It seems pretty obvious to me that certain people making reference to RS's mental state is just a convenient way of avoiding the more difficult task of actually arguing with the points he makes. Given that this thread clearly isn't a place for people to argue opposing political views I'd actually prefer it now if Robert and other dissenting voices withdrew from posting here altogether, just so I can observe what happens when an echo-chamber is allowed to reach peak purity, without distraction.

You don't think people have tried reasoning and arguing?

You can sit on the fence and point at everyone's misgivings all you want but you're ignoring the principal problem of the Trump administration-its based on telling lie after lie, half-truths after half-truths.
The two posters you've pointed out are guilty of allowing that and believing those lies. Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware that the left can spin too, but not on a scale we've seen with Trump and his cronies.

No one's making anyone read or post on here. That includes you. Just like I can with the depressing world of cancel culture, bat shit mental comments on twitter it's there to ignore if you want.

Indeed. What we really need is more of Bytor Peltor's idiotic memes and articles from spurious websites. If there's one thing this forum needs, it's more folk referencing the former president as "Barack Hussein Obama" on a regular basis. Nobody should call out this stuff just in case it turns into an echo chamber.

We must protect the sacred right of pro-gun, pro-patriotism, pro-fossil-fuel/anti-science, "In God We Trust" chat here on SY Gossip.

one can argue “points” without having to argue them with an apparent crazy (in my opinion) who seems more concerned with being a legend in his own mind (in my opinion) than with actual “points.”

maybe you can clarify these purported points without all the extraneous nonsense?

no?

anyway, i don’t know what sane person would make the honest case for right-wing populism in the modern world, but here is a capable writer differentiating between the right and the left varieties of the populist thing:

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/op...162814894.html

(it’s a bit dated but still makes perfect sense)

anyway, back to the (other) dotard...

Fighting alone
I’m a GOP governor. Why didn’t Trump help my state with coronavirus testing?

By Larry Hogan
JULY 16, 2020

Larry Hogan @GovLarryHogan Larry Hogan has been the governor of Maryland since 2015. This essay is adapted from his forthcoming book, “Still Standing: Surviving Cancer, Riots, a Global Pandemic, and the Toxic Politics That Divide America.”


too long for full copypasta, but here is the link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlo...p-coronavirus/

some choice quotes, however...

“This should not have been necessary. I’d watched as the president downplayed the outbreak’s severity and as the White House failed to issue public warnings, draw up a 50-state strategy, or dispatch medical gear or lifesaving ventilators from the national stockpile to American hospitals. Eventually, it was clear that waiting around for the president to run the nation’s response was hopeless; if we delayed any longer, we’d be condemning more of our citizens to suffering and death. So every governor went their own way, which is how the United States ended up with such a patchwork response. I did the best I could for Maryland. Here’s what we saw and heard from Washington along the way.”

[...]

“We have it totally under control,” Trump responded unhesitatingly. “It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” And off the president went for the next eight weeks. The rest of January and February were peppered with cheerful or sarcastic comments and tweets, minimizing the outbreak’s severity and the need for Americans to do much of anything.”

[...]

“ So many nationwide actions could have been taken in those early days but weren’t. While other countries were racing ahead with well-coordinated testing regimes, the Trump administration bungled the effort. The test used by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention early on was fraught with inaccuracies, and onerous regulations hindered the nation’s private labs. The resulting disorganization would delay mass testing for almost two months and leave the nation largely in the dark as the epidemic spread.”

[...]

“ But the president was all over the place. He avowed, falsely, that “anybody” could get a test, even as my fellow governors were desperately pleading for help on testing. Then he shifted from boasting to blame. “We inherited a very obsolete system” from the Obama administration, he claimed, conveniently ignoring the fact that his own CDC had designed the troubled U.S. testing system and that his own Food and Drug Administration had waited a full month before allowing U.S. hospital labs to develop their own tests. On March 25, the president was back to bragging again. “We now are doing more testing than anybody by far,” including South Korea, whose widespread testing program was being praised around the world. This was true in absolute numbers, since we are a much bigger country, but we’d tested far fewer per capita than the Koreans had — 1,048 tests per million people vs. South Korea’s 6,764 per million — and of course that was the only figure that mattered. During one White House briefing in late March, Trump said the issue had been dealt with. “I haven’t heard about testing for weeks,” the president insisted.

Really?”

[...]

“ I could only shake my head at that. The federal government — a much bigger and better-funded institution, with tens of thousands of scientists and physicians in the civil service — wanted my help! Governors always do the hard work, make the tough decisions and take the political heat. But an undertaking as large as a national testing program required Washington’s help. We expected something more than constant heckling from the man who was supposed to be our leader.”

[...]

“ I thought we might get a congratulatory word from the president. Trump always had a taste for bold gestures — but, apparently, only for bold gestures he could claim. The president spent much of the following Monday’s White House briefing criticizing me and dismissing what we had done. “The governor from Maryland didn’t really understand” about testing, Trump grumbled. “The governor of Maryland could’ve called Mike Pence, could’ve saved a lot of money. . . . I don’t think he needed to go to South Korea. I think he needed to get a little knowledge.”

The president’s comments that day seemed to confuse test kits with testing labs, but whatever. It was a great day for Maryland.”

...

etc etc

Gotta love a president who finds the time in the middle of an epidemic to advertise some beans. Sure I read that he's not legally not allowed to do that. Nevermind, he's Trump and he can do what he wants right?

Yet 138k Americans dead from coronavirus. A number that could have been massively reduced if it wasn't for the incompetence of Trump and his supporters.

Don't think there's been a single thing trump has done that can be considered anywhere near perfect during the whole thing. And that's rich considering the mess the UK has gone through.

And your post implies that you're anywhere near the end of this. You really aren't. The republican anti-science viewpoint has put paid to the idea that this can be sorted out soon.

As someone who's experienced abortion first hand I find the Republican anti-abortion stance unbelievably stupid and intolerable beyond any basic reasoning, understanding, and comprehension.

Just file this lot under the Khchris, Atari, Tesla, Screaming skull, and Gast category and move swiftly on.

I'm off for my hydroxychloroquine shot and a few swigs O'foken bleach. Ciao

Trump says he'll be announcing "many exciting things" over the next 8 weeks, "things that nobody has even contemplated, thought about, thought possible," with"levels of detail" and "levels of thought that a lot of people believed very strongly we didn't have in this country"

Ooh! World peace, a cure for cancer, AND raising the dead? What could it be?!

Forgive me if I'm not expecting much though.

dammit i hate it when savage clone posts something good and then deletes it

he’ll just take credit for whatever good thing anybody else does

I don't care about Robert Schunk's political opinions. Or Bytor's. I'm only curious as to why they are the only two fighting the fight on a Sonic Youth forum, of all places. The energy etc.

The bigger mystery is what any of us are doing here almost 10 years after the band split up and even longer since this was really a worthwhile forum

In my case it's your posts. They always made me feel like a real woman.

Yea, I left shortly after Thurston and Kim announced their split and only came back because my curiosity to see what everyone's been up to was piqued after spam in my PM box bought me back here.

I'm starting to wonder why Chris Lawrence has left the lights on.

I keep hanging around because of a select few people. Although this isn't the only connection for a lot of them anymore.

This is my last remaining traditional forum that I visit, and it's an anchor to an internet past.

i like to play & listen to broken records ¯\_(ツ)_/¯