Trump cheats at golf - the ONE and ONLY politics thread

Reminds me of an interesting little saga from my hometown. Four years ago, the local tribe, whose gas station out in the sticks (about halfway between the town where I was working and the big town in the region) was known for its well-below-market-value gas (because it was on tribal land and thus not subject to the state gas tax). They moved to build a station on the edge of the largest city in the region (which would not have the same exemption -- at least for now), and a coalition of station owners tried to strong-arm the local zoning board to shut it down. Well, when the paper got wind of this (and noted accurately that gas prices in town were significantly and consistently above prices in the rest of the region), the leader of the coalition, a chain with 30-40 Citgo stations throughout the greater region, threw the paper out of its stores.

(Stay with me, the ending is worth it.)

When asked to comment on why they did it, the owner of that chain said, “We’re not going to do business with your company anymore because all you can say is bad things about us. You’re supporting these Indians. They’re thieves, they’re convicted felons* and they’re tax evaders," and then hung up.

They are no longer Citgo stations (though they are still in business). The point is, that's a licensing agreement, and I think just about any business, whether it's a McDonalds, a Shell or an Applebee's, is going to cut you off quick if you go off the reservation like that. (No pun intended.) The whole story was fascinating, if for no other reason than it's about as simple and effective an economics lesson as you can get.

*This was a thinly-veiled reference to one of "these Indians" in particular, the one who kind of founded the loophole on which most Indian gaming is built.

 

I'm reading a book that touches on this. Even before the agricultural and industrial revolutions, which many point to as the flashpoints for mass extinction, Homo Sapiens likely wiped out massive quantities of species with every new land mass they inhabited.

 

The ultimate in "you only write about us when we lose" stories!

 

Eric Holder: James Comey is a good man, but he made a serious mistake

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post about James Comey, former Attorney General Erich Holder indirectly, but accurately, throws current Attorney General Loretta Lynch under the bus, presumably with the approval of Obama. She gone....

(politics aside, this is extremely well written)

 

"Pro-Trump" is comically underselling it.

 

Polls not any more favorable for Trump, so far, in immediate aftermath of Comey letter. But they show a much closer race, mostly due to Republicans getting more unified, which was predictable. Renouncing your party's choice is a hard thing for most folks.

 

Which is it @doctorquant?

 

Another Al Campanis moment.

 

This is a great post, and honestly, probably worth its own thread on the J board ... not about politics, but about how social media has completely undone how the MSM covers elections. There have to be some lessons learned from this going forward, because I don't remember things being this batshit crazy in 2012.

 

You're not voting.

 

Who would have predicted that the 2016 GOP nominee would be such a strong advocate for the LGBTQ community and would proudly display the Rainbow Flag on stage at a campaign event less than 10 days before the election?

He deserves great credit for this, but will get none from the left or the main stream media.

 

Hard to say. I'm a hetero white man, so you have to agree with @Michael_ Gee that I'm an enemy of mankind. I suppose this election is merely revealing how utterly racist, sexist and anti-Semitic I truly am.