Joe Manchin threatens reporter asking about conflicts of interest

[Benjamin Frank]

  The United States government is aimlessly propping up the failed fossil fuels industry. Renewable energy is already cheaper, will only get cheaper and can cover 100% of the energy America needs going forward we just have to make the investment.

If renewable energy was truly cheaper than fossil fuels, we wouldn't need the government to step-in with trillions of dollars of required investment.  You ever think about that?  lol

 We're trying, who's blocking it and mocking The Green New Deal...

 The special interest is blocking the obvious better choice out of self dealing, political orthodoxy(for example dumb Texas Republicans arguing Wind caused their grid failure).

 It's already cheaper:

Solar power got cheap. So why aren’t we using it more?

Del Tachi is a Republican.  By definition he's an idiot.

[Benjamin Frank]

  The United States government is aimlessly propping up the failed fossil fuels industry. Renewable energy is already cheaper, will only get cheaper and can cover 100% of the energy America needs going forward we just have to make the investment.

If renewable energy was truly cheaper than fossil fuels, we wouldn't need the government to step-in with trillions of dollars of required investment.  You ever think about that?  lol

 We're trying, who's blocking it and mocking The Green New Deal...

 The special interest is blocking the obvious better choice out of self dealing, political orthodoxy(for example dumb Texas Republicans arguing Wind caused their grid failure).

 It's already cheaper:

Solar power got cheap. So why aren’t we using it more?

Del Tachi is a Republican.  By definition he's an idiot.

I must strongly disagree with you here. Someone being a Republican doesn't make them an idiot. This is just as true if someone were a Democrat, or a Green, or a Libertarian, or a Communist. This kind of rhetoric certainly doesn't help to improve matters on this forum. That's a lesson I learned from my hiatus, because I used to engage in attacks against Democrats here on the basis of their ideology.

When Democrats vote for an obvious grifter as President and continue to back him even as he attempts to pull off an insurrection and attempt to deny to themselves or to others that he was a grifter President who attempted an insurrection, then you have a valid argument.  Right now, all you are doing is engage in the logical fallacy of false equivalence. 

[Benjamin Frank]

  The United States government is aimlessly propping up the failed fossil fuels industry. Renewable energy is already cheaper, will only get cheaper and can cover 100% of the energy America needs going forward we just have to make the investment.

If renewable energy was truly cheaper than fossil fuels, we wouldn't need the government to step-in with trillions of dollars of required investment.  You ever think about that?  lol

 We're trying, who's blocking it and mocking The Green New Deal...

 The special interest is blocking the obvious better choice out of self dealing, political orthodoxy(for example dumb Texas Republicans arguing Wind caused their grid failure).

 It's already cheaper:

Solar power got cheap. So why aren’t we using it more?

Del Tachi is a Republican.  By definition he's an idiot.

I must strongly disagree with you here. Someone being a Republican doesn't make them an idiot. This is just as true if someone were a Democrat, or a Green, or a Libertarian, or a Communist. This kind of rhetoric certainly doesn't help to improve matters on this forum. That's a lesson I learned from my hiatus, because I used to engage in attacks against Democrats here on the basis of their ideology.

When Democrats vote for an obvious grifter as President and continue to back him even as he attempts to pull off an insurrection and attempt to deny to themselves or to others that he was a grifter President who attempted an insurrection, then you have a valid argument.  Right now, all you are doing is engage in the logical fallacy of false equivalence. 

What you do not consider is that not all Republicans are "on board with the Trump Train", if we are to call it such. Just look at many of the posters on this forum? What about those in Congress who voted to impeach and/or convict Trump? Yes, the vast majority of that party supported him and continues to support him, but it is not a good idea to suggest that millions of Americans are traitors, because they don't support the Democratic Party or vote for Democratic candidates. And then one has to wonder why posters on this forum complain about it being an echo chamber and about hostility from the other side.

1.The 99% of Republicans who are idiots make the rest look bad.

2.Ths gets to a point I didn't make earlier: Conservatives including those here complain about hostility because they post falsehoods, like conspiratorial nonsense, and then, when their comments receive either negative feedback or get deleted, they complain they are being 'censored' or mistreated.  Lies are not opinions and getting a negative reaction for lying is not 'hostility.'  If and when Republicans show the ability again to deal with reality, then they deserve to be treated as equivalent.

[Benjamin Frank]

  The United States government is aimlessly propping up the failed fossil fuels industry. Renewable energy is already cheaper, will only get cheaper and can cover 100% of the energy America needs going forward we just have to make the investment.

If renewable energy was truly cheaper than fossil fuels, we wouldn't need the government to step-in with trillions of dollars of required investment.  You ever think about that?  lol

 We're trying, who's blocking it and mocking The Green New Deal...

 The special interest is blocking the obvious better choice out of self dealing, political orthodoxy(for example dumb Texas Republicans arguing Wind caused their grid failure).

 It's already cheaper:

Solar power got cheap. So why aren’t we using it more?

Del Tachi is a Republican.  By definition he's an idiot.

I must strongly disagree with you here. Someone being a Republican doesn't make them an idiot. This is just as true if someone were a Democrat, or a Green, or a Libertarian, or a Communist. This kind of rhetoric certainly doesn't help to improve matters on this forum. That's a lesson I learned from my hiatus, because I used to engage in attacks against Democrats here on the basis of their ideology.

When Democrats vote for an obvious grifter as President and continue to back him even as he attempts to pull off an insurrection and attempt to deny to themselves or to others that he was a grifter President who attempted an insurrection, then you have a valid argument.  Right now, all you are doing is engage in the logical fallacy of false equivalence. 

What you do not consider is that not all Republicans are "on board with the Trump Train", if we are to call it such. Just look at many of the posters on this forum? What about those in Congress who voted to impeach and/or convict Trump? Yes, the vast majority of that party supported him and continues to support him, but it is not a good idea to suggest that millions of Americans are traitors, because they don't support the Democratic Party or vote for Democratic candidates. And then one has to wonder why posters on this forum complain about it being an echo chamber and about hostility from the other side.

1.The 99% of Republicans who are idiots make the rest look bad.

2.Ths gets to a point I didn't make earlier: Conservatives including those here complain about hostility because they post falsehoods, like conspiratorial nonsense, and then, when their comments receive either negative feedback or get deleted, they complain they are being 'censored' or mistreated.  Lies are not opinions and getting a negative reaction for lying is not 'hostility.'  If and when Republicans show the ability again to deal with reality, then they deserve to be treated as equivalent.

There are many right-leaning posters on here (i.e. Roll Roons, Penn Quaker Girl, Old School Republican, North Carolina Yankee, PiT, etc.) who make reasoned arguments and aren't supporters of Trump. You have others who are Trump supporters (i.e. MT Treasurer, Del Tachi, Extreme Republican, etc.) who, while you may not agree with them, nevertheless do make valuable or worthy contributions to this forum. And there are other posters (i.e. SirWoodbury) who are clearly hacks or trollish in their behavior, and who are deserving of the criticisms they receive. But many posters on here are unable to distinguish between one person and the next.

And we must keep in mind that just as 51% of the country voted for Biden, 46% voted for Trump. One side completely writing off the other would be upsetting to our country's tranquility. January 6 was a disgrace, but it should not be used as justification for completely cutting off half of the electorate.

A President attempts an insurrection and you're saying that the idiots who continue to support him should not be shunned?  Completely disagree.  I suspect if the people who continued to support Trump afterwards dropped, as it rationally should have, to maybe 5%, that you would agree with shunning them.  Just because the idiots are much larger in number, doesn't alter that.

[Benjamin Frank]

  The United States government is aimlessly propping up the failed fossil fuels industry. Renewable energy is already cheaper, will only get cheaper and can cover 100% of the energy America needs going forward we just have to make the investment.

If renewable energy was truly cheaper than fossil fuels, we wouldn't need the government to step-in with trillions of dollars of required investment.  You ever think about that?  lol

 We're trying, who's blocking it and mocking The Green New Deal...

 The special interest is blocking the obvious better choice out of self dealing, political orthodoxy(for example dumb Texas Republicans arguing Wind caused their grid failure).

 It's already cheaper:

Solar power got cheap. So why aren’t we using it more?

Del Tachi is a Republican.  By definition he's an idiot.

I must strongly disagree with you here. Someone being a Republican doesn't make them an idiot. This is just as true if someone were a Democrat, or a Green, or a Libertarian, or a Communist. This kind of rhetoric certainly doesn't help to improve matters on this forum. That's a lesson I learned from my hiatus, because I used to engage in attacks against Democrats here on the basis of their ideology.

When Democrats vote for an obvious grifter as President and continue to back him even as he attempts to pull off an insurrection and attempt to deny to themselves or to others that he was a grifter President who attempted an insurrection, then you have a valid argument.  Right now, all you are doing is engage in the logical fallacy of false equivalence.  

What you do not consider is that not all Republicans are "on board with the Trump Train", if we are to call it such. Just look at many of the posters on this forum? What about those in Congress who voted to impeach and/or convict Trump? Yes, the vast majority of that party supported him and continues to support him, but it is not a good idea to suggest that millions of Americans are traitors, because they don't support the Democratic Party or vote for Democratic candidates. And then one has to wonder why posters on this forum complain about it being an echo chamber and about hostility from the other side.

1.The 99% of Republicans who are idiots make the rest look bad.

2.Ths gets to a point I didn't make earlier: Conservatives including those here complain about hostility because they post falsehoods, like conspiratorial nonsense, and then, when their comments receive either negative feedback or get deleted, they complain they are being 'censored' or mistreated.  Lies are not opinions and getting a negative reaction for lying is not 'hostility.'  If and when Republicans show the ability again to deal with reality, then they deserve to be treated as equivalent.

There are many right-leaning posters on here (i.e. Roll Roons, Penn Quaker Girl, Old School Republican, North Carolina Yankee, PiT, etc.) who make reasoned arguments and aren't supporters of Trump. You have others who are Trump supporters (i.e. MT Treasurer, Del Tachi, Extreme Republican, etc.) who, while you may not agree with them, nevertheless do make valuable or worthy contributions to this forum. And there are other posters (i.e. SirWoodbury) who are clearly hacks or trollish in their behavior, and who are deserving of the criticisms they receive. But many posters on here are unable to distinguish between one person and the next.

And we must keep in mind that just as 51% of the country voted for Biden, 46% voted for Trump. One side completely writing off the other would be upsetting to our country's tranquility. January 6 was a disgrace, but it should not be used as justification for completely cutting off half of the electorate.

A President attempts an insurrection and you're saying that the idiots who continue to support him should not be shunned?  Completely disagree.  I suspect if the people who continued to support Trump afterwards dropped, as it rationally should have, to maybe 5%, that you would agree with shunning them.  Just because the idiots are much larger in number, doesn't alter that.

But you seem to be implying that all Trump voters, and all Republicans, should be shunned, or at least regarded in the same manner. That's not a stance that I would agree with. And my fear is that engaging in harsh rhetoric, against a broad swath of the population, would be more likely to provoke civil unrest and possibly even civil war. Those are extremes which I'd rather not approach.

It's around 90% possibly even higher.  Don't pretend otherwise.  And the Republicans who don't like Trump but continue to support Republicans who do support Trump, enable him and his supporters.

As to the rest, I don't care.  Trump supporters engage in attacks against broad swaths of 'others' but then show themselves to be the most sensitive snowflakes alive when legitimately criticized.  I couldn't care less if a bunch of idiots can't handle being called 'idiots.'

[Benjamin Frank]

  The United States government is aimlessly propping up the failed fossil fuels industry. Renewable energy is already cheaper, will only get cheaper and can cover 100% of the energy America needs going forward we just have to make the investment.

If renewable energy was truly cheaper than fossil fuels, we wouldn't need the government to step-in with trillions of dollars of required investment.  You ever think about that?  lol

 We're trying, who's blocking it and mocking The Green New Deal...

 The special interest is blocking the obvious better choice out of self dealing, political orthodoxy(for example dumb Texas Republicans arguing Wind caused their grid failure).

 It's already cheaper:

Solar power got cheap. So why aren’t we using it more?

Del Tachi is a Republican.  By definition he's an idiot.

I must strongly disagree with you here. Someone being a Republican doesn't make them an idiot. This is just as true if someone were a Democrat, or a Green, or a Libertarian, or a Communist. This kind of rhetoric certainly doesn't help to improve matters on this forum. That's a lesson I learned from my hiatus, because I used to engage in attacks against Democrats here on the basis of their ideology.

When Democrats vote for an obvious grifter as President and continue to back him even as he attempts to pull off an insurrection and attempt to deny to themselves or to others that he was a grifter President who attempted an insurrection, then you have a valid argument.  Right now, all you are doing is engage in the logical fallacy of false equivalence.  

What you do not consider is that not all Republicans are "on board with the Trump Train", if we are to call it such. Just look at many of the posters on this forum? What about those in Congress who voted to impeach and/or convict Trump? Yes, the vast majority of that party supported him and continues to support him, but it is not a good idea to suggest that millions of Americans are traitors, because they don't support the Democratic Party or vote for Democratic candidates. And then one has to wonder why posters on this forum complain about it being an echo chamber and about hostility from the other side.

1.The 99% of Republicans who are idiots make the rest look bad.

2.Ths gets to a point I didn't make earlier: Conservatives including those here complain about hostility because they post falsehoods, like conspiratorial nonsense, and then, when their comments receive either negative feedback or get deleted, they complain they are being 'censored' or mistreated.  Lies are not opinions and getting a negative reaction for lying is not 'hostility.'  If and when Republicans show the ability again to deal with reality, then they deserve to be treated as equivalent.

There are many right-leaning posters on here (i.e. Roll Roons, Penn Quaker Girl, Old School Republican, North Carolina Yankee, PiT, etc.) who make reasoned arguments and aren't supporters of Trump. You have others who are Trump supporters (i.e. MT Treasurer, Del Tachi, Extreme Republican, etc.) who, while you may not agree with them, nevertheless do make valuable or worthy contributions to this forum. And there are other posters (i.e. SirWoodbury) who are clearly hacks or trollish in their behavior, and who are deserving of the criticisms they receive. But many posters on here are unable to distinguish between one person and the next.

And we must keep in mind that just as 51% of the country voted for Biden, 46% voted for Trump. One side completely writing off the other would be upsetting to our country's tranquility. January 6 was a disgrace, but it should not be used as justification for completely cutting off half of the electorate.

A President attempts an insurrection and you're saying that the idiots who continue to support him should not be shunned?  Completely disagree.  I suspect if the people who continued to support Trump afterwards dropped, as it rationally should have, to maybe 5%, that you would agree with shunning them.  Just because the idiots are much larger in number, doesn't alter that.

But you seem to be implying that all Trump voters, and all Republicans, should be shunned, or at least regarded in the same manner. That's not a stance that I would agree with. And my fear is that engaging in harsh rhetoric, against a broad swath of the population, would be more likely to provoke civil unrest and possibly even civil war. Those are extremes which I'd rather not approach.

It's around 90% possibly even higher.  Don't pretend otherwise.  And the Republicans who don't like Trump but continue to support Republicans who do support Trump, enable him and his supporters.

As to the rest, I don't care.  Trump supporters engage in attacks against broad swaths of 'others' but then show themselves to be the most sensitive snowflakes alive when legitimately criticized.  I couldn't care less if a bunch of idiots can't handle being called 'idiots.'

I assume then, that you hold the Republican posters on here who I've mentioned to the same standards?

Obviously.  
1.Donald Trump is a traitor so anybody who continues to support him is either a traitor or an enable of traitors.

2.The Republican Party is an extremist party that, from the definitions of Umberto Eco and Lawrence Britt, is fascist.

You tell me why I should have any respect for these horrible people. Just because they post here and may make the occasional valuable post, doesn't negate their horrible nature.

[Benjamin Frank]

  The United States government is aimlessly propping up the failed fossil fuels industry. Renewable energy is already cheaper, will only get cheaper and can cover 100% of the energy America needs going forward we just have to make the investment.

If renewable energy was truly cheaper than fossil fuels, we wouldn't need the government to step-in with trillions of dollars of required investment.  You ever think about that?  lol

 We're trying, who's blocking it and mocking The Green New Deal...

 The special interest is blocking the obvious better choice out of self dealing, political orthodoxy(for example dumb Texas Republicans arguing Wind caused their grid failure).

 It's already cheaper:

Solar power got cheap. So why aren’t we using it more?

Del Tachi is a Republican.  By definition he's an idiot.

I must strongly disagree with you here. Someone being a Republican doesn't make them an idiot. This is just as true if someone were a Democrat, or a Green, or a Libertarian, or a Communist. This kind of rhetoric certainly doesn't help to improve matters on this forum. That's a lesson I learned from my hiatus, because I used to engage in attacks against Democrats here on the basis of their ideology.

When Democrats vote for an obvious grifter as President and continue to back him even as he attempts to pull off an insurrection and attempt to deny to themselves or to others that he was a grifter President who attempted an insurrection, then you have a valid argument.  Right now, all you are doing is engage in the logical fallacy of false equivalence.  

What you do not consider is that not all Republicans are "on board with the Trump Train", if we are to call it such. Just look at many of the posters on this forum? What about those in Congress who voted to impeach and/or convict Trump? Yes, the vast majority of that party supported him and continues to support him, but it is not a good idea to suggest that millions of Americans are traitors, because they don't support the Democratic Party or vote for Democratic candidates. And then one has to wonder why posters on this forum complain about it being an echo chamber and about hostility from the other side.

1.The 99% of Republicans who are idiots make the rest look bad.

2.Ths gets to a point I didn't make earlier: Conservatives including those here complain about hostility because they post falsehoods, like conspiratorial nonsense, and then, when their comments receive either negative feedback or get deleted, they complain they are being 'censored' or mistreated.  Lies are not opinions and getting a negative reaction for lying is not 'hostility.'  If and when Republicans show the ability again to deal with reality, then they deserve to be treated as equivalent.

There are many right-leaning posters on here (i.e. Roll Roons, Penn Quaker Girl, Old School Republican, North Carolina Yankee, PiT, etc.) who make reasoned arguments and aren't supporters of Trump. You have others who are Trump supporters (i.e. MT Treasurer, Del Tachi, Extreme Republican, etc.) who, while you may not agree with them, nevertheless do make valuable or worthy contributions to this forum. And there are other posters (i.e. SirWoodbury) who are clearly hacks or trollish in their behavior, and who are deserving of the criticisms they receive. But many posters on here are unable to distinguish between one person and the next.

And we must keep in mind that just as 51% of the country voted for Biden, 46% voted for Trump. One side completely writing off the other would be upsetting to our country's tranquility. January 6 was a disgrace, but it should not be used as justification for completely cutting off half of the electorate.

A President attempts an insurrection and you're saying that the idiots who continue to support him should not be shunned?  Completely disagree.  I suspect if the people who continued to support Trump afterwards dropped, as it rationally should have, to maybe 5%, that you would agree with shunning them.  Just because the idiots are much larger in number, doesn't alter that.

But you seem to be implying that all Trump voters, and all Republicans, should be shunned, or at least regarded in the same manner. That's not a stance that I would agree with. And my fear is that engaging in harsh rhetoric, against a broad swath of the population, would be more likely to provoke civil unrest and possibly even civil war. Those are extremes which I'd rather not approach.

It's around 90% possibly even higher.  Don't pretend otherwise.  And the Republicans who don't like Trump but continue to support Republicans who do support Trump, enable him and his supporters.

As to the rest, I don't care.  Trump supporters engage in attacks against broad swaths of 'others' but then show themselves to be the most sensitive snowflakes alive when legitimately criticized.  I couldn't care less if a bunch of idiots can't handle being called 'idiots.'

I assume then, that you hold the Republican posters on here who I've mentioned to the same standards?

Obviously.  
1.Donald Trump is a traitor so anybody who continues to support him is either a traitor or an enable of traitors.

2.The Republican Party is an extremist party that, from the definitions of Umberto Eco and Lawrence Britt, should be considered a Fascist Party.

You tell me why I should have any respect for these horrible people?  Just because they post here and may make the occasional valuable post, doesn't negate their horrible nature.

Even if they are a Republican who didn't vote for Trump? That describes several of the posters I've listed here. I've asked this question before. Would you disown family members or friends of yours if they revealed to you that they voted for the opposite political party? I'm aware you're in Canada, so that wouldn't necessarily mean that such individuals would be Trump or Republican voters.

I believe you asked specifically about posters here who continue to support Trump. But, yes, if they don't support Trump, but support people who enable Trump or act like Trump, like Ron DeathSantis, they are horrible people.

I can be more specific. I had two friends in real life who are Covidiots.  I cut off contact with both of them over a year ago and haven't missed them or their idiocy for even a second.

Edit to add:
Are all Trump supporters horrible in all areas of their lives?  I'm sure they aren't.  I'm sure many of them can be otherwise decent people and generally considerate... but:

1.This is a political forum, so it's perfectly fair to judge their level of horribleness based on their political views.

2.To completely separate a person from their political views, as if somehow politics and policy don't matter in the world at the macro level or among individuals at the micro level makes zero sense to me.  People might be more than their politics, but political views say a large part about a person's values.  

In both of the people I cut off, one had become one of the 'angry white males' who had become obsessed with white grievance politics and I told him I didn't want to hear about the maskless BLM rallies that took place in the summer of 2020.  When I told him that I also didn't think they were wise but he persisted in whining about them, I told him if he didn't stop talking about them I'd hang up on him. He continued, I hung up and I haven't heard from him since and don't care to.

The other behaved even more selfishly regarding Covid than I imagined he would.  This was before vaccines, he would both attend anti mask rallies - this was pre Delta variant and it was outside - but these protests were often in close quarters. And, he refused to wear a mask on public transit even though he knew that many of the people who take public transit are poorer and so are more likely to be immunocompromised.  Are you seriously telling me I should remain friends with such a POS?