billb
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Post by billb on Jun 21, 2023 7:11:26 GMT -8
Ron Paul switching to the Republican party flipped a lot of Libertarians. I think you make a good point: People like Paul are high on the corporate interest score. Doctor No was the most fiscally conservative of the Reps, IMO.
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MDDad
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Post by MDDad on Jun 21, 2023 8:03:42 GMT -8
Doctor No was the most fiscally conservative of the Reps, IMO. I thought Doctor No was killed by James Bond because he was a SPECTRE agent running a guano island and sabotaging American missiles. |
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billb
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Post by billb on Jun 21, 2023 17:12:37 GMT -8
That is another Dr No. You see it lately. All of them old cars??? We should start a thread with a poll to find comparing the James Bond films. What was the best one?
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MDDad
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Post by MDDad on Jun 21, 2023 18:14:10 GMT -8
We should start a thread with a poll to find comparing the James Bond films. What was the best one? The best ones were probably the Daniel Craig ones, because his Bond was more like the cold dude that Ian Fleming had in mind when he wrote the novels. But it's hard to vote against Dr. No because Ursula Andress as Honeychile Ryder is the hottest Bond girl ever. When she walked out of the ocean holding those shells, I knew I was a man.  |
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Post by nictoe on Jun 22, 2023 4:03:28 GMT -8
She didn't do a bad job either:
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SK80
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Post by SK80 on Jun 22, 2023 5:15:29 GMT -8
We should start a thread with a poll to find comparing the James Bond films. What was the best one? The best ones were probably the Daniel Craig ones, because his Bond was more like the cold dude that Ian Fleming had in mind when he wrote the novels. But it's hard to vote against Dr. No because Ursula Andress as Honeychile Ryder is the hottest Bond girl ever. When she walked out of the ocean holding those shells, I knew I was a man.You sure it wasn't closer to 1964 when Honor Blackman uttered these opening words..., "My name is Pussy Galore"....!  |
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MDDad
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Post by MDDad on Jun 22, 2023 6:28:14 GMT -8
You sure it wasn't closer to 1964 when Honor Blackman uttered these opening words..., "My name is Pussy Galore"....! She had a great name, but she was more of an older worldly slut. It was Ursula's young innocence that made her so appealing. |
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Post by nictoe on Jun 26, 2023 4:16:22 GMT -8
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SK80
Master Eminence Grise
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Post by SK80 on Jun 26, 2023 4:52:00 GMT -8
Nice political stunt by RKJ, how do I better expose my frail fumbling opponent....? Pump political iron!
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Bick
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Post by Bick on Jun 27, 2023 6:03:08 GMT -8
You sure it wasn't closer to 1964 when Honor Blackman uttered these opening words..., "My name is Pussy Galore"....! She had a great name, but she was more of an older worldly slut. It was Ursula's young innocence that made her so appealing. Lots of hot gals in Octopussy. Maybe the worst Bond gal was Grace Jones, although it might be my bedroom fear talking. |
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Post by nictoe on Jun 27, 2023 6:15:39 GMT -8
What RFK Jr. Doing Shirtless Pushups Says About the 2024 Election
by Matt Lewis
Twitter was abuzz on Sunday after video and photos of a shirtless Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doing pushups and incline bench-presses outside Venice Beach’s Gold’s Gym started popping up in social media timelines. The caption on the pushup video shared by RFK Jr., read: “Getting in shape for my debates with President Biden!”
Reactions ranged from accusations of steroid use (there’s no evidence of that, but it would be plenty ironic if true, considering his anti-vaxx stance), to fans gushing that he’s the most “jacked presidential candidate” in history, to critics mocking how little he can lift. Others suggested that the obsession with Kennedy’s alpha male status was evidence of “crypto homoeroticism” on the right (see the many photoshopped pics of a muscular Donald Trump).
Whether you think Kennedy’s an Adonis or a wimp (I’d say he’s in good shape for a 69-year-old man), it might be easy to dismiss this PR bump as a quickly forgotten blip in Season 8 of the surreal reality show that started the day Trump came down that escalator.
Believe it or not, though, I think this moment tells us a lot about the state of politics and celebrity culture in 2024 America. This is a commentary on modern America.
This fictional event takes place 500 years in the future, whereas in real life, it only took America a decade to sink to approximately the same level of dysfunction.
Real-life headlines like “Andrew Tate says he wants to train Elon Musk to fight [Mark] Zuckerberg: ‘You will not lose’” suggest that Idiocracy was always a documentary. (Did I mention that RFK Jr. is literally applauding Musk and Zuckerberg for “setting a physical fitness example for Americans with their Octagon challenge”?)
Great work, Mike Judge. Talk about being ahead of the curve.
Or behind. American politics was once incredibly violent (a condition that led us to a civil war). We mellowed in the 20th century, although “brains” never fully replaced “brawn” in the minds of voters; the tallest candidate, for example, almost always won the presidency.
RFK Jr.’s uncle, John F. Kennedy, certainly benefited from the perception that he was young and healthy and glamorous, while cutting a trim figure. But JFK’s style was a more sophisticated and nuanced virility signal than his flexing nephew.
Times change. You’d be hard pressed to look at the last few years of American politics—particularly on the right—and not get a strong sense that displays of physical masculinity have become more overt.
I first noticed this a decade or so ago, when pictures of a topless Vladimir Putin (sometimes riding a horse) started popping up on social media, often juxtaposed with a photo of then-President Barack Obama riding a bicycle.
The insinuation was that Putin was “bigger, stronger, [and] faster” than American presidents, and that this might even be a microcosm for our nations. (Recent events in Ukraine suggest that perception isn’t always reality.)
With these videos, RFK Jr. is ostensibly attempting to do to doddering ol’ Joe Biden what Putin stans did to Obama—which is to emasculate him (or, at least, out-manly him).
The only problem? As noted earlier, this tendency has manifested mostly on the right, but Kennedy is a Democrat.
Is this proof that RFK Jr. is a pawn of right-wingers and thus running the kind of game plan that will appeal exclusively to their ilk?
Or will Democrats prove to be a lagging indicator of a larger societal change that will soon guarantee only ex-wrestlers (or really fit tech bros) can win in either party? We may be about to find out.
Aside from the reversion to masculine dominance, another variable is that politics has become more about winning the attention economy. And—even for men—showing some skin remains the cheapest way to get some attention.
Whether the conceit is (in the words of RFK Jr.) to get in shape for a debate with Joe Biden, or (in the case of Marjorie Taylor Greene) blaming Washington, D.C.’s COVID-19 shutdown policy as an excuse to post a hotel room workout, there’s no bad excuse for showing off a hot bod.
(For the conspiracy theorists among us, it was recently reported that a pro-RFK Jr. superPAC has ties to MTG.)
Increasingly, the way to get attention and affirmation is to post thirst traps. Whether you’re a Kardashian or a Kennedy, this has proven effective.
We already know this will work. The real question is, to what degree?
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billb
Senior Eminence Grise
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Post by billb on Jun 27, 2023 18:05:23 GMT -8
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MDDad
Master Eminence Grise
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Post by MDDad on Jun 27, 2023 21:24:16 GMT -8
I agree. He's batshit crazy. |
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Post by nictoe on Jun 29, 2023 6:35:11 GMT -8
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Post by nictoe on Jun 29, 2023 7:58:39 GMT -8
Why Silicon Valley Moguls are Backing Kennedy’s Presidential Run
NYUZ
New York Times
The money men aiding Robert Kennedy Jr.’s political surge
As the 2024 race heats up, President Biden faces a persistent thorn in his side: Robert Kennedy Jr., the scion of the Democratic dynasty, who both touts an array of fringe theories and boasts surprisingly durable poll numbers.
The Times notes that Mr. Kennedy is drawing support from an array of political outsiders. But perhaps his most powerful base is a group of financial and tech moguls, including the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who have given him money and something arguably more important: exposure.
Kennedy speaks to many of their interests. That includes things like cryptocurrency — he has spoken at industry conferences and accepts campaign donations in Bitcoin. Mr. Kennedy has also embraced some of their favored podcasts, speaking with popular hosts like Joe Rogan and the venture capitalists behind the show “All-In.”
And in endorsing Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Dorsey (who’s also a major Bitcoin booster) cited the candidate’s criticism of government censorship.
But Mr. Kennedy’s most powerful draw may be his iconoclasm, particularly his willingness to buck institutional thinking on matters like the benefits of vaccines. (That has led to YouTube removing a Kennedy interview because it promoted vaccine misinformation.)
“I think he is a lower-intellect, Democratic version of Donald Trump, so he attracts libertarian-leaning, anti-‘woke,’ socially liberal folks as a protest vote,” Robert Nelsen, an investor at Arch Venture Partners, told KFF Health News.
Well-heeled supporters have given him money and airtime. Figures including Elon Musk and the investor David Sacks have pushed for a public debate between Mr. Kennedy and Peter Hotez, a vaccine researcher who criticized Mr. Rogan’s decision to let the candidate spout unfounded conspiracy theories on his show.
Mr. Sacks and his fellow “All-In” co-hosts Jason Calacanis and Chamath Palihapitiya have had Kennedy on their podcast as well, praising him for being “willing to engage in vibrant debates” and “tearing down all these institutions of power.” Mr. Sacks, who with Mr. Musk also interviewed Kennedy in a Twitter Spaces event, and Mr. Palihapitiya held a fund-raiser for him this month that, according to CNBC, raised $500,000.
Meanwhile, the entrepreneur Mark Gorton helped create a Kennedy-focused PAC that, its leaders say, has raised at least $5.7 million. And CNBC reported that the investor Omeed Malik plans to host a $6,600-a-head fund-raiser in the Hamptons for Kennedy next month.
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