Ha Ha ! STUPID AMERICANS !!!

[Tero]

Like.

[piscator]

Hey, we got a couple of Kennedys left, they're as close to chinless wonders as you can get over here. We keep shooting them when they don't manage to off themselves or get murdered. The Clintons can aspire to Kennedyhood if they learn to talk through their noses, they're already inbred so that's a help.

As a family they have a tendency to get drunk, kill or rape young women, and think they are special.

Don't they get a special dispensation in Tolerist™ canon? I thought so.

Drunkeness during one's working hours as a public servant and killing or raping young women are not "peaceable acts." And while they are entitled to think they are special, they aren't.

William Kennedy Smith wasn't a public servant. Senators like Ted Kennedy and Presidents like Ulysses Grant don't punch a clock like a cop or a VA nurse.

At least the Kenennedies didn't fight each other like wolves for 17 years over Daddy's Money, like the Koch Boys, all of whom could have been doctors or peacemakers or philanthropists or hitchhiked Europe on $100M/yr for the rest of their fkn lives. But no, the two that teamed up to deny the others their inheritances (Romulus and Remus? Goneril and Regan?) are turning out like some kind of goddamn Clive Cussler villains with secret lairs deep beneath the Antarctic ice...

My, what big conspiracy theories you have Grandpa!

I noticed the Keystone XL pipeline* got tabled until after the midterms.









*Koch is the largest pipeline builder and operator in the US, with annual revenues over $100B/yr.

[Seth]

Hey, we got a couple of Kennedys left, they're as close to chinless wonders as you can get over here. We keep shooting them when they don't manage to off themselves or get murdered. The Clintons can aspire to Kennedyhood if they learn to talk through their noses, they're already inbred so that's a help.

As a family they have a tendency to get drunk, kill or rape young women, and think they are special.

Don't they get a special dispensation in Tolerist™ canon? I thought so.

Drunkeness during one's working hours as a public servant and killing or raping young women are not "peaceable acts." And while they are entitled to think they are special, they aren't.

William Kennedy Smith wasn't a public servant.

I didn't say he was, but he was a Kennedy. I admit my sentence was poorly constructed and gave the wrong impression. My error.

Senators like Ted Kennedy and Presidents like Ulysses Grant don't punch a clock like a cop or a VA nurse.

That does not excuse drunkenness while on the floor of the Senate or at any other time he was acting as an elected, highly-paid representative of the citizens of America. Nor does it excuse JFK's debauchery and infidelity while holding office as President of the United States.

I noticed the Keystone XL pipeline* got tabled until after the midterms.

*Koch is the largest pipeline builder and operator in the US, with annual revenues over $100B/yr.

One small problem, the Koch brothers do not own or control the Keystone XL pipeline. It was owned by Transcanada and ConocoPhillips, but Transcanada purchased ConocoPhillips' 50% share in 2009, and it is now wholly owned by Transcanada, and the Koch brothers, while they may or may not own stock, are not on the board of directors of Transcanada.

So much for you extremist twaddle.

[piscator]

I noticed the Keystone XL pipeline* got tabled until after the midterms.

*Koch is the largest pipeline builder and operator in the US, with annual revenues over $100B/yr.

One small problem, the Koch brothers do not own or control the Keystone XL pipeline. It was owned by Transcanada and ConocoPhillips, but Transcanada purchased ConocoPhillips' 50% share in 2009, and it is now wholly owned by Transcanada, and the Koch brothers, while they may or may not own stock, are not on the board of directors of Transcanada.

So much for you extremist twaddle.

Koch and their subsidiaries build and run most permanent petroleum and NG pipelines of any size in America (>$100B annual revenue), and are entirely capable of, for example, buying up enough ROW and/or Senators to stop just any old pipeline they feel like. TransCanada is already doing billion$ in business with Koch companies in Canada and the US, Keystone XL is going to connect to a Koch-run pipeline, TransCanada would be idiots not to continue doing business with Koch companies, if they want to build a pipeline to sell their tar sands oil in Illinois.

[Blind groper]

Seth loves the Koch family, since they are also leading gun manufacturers, and send mega millions of dollars to organisations which promote gun ownership.

[Seth]

I noticed the Keystone XL pipeline* got tabled until after the midterms.

*Koch is the largest pipeline builder and operator in the US, with annual revenues over $100B/yr.

One small problem, the Koch brothers do not own or control the Keystone XL pipeline. It was owned by Transcanada and ConocoPhillips, but Transcanada purchased ConocoPhillips' 50% share in 2009, and it is now wholly owned by Transcanada, and the Koch brothers, while they may or may not own stock, are not on the board of directors of Transcanada.

So much for you extremist twaddle.

Koch and their subsidiaries build and run most permanent petroleum and NG pipelines of any size in America (>$100B annual revenue), and are entirely capable of, for example, buying up enough ROW and/or Senators to stop just any old pipeline they feel like. TransCanada is already doing billion$ in business with Koch companies in Canada and the US, Keystone XL is going to connect to a Koch-run pipeline, TransCanada would be idiots not to continue doing business with Koch companies, if they want to build a pipeline to sell their tar sands oil in Illinois.

So the fuck what? Somebody's got to run the fuel distribution infrastructure, why not them? You don't like 'em because they are smarter than you are and know how to make lots of money, which you don't. So, sour grapes is you.

[Seth]

Seth loves the Koch family, since they are also leading gun manufacturers, and send mega millions of dollars to organisations which promote gun ownership.

Too fucking right! They may be the salvation of the Republic and I'm glad they are around.

You can go fuck yourself however.

[mistermack]

You don't like 'em because they are smarter than you are and know how to inherit lots of money, which you don't. So, sour grapes is you.

[Seth]

You don't like 'em because they are smarter than you are and know how to inherit lots of money, which you don't. So, sour grapes is you.

Doesn't change anything. You're just jealous. (as if you'd turn down a billion dollars if somebody gave it to you...)

[mistermack]

You don't like 'em because they are smarter than you are and know how to inherit lots of money, which you don't. So, sour grapes is you.

Doesn't change anything. You're just jealous. (as if you'd turn down a billion dollars if somebody gave it to you...)

Well of course I wouldn't. I'm not jealous though. I'm not sure I feel that, about money. I'd like to have lots, but I don't feel what I would call jealousy towards rich people.
Maybe I did years ago. I don't remember feeling it.
If a bunch of people won the lottery, and I had been invited to join the syndicate but declined, I think I would feel jealous then.

Or if I was a Koch brother, and got nothing out of the will, then I would definitely feel jealous.

[Blind groper]

The thing is, Seth, that the system is corrupt. If the average American wants to promote an idea, he or she will probably fail. If the Koch brothers want to promote ideas, the simple fact that they have billions of dollars means they can, and very successfully. This is not democracy.

[Svartalf]

But the US are a Republic, not a democracy.

[JimC]

But the US are a Republic, not a democracy.

However, it is one that touts the idea that it is ability and not birth that determines success in life...

An idea that is meaningless spin, in the face of a powerful plutocracy...

[Blind groper]

To Svartalf who said : "But the US are a Republic, not a democracy."

In fact, democracy is the set and republic is the sub-set. So a republic is, in fact, a democracy.

The difference between a republic and another kind of democracy is that, in a republic, everyone who governs is elected by the people. Britain is excluded from this definition because the queen is the titular head of state.

Titular, of course, means having a title, not a reality. So this kind of democracy is actually a republic, because everyone who actually has the power to govern, is elected by the people. The queen is a mock governor, not a real one.

If we accept that the British royalty are purely fake governors, then all the British commonwealth democracies are republics.

[Hermit]

But the US are a Republic, not a democracy.

"Rebublic" is derived from res publica. It originally refers to the mode of government of Rome between the periods of it being a kingdom and being an empire, and translated as "thing of the public". Initially, democracy in Rome was quite limited. Only male members of the Roman aristocratic families could vote for or become members of the senate. The senate then elected two consuls to head the government. Their term was limited to one year. Eventually, male members of Roman plebeian families gained the same right too, but then a few men became increasingly powerful and the effectiveness of the senate as a democratic government was whittled away until Octavian became the first emperor after the end of the second triumvirate (although his formal title was "first citizen). Another huge limitation, even at the height of Roman democracy, was that only citizens of the city of Rome had democratic rights. Still, as Jim and Blind groper mentioned, a republic is essentially a democratic government.