Now That Trump's President... (not any more!)

you're making me feel a lot better about things, ignatius

  On 3/24/2018 at 8:15 PM, very honest said:

you're making me feel a lot better about things, ignatius

just trying to keep the eye of mordor pointed at our hopes and dreams. 

srsly though..  there's hope.  look at all these people marching today. my 71 yr old mom is out there w/a bunch of people. she's a retired teacher. has a bad back but is still out there walking w/a bunch of other retired teachers and counselors and kids. 

anyway.. let's see what happens in the next 6 months and hope that "the madness of crowds" swings in our favor. 

  On 3/24/2018 at 7:20 PM, ignatius said:

i got an email from my evangelical step brother (who sent out an email to i think everyone in his contact list)  

What is with windbags' sprawling CC lists on every email? Is this like spreading one's seed far and wide in Freudian terms? Are spam filters pro-choice?

Fake news! Bad!

  On 3/24/2018 at 7:20 PM, ignatius said:

 

  On 3/24/2018 at 11:09 AM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 3/24/2018 at 3:40 AM, cwmbrancity said:

the US, even with Bolton in post, will do as it always does with nations who follow agendas of non-alliance....draw resources away thru funding regional opposition like the Saudis, which will probably mean more strife for Yemen, continue funding Israel, support its covert operations & hope to bleed its foe to a position of more malleable compliance

 

cue Iranian nuclear goals back in media

 

cant see direct military confrontation between the US & Iran (although nevert impossible with Merkin military history since WWII), but will greasy, corrupt, malicious men of blood play their games of subterfuge? of course, same as its ever been

 

This, attacking Iran was so foolish that the hawks attacked Iraq instead. It was the lesser of two stupids. Also, they sold us on Iraq with WMD claims and the "link" to Al-Qaeda. It was a long game to topple a secular dictatorship that was already weak and that we were technically still at war with (Gulf War ended in ceasefires and international sanctions), attract and then attack various entities that flooded in. There's no way we could of done that from peacetime bases we have in the Gulf. There's also no way they could of sold that to congress or the public, but that's the realpolitik strategy of why we invaded. Geographically and politically it was the ideal target: not Syria or Iran, nor any of the other regional countries that were allies or neutral (I should note the US and West sells arms to literally every other country in the region).

 

 

 

 

 

chocolate honey heroin sprinkled with valium and jesus. 

 

after dinner 1 evening during the height of the Iraq fiasco, an ex US military C.O./veteran & DOD contractor queried that if you wanted to destabilize Iran, 1 method would be to forcibly destabilize its foe & immediate neighbour as a way of semi-justifying US policy w/Iraq

the clear morality angle aside, he had a point in terms of intention if you fast-forwarded to a situation where Iran may have become severely compromised & bogged down fighting a sectarian crisis in Iraq. Keep in mind this was 2010, pre Arab-Spring, when no-one outside of specific military intelligence & charitable agencies could have foreseen what would happen in Syria & Iraq with I.S.

Iran kept going through all the trade embargoes & in the end got a sizable chunk of change from the O'bama admin with its nuclear deal

this is where another attack on Barry's legacy might lure the right wing of the repubs to act on Iran, to counter-act perceived progress made through a previous administration's gains....the Saudis & Iranians are already knee deep in Yemen so its identifying where another "front" could be developed w/out recourse to large scale US troop deployments

given its a saturday & how much work i've done today i have no fkn clue where or how such a front could develop & that mixing opiates & benzos isnt recommended, unless yer really in the mood

ps: not to be dismissive of the gun rallies today, but how much press is the Cambridge Anal-lick-ita's expose getting your side of the pond?

cambridge anal is getting a lot of exposure here.  was for a few days.. and each new 'revelation' gets it upped some. i've seen sories and round tables and itnerviews in a few mainstream places... 

the gun rally will of course be the lead today unless trump does something trumpian 

they did sneak in the ban on transgender serving in military last night while the news cycle wasn't looking. 

regarding a 'new front' well.. that's the thing w/unintended consequences.. it's always a roll of the dice.. we'd be better off not doing anything. 

  On 3/25/2018 at 12:33 AM, cwmbrancity said:

 

  On 3/24/2018 at 7:20 PM, ignatius said:

 

  On 3/24/2018 at 11:09 AM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 3/24/2018 at 3:40 AM, cwmbrancity said:

the US, even with Bolton in post, will do as it always does with nations who follow agendas of non-alliance....draw resources away thru funding regional opposition like the Saudis, which will probably mean more strife for Yemen, continue funding Israel, support its covert operations & hope to bleed its foe to a position of more malleable compliance

 

cue Iranian nuclear goals back in media

 

cant see direct military confrontation between the US & Iran (although nevert impossible with Merkin military history since WWII), but will greasy, corrupt, malicious men of blood play their games of subterfuge? of course, same as its ever been

 

This, attacking Iran was so foolish that the hawks attacked Iraq instead. It was the lesser of two stupids. Also, they sold us on Iraq with WMD claims and the "link" to Al-Qaeda. It was a long game to topple a secular dictatorship that was already weak and that we were technically still at war with (Gulf War ended in ceasefires and international sanctions), attract and then attack various entities that flooded in. There's no way we could of done that from peacetime bases we have in the Gulf. There's also no way they could of sold that to congress or the public, but that's the realpolitik strategy of why we invaded. Geographically and politically it was the ideal target: not Syria or Iran, nor any of the other regional countries that were allies or neutral (I should note the US and West sells arms to literally every other country in the region).

 

 

 

 

 

chocolate honey heroin sprinkled with valium and jesus. 

 

 

 

 

ps: not to be dismissive of the gun rallies today, but how much press is the Cambridge Anal-lick-ita's expose getting your side of the pond?

 

pretty good amount actually, that said the news cycle is like bad groundhogs day - more revelations that are objectively alarming but seemingly moot, more trump admin throwing bones at their base, and some shit about the kardasians. up until the 00s news stories would be hashed out for days and weeks, which was pretty ridiculous, but now its absurdly opposite - shit barely gets talked about for a day before it's on to something else, which is why I find these continued protests encouraging. the parkland kids actually got the FL legislature to pass a law on control (small but still). teachers successfully held strikes for a pay raise in WV.

  On 3/25/2018 at 1:24 AM, ignatius said:

cambridge anal is getting a lot of exposure here.  was for a few days.. and each new 'revelation' gets it upped some. i've seen sories and round tables and itnerviews in a few mainstream places... 

 

the gun rally will of course be the lead today unless trump does something trumpian 

 

they did sneak in the ban on transgender serving in military last night while the news cycle wasn't looking. 

 

regarding a 'new front' well.. that's the thing w/unintended consequences.. it's always a roll of the dice.. we'd be better off not doing anything. 

I think the bad was also to distract from the Justice Dept. banning bump stocks. POTUS throws a hissy fit anytime another branch does anything productive.

I think instead of a 4th of July military parade this year, we should hold a full scale fireworks display entirely inside the Oval Office

Hear, hear!

what a time to be alive 

  On 3/25/2018 at 4:22 AM, ambermonk said:

I think instead of a 4th of July military parade this year, we should hold a full scale fireworks display entirely inside the Oval Office

We all know the real reason trump is meeting Kim Jeong Un- how to MAMPGA? (Make American Military Parades Great Again)

After all, no one does them quite like the Norks.

Or, MAMLNK (Make America More Like North Korea)

Sooooo... what was on that dvd?

i'm hoping its an ultrasound

  On 3/26/2018 at 3:12 PM, very honest said:

i'm hoping its an ultrasound

Yeah wasn't someone saying something about "proof of paternity" not too long ago? Or was that related to something else... I can't keep all these stories sorted anymore.

  On 3/26/2018 at 12:48 AM, hello spiral said:

Art.

Is this old btw? Looks like a magazine scan from 1990 and I love it.

It would be bowel suicide to actually eat that

You'd have an instant stroke from all of the sodium.

If you've got some time to spend, here's a link to the live hearing of the CA whistleblower. It's mostly about what took place during the Brexit campaigns. But the same applies to the Trump campaign. So it's equally relevant. 

oh shit, cheers

I'm actually happy there's also a British commission looking at this. Not sure I'd trust the inquisitive nature of US commissions seeing the politisation of this discussion in the US. I'd argue the US political system at this point in time also depends on the investigation in the UK. In terms of finding a political solution to what happened in either the Trump election or Brexit. It doesn't look like the GOP is actively searching for solutions. But that might be my perception.