of the conversations, the jokes, the glances, the emotions, and the moods that took place in these cars. They were at the epicenter of ‘50s and ‘60s nirvana, experiencing the world’s elite at arguably their most vulnerable. Pictured below are just a few of their best memories including Winston Churchill riding shotgun, Aristotle Onassis attempting to resolve a breakdown, and Marella Agnelli posing with the car for Vogue Magazine.

The Spiaggina’s innocent simplicity in contrast to the larger-than-life, regal characters that puttered around in these cars is oddly quite beautiful. Whether you’re in a mass produced Fiat 500 or a special commission of Agnelli’s, there is a common denominator – joy. A Fiat 500 really doesn’t care who you are, fun is the name of the game. Some may consider this to be over-assigning credit to Agnelli, but doesn’t it feel like this effect was intentional? Well respected by most of Italy, he frequently humbled himself before his fellow countrymen. Something tells me he understood that pictures of him on vacation in the people’s car would feel less conceited.

Only doing the lightest of maintenance to get car running and keep it as original as possible, the Agnelli Spiaggina will be at Simone’s side making its first official showing at Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este this weekend. Unofficially, if you happened to be in Monaco during the historic races a few weeks ago you might have seen our team bouncing around town and the paddock while tirelessly (joyfully) creating this article.

All told, the best illustration of the Spiaggina is that it meets at the intersection of two lovely sentiments: ‘La Dolce Vita’ and ‘what a time to be alive.’ Without a doubt, we know Simone will enjoy the car the way Gianni intended. Smiles per gallon, baby.

It looks like a Golf cart for the disabled, sort of thing Trump uses

Notice no doors, so that back seat passengers can do the 'reach around' while pegging

[Vesper 28,818]

Just now, Fulham Broadway said:

It must be that Greek prostitute Comic was on about. 'Fingerin' Foteini'

Lady Clementine Churchill, wife of Sir Winston Churchill, right, waves enthusiastically as she admires the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece, on July 28, 1959 with opera soprano Maria Callas, left, and Mrs. Tina Onassis, Center. The three are cruising the Mediterranian in the Onassis yacht "Christina." (AP Photo)

[Fulham Broadway 16,851]

3 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Lady Clementine Churchill, wife of Sir Winston Churchill, right, waves enthusiastically

Shes not. Shes showing the younger two how to do a reach around while pegging

[Vesper 28,818]

The Generation Z Gender Gap on Abortion

Young men complicate the reproductive rights debate this election season.

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-10-21-generation-z-gender-gap-abortion/

Since the start of her bid for the presidency, “We trust women” has been one of Kamala Harris’s key themes. The vice president repeatedly underlines her support for reproductive rights so that voters know that she stands firm in her commitment to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade. Her pro-choice stance, however, may not resonate as strongly with one group of voters that has raised concerns in Democratic circles.

Young American men between the ages of 18 and 34 are the only group in a survey of 20 developed countries that has become more conservative—and Democrats have reason to be concerned that Harris’s strong emphasis on abortion may be contributing to declines in enthusiasm among the kinds of voters that she needs to prevail over former President Donald Trump.

The Harvard Youth Poll released in late September 2024 found that young voters overwhelmingly favored Harris over Donald Trump on climate change and abortion. However, after President Biden dropped out of the race, though overall support for Harris in her contest against Trump soared among young women (+47), the bump was more modest among young men (+17).

On abortion, a Survey Center on American Life report showed that 45 percent of all men identified as pro-choice compared to 63 percent of women. Young men were less likely to strongly oppose abortion restrictions than young women, 55 percent to 38 percent, a trend that is not only national, but global. An Ipsos poll conducted in 2023 revealed that 46 percent of Gen Z men thought abortion should be legal in all or most cases, far less than any other generational cohort.

Some college-age, pro-choice Democratic men are more interested in a range of topics rather than any one issue like abortion. “I definitely think abortion is one of my top things, but I think it’s just knowing what these people have done in the past as my biggest issue,” Emmett Hill, a junior at Morehouse College, says. “It’s more of a personality issue with everything being so polarized.”

“The economy is one thing, immigration is another,” says Samuel McKinney, a junior at the University of Alabama and vice president of the UA College Democrats. “But I really don’t like the way Trump talks about people he disagrees with,” he adds. “The issue I find driving me the most is the future of political discourse in America.”

Young American men between the ages of 18 and 34 are the only group in a survey of 20 developed countries that has become more conservative.

Another Survey Center on American Life poll, conducted in August 2022, noted that 70 percent of men 18 to 29 years old were focused on inflation and gas prices and 46 percent were focused on abortion laws. Among women in that age bracket, 55 percent were concerned about gas prices and 64 percent were concerned about abortion laws.

Some young Democratic men’s views echo those of University of Alabama senior Riley McArdle, chairman of the UA College Republicans. McArdle, who is pro-life and believes abortion should be left up to the states, finds that men are disinterested in abortion and are more concerned about the economy. His number one issue is inflation. “College students are already on a limited budget,” he says. “[Inflation] really does affect us in a way that it doesn’t affect a lot of other people.”

Sunjay Muralitharan, the vice president of College Democrats of America and a junior at University of California San Diego, notes that the GOP’s public messaging appeals to young men who are unsure about the future or how they’re going to provide for their families. But, as he explains, they do so in a way that “sprinkles a bit of misogyny in there.”

“That’s something that can easily be remedied if Democrats portrayed an alternate view of masculinity. As a man, you should stand up for others around you. You should work hard to ensure that you have the capacity to determine whether you’re successful. You respect that some women might want to spend their lives raising children, others may not,” Muralitharan adds.

Muralitharan also adds that Tim Walz “epitomizes” this “modern masculinity.” Walz was a small-town teacher, member of Congress, and now governor and vice-presidential candidate. Not only is he successful, he’s a family man who respects women’s right to choose. To combat the misogynistic rhetoric from Trump and Vance, Democrats can and have pointed to Walz, showing young men that if they respect others, they can be as successful as he is.

As the Prospect’s Paul Starr noted in September, the problem lies with those liberals and progressives who link “toxic” to “masculinity,” which leaves young men with the impression that Democrats see them as “nothing but trouble.” Combine that view with the growing disparities in college graduation rates between men and women and “rising distress” and “deaths of despair,” and Democrats are in a perilous electoral position.

The Harvard poll did show promising signs for overall youth voter turnout, with 74 percent of young Democratic voters stating they will “definitely” be voting in November. But the intention to vote doesn’t necessarily mean that young people will actually cast a vote. To solidify her support among Gen Z voters—who were critical to Biden’s victory in 2020—Harris must point to specific economic policy goals in addition to her firm pro-choice stance. Presenting young men with an alternative masculinity, one where you can still be successful while respecting women’s right to choose, will be critical to winning larger percentages of Gen Z men.

Edited October 21 by Vesper

[Vesper 28,818]

Caitlin Johnstone

 

@caitoz

 

 

Israel apologia is unique in that so much of it is just people pretending to believe things they know for a fact are false.

 

They KNOW the IDF is deliberately targeting civilians with airstrikes, snipers and siege warfare, but they pretend to believe it's just targeting Hamas and Hezbollah.

 

They KNOW Israel is a profoundly racist and abusive country, but they pretend to believe that calling it an apartheid state is antisemitic libel.

 

They KNEW there were no burnt or beheaded babies, but they pretended to believe there were in order to justify the atrocities they wanted Israel to commit.

 

They KNEW Jeremy Corbyn was not an antisemite, but they pretended to believe he was in order to keep a pro-Palestinian leftist out of power.

 

Of course if you say they're doing this they'll call you a liar and an antisemite, but they know it's true, and they know you know it's true.

 

But they just keep pretending to believe fake nonsense anyway. Israel supporters display remarkable unity in keeping this lie going, from the most influential pundits and politicians right down to ordinary members of the public.

 

The closest thing I can think of is how parents unite to pretend to believe in Santa, except instead of doing it to keep a magical fantasy alive for their kids they're doing it for ethnic cleansing and wars of aggression.

Edited October 21 by Vesper

[Vesper 28,818]