US Politics IV

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To summarize: He laments that the sacredness of "Gold Star families" has gone out the window, seemingly forgetting that it was Trump himself who shattered this sacredness single-handedly. (Sentiments like that generally send me back to my first sentence in this post.)

Satirically expressing how I feel about the "You must not say a bad words about our troops":
Warming to her subject, Sanders said that any American who sees undeniable video evidence that a general lied and chooses to believe the video “shows disrespect for our country and hatred for our flag.”

“General Kelly has served our country with courage and valor,” she said. “He has earned the right to lie without fear of being contradicted by the facts.”
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/bor...rrefutable-video-evidence-that-a-general-lied

Yeah. Voters who had always been Republican, believed in Republican values, didn't want Trump as their candidate, who hated Clinton, were in a shit spot. They really were.

I'm sure a lot of them just presumed he would have to fit himself into the presidential cloak, so to speak, as opposed to making the cloak fit him.
I remember that day he sat beside Obama, looking a little shellshocked, talkign with contrition and humility. I thought, for a moment, the campaign had been more rhetoric than reality. And I bet a lot of Trump's voters thought that too.

Of course he's a complete fucking asshole. He hurts people, and enjoys it. And I'm sure people are regretting their vote - whether they'd admit that or not.

But I don't find it that difficult to understand them giving the vote in the first place.

I think a lot of it is a belief that it can't happen to us, meaning that the US haven't experienced a full-fledged democratic crisis (Nixon was close, but in the end it could be contained), so there's an idea that no matter who gets into the White House, it won't be devastating. Then there were all these naive enough to believe that a 70 year old would change his ways suddenly. But in the end it boils down to what has been said often enough: By casting a vote for Trump, it was also an implicit legitimization of all the hate-filled statements, the dog whistling and so on.
 
Better than rolling over and letting those communist shitheads strike first.
Of course. The US strikes NK and then NK retaliates and nukes Seoul, Tokyo and sends a few of their nuke tipped ICBMs to the west coast of the States where you'd have a coin toss chance of missile defenses intercepting one (nevermind a few). With the pressure(Trump crazyness) KJU is being put under he might miscalculate one of the stupid B1B exercises or carrier drills and think he's being attacked and strike first anyway. Any preemptive counterforce action by the US will almost certainly see someone being nuked.
 
Of course. The US strikes NK and then NK retaliates and nukes Seoul, Tokyo and sends a few of their nuke tipped ICBMs to the west coast of the States where you'd have a coin toss chance of missile defenses intercepting one (nevermind a few). With the pressure(Trump crazyness) KJU is being put under he might miscalculate one of the stupid B1B exercises or carrier drills and think he's being attacked and strike first anyway. Any preemptive counterforce action by the US will almost certainly see someone being nuked.
Don't forget the daleks. North Korea have been developing daleks.

Wish the fannys in the mainstream media would report on this shit.
 
Of course. The US strikes NK and then NK retaliates and nukes Seoul, Tokyo and sends a few of their nuke tipped ICBMs to the west coast of the States where you'd have a coin toss chance of missile defenses intercepting one (nevermind a few).

Wait, can they actually aim their nukes with any sort of accuracy? I thought that was the whole point, every test they do is a failure in some way...
 
Wait, can they actually aim their nukes with any sort of accuracy? I thought that was the whole point, every test they do is a failure in some way...
Of course they can. The IRBM Hwasong 12 has landed where they wanted it to the last couple of times, good enough to hit Tokyo or Seoul or even Guam. The ICBM Hwasong 14 is pretty much there, range is enough to hit LA or even New York or Washington. All they need is a re-entry vehicle which they will probably show that they have during their next test (hopefully not an airburst in the Pacific like China did an NK are threatening to do) They've got thermonuclear bombs now which noone expected they had or could engineer. The US IC has said the US government has to expect that they can successfully hit the US already. And anyway you don't need to be entirely accurate when you're chucking a thermo nuke around.
 
Let’s say NK reaches their goal and has nukes they can deliver anywhere in the world.

Would they really use them? Kim wants to rule, and NK wouldn’t last long after firing a missile or missiles at us.

It’s just now he has a strong enough deterrent to keep us from blowing him up.

Dictators want to keep living. He doesn’t strike me as a death cult leader.
 
I think a lot of it is a belief that it can't happen to us, meaning that the US haven't experienced a full-fledged democratic crisis (Nixon was close, but in the end it could be contained), so there's an idea that no matter who gets into the White House, it won't be devastating. Then there were all these naive enough to believe that a 70 year old would change his ways suddenly. But in the end it boils down to what has been said often enough: By casting a vote for Trump, it was also an implicit legitimization of all the hate-filled statements, the dog whistling and so on.

Back during the USA's Great Depression Sinclair Lewis wrote a book called "It Can't Happen Here" a cautious nary tale about fascism arising in America.
 
Let’s say NK reaches their goal and has nukes they can deliver anywhere in the world.

Would they really use them? Kim wants to rule, and NK wouldn’t last long after firing a missile or missiles at us.

It’s just now he has a strong enough deterrent to keep us from blowing him up.

Dictators want to keep living. He doesn’t strike me as a death cult leader.
No he wouldn't but McMaster etc have stated he can't be deterred and he would use nukes first.it seems unacceptable for this administration, so what's the other choice? The difference now is the Trump admin seem to believe he can't be contained and want a preemptive war. See McMasters comments from last week.... https://twitter.com/nktpnd/status/922171015274418178

This admin are also running a high risk of miscalculation with their provocative language and antagonistic drills, that perhaps is the biggest risk of war at the moment. Not only that but tonight we now have this Insanity.....
https://twitter.com/MarcusReports/status/922206174958645249
 
Wait, can they actually aim their nukes with any sort of accuracy? I thought that was the whole point, every test they do is a failure in some way...



Every branded "failure" is a test launch used to gather data about a set of subsystems.

If they can't do something now, it's not because they're not capable. They're still learning.
 
"Climate change is a Chinese hoax!... unless it affects my properties."

Donald Trump says he is “not a big believer in global warming.” He has called it “a total hoax,” “bullshit” and “pseudoscience.”

But he is also trying to build a sea wall designed to protect one of his golf courses from “global warming and its effects.”
[...]
A permit application for the wall, filed by Trump International Golf Links Ireland and reviewed by POLITICO, explicitly cites global warming and its consequences — increased erosion due to rising sea levels and extreme weather this century — as a chief justification for building the structure.

Donald Trump acknowledges climate change — at his golf course - POLITICO
 
Now, now. That's from May 2016, so it totally doesn't mean anything! Anything from prior to being elected isn't hypocritical.
 
I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you over the cries that the Russian scandal is phony and that the special counsel is just a liberal witch hunt.
 
Jeff Flake continues to amaze me...for someone who I almost never agree with on issues of policy, he routinely exceeds my expectations as a human being.


As an Arizona resident, I have long been aware of Jeff Flake's inherent decency as a person. We have completely different ideas for how to best serve people, and someone who wants to be argumentative and completely dismissive of opposing thought could construct a "since he does not believe in giving money to XXXX/supporting YYYY, he hates people" argument. But I reject such extreme positions, or positioning, as it generally requires complete removal of context. Jeff Flake has long been against government spending and excessive revenue generation...he has backed that position by repeatedly rejecting "pork" project or funding for the state of Arizona. His concept is simple...if I am against government spending for non-essential projects, and against taxation, how can I accept unnecessary "pork" for my state in return for my vote? It's such a simple concept, yet it is one no other conservative senator follows, to my knowledge.


Jeff Flake is religious. He is LDS, or Mormon, and that causes all kinds of antennas to rise, mostly outside of LDS enclaves like my area. It isn't all that crazy...no more than any other religion that expects belief in that which cannot be proven and devotion to some nebular deity. One man's Transubstantiation is another's magic underwear. His religion informs his choices, which is another place where I fail to support his political ideology. As I said...I almost never support Jeff Flake's policy.


But he has always been an ethical, moral player, and he has requested the same of his colleagues. Things have deteriorated, and he has reached a point where he can no longer play in the sandbox. He has long been critical of Mr. Trump, and for good reason. I mean...Jeff Flake has tolerated a lot of character flaw in those he works around...a LOT...and yet the election of Trump, a member of his own party, a person whose election guaranteed his party a free shot at two years of policy change, was so challenging to his sense of decency, he spoke out.

Those outside of Arizona will hear a lot of spin, especially from the White House. They'll jot out polls on Flake's "struggle" in Arizona. Those polls will, without exception, be total bullshit. There is no polling on the 2018 elections that fits anyone's idea of scientific as of yet.


The White House is shitting its pants because Jeff Flake just gave the Trump White House a big middle finger by surrendering one of only two potentially winnable states for the Dems in the midterms. "Chemtrail" Kelli Ward was running against Flake in the GOP Primary in Arizona. She gets her name because, yes, she pandered to the conspiracy base that believes Chemtrails off planes are chemical warfare against the citizenry or mind control or whatever. Her personal belief regarding this topic is difficult to ascertain, mostly because she is such a shit show that it is difficult to find any kind of rational thought in her babbling. To be clear, Chemtrail Kelli Ward had ZERO chance of beating Jeff Flake.


But AZ Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema did have a chance of beating Flake. She is very well liked in Arizona, and fact is the state of Arizona is not as batshit right as Maricopa County (former home of Sheriff Joe Arpaio), but Maricopa County is home to the Phoenix metro area, so it has a lot of the vote. Still, throughout our state's history, we have proven to be pretty middle-of-the-road on non-gerrymandered (read: US House) state voting. Look at our elected governors. Sinema is highly regarded, and was going to cause Flake some problems. Still...most considered Arizona "safe".


Arizona is now pretty safely in the hands of Sinema and the Dems. And Trump and company will spin this to high heaven, but watch how much focus shifts to the Arizona race for US Senate - 2018. McCain has to retire. And now Flake is leaving. McCain's seat, whenever that time comes, will be filled by appointment, but now there is a real problem with the talent pool in the Arizona GOP...what was just going to be a placeholder fill, possibly, of McCain's seat by GOP Hopeful #1 will now have to be #2 or a dispatched loser to Sinema for Flake's abandoned seat. The GOP stranglehold on the US Senate through the midterms just got loosened.
 
this is interesting...

Saudi Arabia's crown prince just declared war on the clerics

Saudi Arabia's crown prince just declared war on the clerics
by Tom Rogan | Oct 24, 2017, 4:13 PM

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's crown prince declared war on the clerical elite who have long shaped Saudi society.

The man who will be Saudi Arabia's next king, Mohammed bin Salman, did so by delivering an unequivocal message, "We are returning to what we were before, a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world." The crown prince continued, "We will not waste 30 years of our lives wasting time dealing with extremist ideas. We will destroy them today," he said.

Yet, it isn't just what bin Salman said that matters, but also where and to who he said it.

After all, he said it to an unveiled Fox Business host, Maria Bartiromo, at an event designed to attract foreign entrepreneurial investment. Both those considerations — the unveiled American reporter sharing a royal stage on Saudi soil and the endorsement of capitalist dynamism — are incompatible with the worldview of the Saudi Ulama, or clerical elite.

By his actions, Mohammed bin Salman isn't just throwing down the gauntlet to the Ulama; he's goading them.

Still, while this is just the latest step in bin Salman's ongoing effort to advance women's rights and economic diversification, his Tuesday appearance was staggering for another reason. Because bin Salman pledged that Saudi Arabia will now build a new mega-city named Neom, stretching onto Egyptian and Jordanian soil. According to bin Salman, Neom "will be backed by more than $500 billion over the coming years by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ... as well as international investors."

We're also told that Neom will adopt "an idyllic lifestyle paired with excellent economic opportunities that surpass that of any other metropolis."
In my opinion, however, this vision for the future is antithetical to that of the Ulama. They believe that Saudi Arabia's future depends on its continued adherence to Wahhabi traditionalism and dominant religious authority over society. Moreover, the clerics have long believed that their position was assured as long as they continued to support the unilateral right of the House of Saud to rule the desert kingdom.

Mohammed bin Salman just detonated that understanding.

But now, the hard work begins.

Facing inevitable pushback from the clerics, bin Salman will have to prepare for civil instability and a possible rising tide of terrorism. Still, aside from countering those actually involved in violent conspiracies, bin Salman shouldn't overreact to his public critics. Instead, the crown prince should focus on displacing the Ulama's power by empowering young Saudis (well more than 50 percent of the Saudi population is under 30 years old) in the knowledge that his plans will improve their lives.

Regardless, this is good news for the United States. Unless Saudi Arabia's leaders pursue bold reforms, declining oil prices and a young population will mean a cauldron of terrorism.
 
Don't look now, but we have another investigation into Clinton's EMAILS!!!!! And the Uranium sale!!! I think we're going to find that Hillary kept the uranium right next to her private email server.

I agree with Headache that something is coming, and probably soon. Question is does Trump strike a deal to save his ass, or is he going to jail?
 
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