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

  On 7/12/2018 at 6:19 AM, Candiru said:

 

  On 7/12/2018 at 6:13 AM, Stickfigger said:

I'm not a smart guy so tell me ... who benefits from the extra $266B USD being spent on defense by Europe and Canada over the next 6 years?

 

I think he asked them for 4% of their GDP rather than 2% because it's an unreasonable request, which he will try to use as an excuse for pulling the US out of NATO when they point out how stupid it is. But congress came out overwhelmingly in support of NATO so I don't think he can just do that willy nilly. Even they know not to start WW3.

 

It's a similar tactic the House Intelligence Committee is using on Rod Rosenstein. Ask him for a ridiculous amount of documents, many of which they don't have the clearance to see, and if he takes "too long" or stands up for himself, use that as an excuse to fire him. But Jim Jordan was the biggest asshole about it and then he got caught up in the college wrestler molestation negligence scandal of Doom, so fuck that dude. 

 

Yeah for context the only countries that spend more than 4% are Russia and Saudi Arabia, the former is playing catch up and spending furiously on proxy wars and the latter, also at war in Yemen, is notoriously inefficient at defense spending. They literally buy stuff new and don't maintain it and much of their officer staff are just kush royal family positions. They are a cash cow from defense contractors. The US is in third and it accounts for 35% of ALL world defense spending.

The most asinine aspect of Trump's "policy" is that it simply throws more money at a problem. Defense spending is overwrought with inefficiency, corruption, and mismanagement on every level. We have the fewest amount of personal in service since WW2 and more high paid generals in active duty than we did at the height of the cold war. The Pentagon could literally cut the defense budget it half if it had the audacity to end no-bid contracts, trim the top brass to post-WW2 levels, eliminate costly development programs and buy off the shelf equipment instead, and a slew of other things that make sense but would piss off most of those reaping the benefits of the status quo. 

  On 7/12/2018 at 12:58 PM, azatoth said:

A good rule of thumb when it comes to Trump and his tweets accusing someone of something is that he is projecting. He's doing the thing he is accusing someone else of doing.

Has the Drumph baby balloon taken flight yet? 

I’ve been watching the Congressional inquiry with FBI agent Strzok, it has been a fucking shit show. Yelling and bullshitting and trying to lay out facts that not believed, trying to skew public opinion, trying to create sound bites. And at the end of almost every of these fervent Republicans just go “well I just don’t believe you”

The Skin of the Wolf

Good film.

^oops, entirely wrong thread, my mistake

  On 7/12/2018 at 9:33 PM, auxien said:

I’ve been watching the Congressional inquiry with FBI agent Strzok, it has been a fucking shit show. Yelling and bullshitting and trying to lay out facts that not believed, trying to skew public opinion, trying to create sound bites. And at the end of almost every of these fervent Republicans just go “well I just don’t believe you”

yeah I've been trying to follow this today, goddamn greasy horror show indeed

i watched maddow last night (i've grown to like her) and she walked through some background of strzok's counterintelligence work, really interesting: https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/gop-stunt-to-smear-counter-intel-expert-strzok-ripe-for-backfire-1275196995963?playlist=associated

also, the near-unanimous senate resolution supporting NATO was a nice change of pace

  On 7/12/2018 at 9:03 PM, olo said:

Has the Drumph baby balloon taken flight yet? 

I'm tempted to take time out of my schedule to go and admire its beauty up close

  Quote

 

Speaking of Mr. Johnson, who resigned this week as foreign secretary in protest over Mrs. May’s Brexit strategy and who has long been seen as likely to challenge her for her job, Mr. Trump said, “Well I am not pitting one against the other. I’m just saying I think he would be a great prime minister. I think he’s got what it takes and I think he’s got the right attitude to be a great prime minister.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/world/europe/trump-nato-russia.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6766531/trump-may-brexit-us-deal-off/

Peter Strzok was an absolute boss today. He handled himself extremely well and the GOP looked like stupid petulant children. Someone buy that dude a beer.

Fuck all modern Republicans. Every last one. All they can do is scoff at, troll, and tease people who are different from them because their daddy Donnie encourages them to so. They're morally and intellectually bankrupt. When it comes to any real progress or contribution to the world, they're fucking useless.

He flies!

But not as high as I was expecting....

What I assume was his entourage flew over my head yesterday when I was 5mins from home. 8-10 fancy helicopters.

I was just behind Westminster Magistrate's Court, not sure where they were going.

  On 7/13/2018 at 5:12 AM, Candiru said:

Peter Strzok was an absolute boss today. He handled himself extremely well and the GOP looked like stupid petulant children. Someone buy that dude a beer.

Yeah man these FBI guys live up to their reputation when it comes to keeping their cool. While not even on the same level of the GOP goons in terms of hyperbolic questioning, even the Dems were getting too hysterical from their perspective.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/07/peter-strzok-hearing-recap

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22134841/peter-strzok-testimony-what-happened/

  On 7/13/2018 at 5:29 AM, ambermonk said:

Fuck all modern Republicans. Every last one. All they can do is scoff at, troll, and tease people who are different from them because their daddy Donnie encourages them to so. They're morally and intellectually bankrupt. When it comes to any real progress or contribution to the world, they're fucking useless.

There's nothing wrong with being a Republican. There's plenty wrong with trolling, plenty wrong with worshipping and supporting a piece of shit like Trump, plenty wrong with being morally bankrupt. There's a lot of 'Republicans' who fall into that second grouping, sadly. Almost as bad as those are the gray area Republicans who 'speak out' against the shitty ones, but don't actually do anything about it and try to capitalize on what they can, damn the morality of it (that's the American way)...and I think that's almost all of the people who identify as Republican fall into one of those two areas. That's why it often seems like "all modern Republicans" are shit. Many are, and many others are sitting idly by and reaping the benefits. I almost sympathize with the gray Republicans, but ultimately I can't give them a pass.

But yeah, there's still some good Republicans. Not many, but some. Liberalism running rampant would eventually (if not quickly) be bad too. Gotta have that push and pull. Rant over.

  On 7/13/2018 at 3:54 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 7/13/2018 at 5:12 AM, Candiru said:

Peter Strzok was an absolute boss today. He handled himself extremely well and the GOP looked like stupid petulant children. Someone buy that dude a beer.

 

Yeah man these FBI guys live up to their reputation when it comes to keeping their cool. While not even on the same level of the GOP goons in terms of hyperbolic questioning, even the Dems were getting too hysterical from their perspective.

 

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/07/peter-strzok-hearing-recap

 

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22134841/peter-strzok-testimony-what-happened/

Yeah, the dems in that hearing were getting silly at times as well, though I can't much blame them. I can blame them for doing the ass-kissing of Strzok that they did, it was over the top at times. Strzok didn't deserve to be there, no, it's all a show, but the dems there seemed to just play into the show instead of trying to cut against the stupidity of it all.

  On 7/13/2018 at 5:29 PM, auxien said:

 

  On 7/13/2018 at 5:29 AM, ambermonk said:

Fuck all modern Republicans. Every last one. All they can do is scoff at, troll, and tease people who are different from them because their daddy Donnie encourages them to so. They're morally and intellectually bankrupt. When it comes to any real progress or contribution to the world, they're fucking useless.

There's nothing wrong with being a Republican. There's plenty wrong with trolling, plenty wrong with worshipping and supporting a piece of shit like Trump, plenty wrong with being morally bankrupt. There's a lot of 'Republicans' who fall into that second grouping, sadly. Almost as bad as those are the gray area Republicans who 'speak out' against the shitty ones, but don't actually do anything about it and try to capitalize on what they can, damn the morality of it (that's the American way)...and I think that's almost all of the people who identify as Republican fall into one of those two areas. That's why it often seems like "all modern Republicans" are shit. Many are, and many others are sitting idly by and reaping the benefits. I almost sympathize with the gray Republicans, but ultimately I can't give them a pass.

 

But yeah, there's still some good Republicans. Not many, but some. Liberalism running rampant would eventually (if not quickly) be bad too. Gotta have that push and pull. Rant over.

 

Any remotely moderate or independent minded Republican has either been voted out via primaries or left. The Democrats are far more "diverse" in terms of ideology at this point. As much as they have infighting and cliques they aren't the authoritarian machine the GOP has turned into. They've managed to label centralism and moderate bipartisanship as a corrupt left-wing evil. They've normalized conspiracies and ideologies that were taboo merely 5-10 years ago. The party needs to go the way of the Wigs and implode into history. My only concern is that they've damaged the system too much to allow for a Democratic takeover as they reset into a more centralist part. Ideally the Dems should split as well but that would merely galvanize the GOP. In an ideal world we'd have the modern right GOP, a social Democrat party, and then centralist left and right wing parties in the middle. Legislation would then have to involve coalitions. 

Those few decent GOP legislators remaining are in oddball states: Alaska, Maine, Arizona - these states haven't been as  messy in redistricting nor heavily left or right leaning like say California or Texas where one party dominates. But even the good ones are still too right-wing leaning or complacent to really be considered respectable. I think the remain knowing they can't easily join the Dems or they feel what little sway they still have is worth staying in office: after all if they leave a well funded right-wing nut will simply replace them.

  On 7/13/2018 at 6:07 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 7/13/2018 at 5:29 PM, auxien said:

 

  On 7/13/2018 at 5:29 AM, ambermonk said:

Fuck all modern Republicans. Every last one. All they can do is scoff at, troll, and tease people who are different from them because their daddy Donnie encourages them to so. They're morally and intellectually bankrupt. When it comes to any real progress or contribution to the world, they're fucking useless.

 

There's nothing wrong with being a Republican. There's plenty wrong with trolling, plenty wrong with worshipping and supporting a piece of shit like Trump, plenty wrong with being morally bankrupt. There's a lot of 'Republicans' who fall into that second grouping, sadly. Almost as bad as those are the gray area Republicans who 'speak out' against the shitty ones, but don't actually do anything about it and try to capitalize on what they can, damn the morality of it (that's the American way)...and I think that's almost all of the people who identify as Republican fall into one of those two areas. That's why it often seems like "all modern Republicans" are shit. Many are, and many others are sitting idly by and reaping the benefits. I almost sympathize with the gray Republicans, but ultimately I can't give them a pass.

 

But yeah, there's still some good Republicans. Not many, but some. Liberalism running rampant would eventually (if not quickly) be bad too. Gotta have that push and pull. Rant over.

 

Any remotely moderate or independent minded Republican has either been voted out via primaries or left. The Democrats are far more "diverse" in terms of ideology at this point. As much as they have infighting and cliques they aren't the authoritarian machine the GOP has turned into. They've managed to label centralism and moderate bipartisanship as a corrupt left-wing evil. They've normalized conspiracies and ideologies that were taboo merely 5-10 years ago. The party needs to go the way of the Wigs and implode into history. My only concern is that they've damaged the system too much to allow for a Democratic takeover as they reset into a more centralist part. Ideally the Dems should split as well but that would merely galvanize the GOP. In an ideal world we'd have the modern right GOP, a social Democrat party, and then centralist left and right wing parties in the middle. Legislation would then have to involve coalitions. 

 

Those few decent GOP legislators remaining are in oddball states: Alaska, Maine, Arizona - these states haven't been as  messy in redistricting nor heavily left or right leaning like say California or Texas where one party dominates. But even the good ones are still too right-wing leaning or complacent to really be considered respectable. I think the remain knowing they can't easily join the Dems or they feel what little sway they still have is worth staying in office: after all if they leave a well funded right-wing nut will simply replace them.

https://forum.watmm.com/topic/95234-all-purpose-smartypants-thread/?p=2648457

MIXL this is directly related to Trump. WTF are you talking about.

  On 7/13/2018 at 6:12 PM, auxien said:

MIXL this is directly related to Trump. WTF are you talking about.

see the post I did on the smartypants

  On 7/13/2018 at 6:07 PM, joshuatx said:

Any remotely moderate or independent minded Republican has either been voted out via primaries or left. The Democrats are far more "diverse" in terms of ideology at this point. As much as they have infighting and cliques they aren't the authoritarian machine the GOP has turned into. They've managed to label centralism and moderate bipartisanship as a corrupt left-wing evil. They've normalized conspiracies and ideologies that were taboo merely 5-10 years ago. The party needs to go the way of the Wigs and implode into history. My only concern is that they've damaged the system too much to allow for a Democratic takeover as they reset into a more centralist part. Ideally the Dems should split as well but that would merely galvanize the GOP. In an ideal world we'd have the modern right GOP, a social Democrat party, and then centralist left and right wing parties in the middle. Legislation would then have to involve coalitions. 

 

Those few decent GOP legislators remaining are in oddball states: Alaska, Maine, Arizona - these states haven't been as  messy in redistricting nor heavily left or right leaning like say California or Texas where one party dominates. But even the good ones are still too right-wing leaning or complacent to really be considered respectable. I think the remain knowing they can't easily join the Dems or they feel what little sway they still have is worth staying in office: after all if they leave a well funded right-wing nut will simply replace them.

I was definitely speaking more broadly than just politicians, as it seemed to me that ambermonk was speaking broadly of the citizenry as well. 

But I agree with everything pretty much, I'm mostly assuming there's a few actually good Republicans still in politics. Not sure I have any evidence to point to tbh. :)

Very much agree on the more parties is necessary (I state as much at every chance) but the two big ones are so powerful right now that I don't see a way for any others to get a foothold any time soon. The D & R parties are much more interested in keeping themselves at the top than they're interested in fighting for any particular ideas or particular persons in their parties. It's all about keeping the power, they'll follow anything that keeps that going.

  On 7/13/2018 at 6:14 PM, MIXL2 said:

 

  On 7/13/2018 at 6:12 PM, auxien said:

MIXL this is directly related to Trump. WTF are you talking about.

yeye, i meant a more general discussion on groupthink etc

 

see the post I did on the smartypants

Naw I'm good but thanks.

  On 7/13/2018 at 6:20 PM, auxien said:

 

  On 7/13/2018 at 6:14 PM, MIXL2 said:

 

  On 7/13/2018 at 6:12 PM, auxien said:

MIXL this is directly related to Trump. WTF are you talking about.

yeye, i meant a more general discussion on groupthink etc

 

see the post I did on the smartypants

Naw I'm good but thanks.

  On 7/13/2018 at 5:29 PM, auxien said:

There's nothing wrong with being a Republican.

You're wrong. Even moderate Republicans and a great deal of the Democrats are very right-wing reactionary.