Prelude to the Apocalypse

[antron]

Isn't trump's plan for taking out Assad just to let isis do it for us, then take out isis? Or did he changed his mind, and then change it again? Seriously.

How do his supporters convince themselves to buy any of it? Just look at this example! I know you're not the racist angry old white guys he normally attracts. You must be able to see his lack of consistency.

[Mischief Maker]

You must be able to see his lack of consistency.

No, no, what looks like inconsistency and reckless stupidity is actually him playing three dimensional chess to such a high degree that he only seems like a clueless oaf to ordinary humans like you and me.

[Ed Oscuro]

"I could have settled this case many times, but I don't want to settle cases when we are right."

So the "right" plan was getting retirement age couples to max multiple credit cards to pay for $15,000 and $35,000 seminars about absolutely nothing? And then strong-arming them into writing it was a good experience later.

Trump is almost as bad as the psycho French dentist who was deliberately infecting people and pulling teeth for no reason just so he could make money. Perhaps worse overall, because we don't really know the full cost of this to people's well being. Trump University started before Trump's involvement, and it was clearly a scam by the time he came along, which makes it even worse. Trump can't make any excuse that things just got out of control, because he should have seen this from the start.

I'd like to know, though, how do you strong-arm somebody into agreeing that spending $15,000 of "O.P.M." (i.e., going into debt at 65+) for no return was a good idea?

Make America Great Again - a dozen maxed credit cards at a time!

[Rob]

But Trump is going to be vile and deceitful for America now. His 69 year record of acting only in his interest is over.

[antron]

Not to say Syria has fallen yet, but Obama and co. are looking to make that a reality. Ground forces (the unmistakable "boots on ground" kind) are going there later this year to start preparing for what can only be the beginning of a military campaign in the country.

If we elect Hillary, I can almost guarantee you the country will fall in under a year. Assad would likely be dead or in hiding as we would prop up a puppet government to begin the process of further antagonizing Russia and Iran. Smacking the hornet's nest, as it would be.

I don't think Russia is going to let anything happen to Assad. Russia will protect him, even from the US .

With Trump, there's a higher chance that we would work with Russia to fight ISIS

Like Obama has, even as Russia bombs our "rebel friends" (that Obama has never trusted)

As far as the general nuclear gloom and doom, I don't believe anyone will use them even in the event of direct conflict between Russia and the US. The charade will be up unfortunately though.

[HenAi]

About Trump not having much of a consistent policy on anything: True, but when his opponent happens to have a clear policy you dislike, that at least allows for thinking he might not screw you over.
I guess that means his success is mostly based on wishful thinking.

As far as the general nuclear gloom and doom, I don't believe anyone will use them even in the event of direct conflict between Russia and the US. The charade will be up unfortunately though.

I'd much prefer if we could keep that charade up for another couple of decades. It doesn't prevent proxy wars, but it sure as hell is effective at preventing wars in a select number of countries.

[EmperorIng]

How do his supporters convince themselves to buy any of it? Just look at this example! I know you're not the racist angry old white guys he normally attracts. You must be able to see his lack of consistency.

He said that fighting a two-front war against Assad and ISIS is pointless, and that "bad" Assad is preferable to "worse" ISIS. The solution is to "bomb the shit out" of ISIS (and maybe take the oil lol). He doesn't have a plan for Assad, because no one needs a "plan" for him.

Like Obama has, even as Russia bombs our "rebel friends" (that Obama has never trusted)

You sure have a lot of faith in a mediocre president. Do you really call the situation "working together" with Russia? Was that jet that barreled next to one of the US cruisers dropping off Putin's letter to the president saying "keep up the good work, buddy!"? Do you remember John Kerry, that most ineffective of politicians, being humiliated by Lavrov's save after the "red line" fiasco? Putting missile defense systems in Eastern Europe is jolly cooperation?

"Never trusted" the rebels? All those weapons, vehicles, intel and ammunition was a sign of distrust?

I mean, it's one thing to rebel against your totally not-cool Republican parents (whom you admitted that you just, like, don't get man), but it's another to ignore the obvious.

[antron]

He said that fighting a two-front war against Assad and ISIS is pointless, and that "bad" Assad is preferable to "worse" ISIS. The solution is to "bomb the shit out" of ISIS (and maybe take the oil lol). He doesn't have a plan for Assad, because no one needs a "plan" for him.

You mock his plans, but plan on voting for him? Do you just accept his words as bluster?

Putting missile defense systems in Eastern Europe is jolly cooperation?

It can be perfect reasonable to cooperate with someone in one area and completely distrust them in another.

I mean, it's one thing to rebel against your totally not-cool Republican parents (whom you admitted that you just, like, don't get man), but it's another to ignore the obvious.

I'm feeling pretty good about their ability to see through an obvious con man, against their general inclination.

[Mischief Maker]

It's the "Political Correctness" angle from Trump supporters that throws me.

Here you are saying the biggest threat to America are drama queens with dyed hair who pretty much live on twitter, threatening professional and legal retribution to everyone who tells a joke that offends their delicate sensibilities...

...and your solution is to elect one of them president?

[quash]

Here you are saying the biggest threat to America are drama queens with dyed hair who pretty much live on twitter

The biggest threat to America is the neocon foreign policy agenda that Hillary is pushing for harder than anyone else. Second to that would be our southern border and the war on drugs (which are inexplicably tied to the former, anyways).

That being said, the paradigm shift of mainstream culture is also worrisome. Though if this election is any indication, enough people are tired of being told to believe things that are fundamentally backwards and detrimental to American society. It's millennials that I'm worried about; too many of us have missed the boat economically which has generated a hell of a lot of resentment towards capitalism, though not to the extent that any of us actually want to trade smartphones for breadlines. "Democratic socialism", as it's now called.

[BryanM]

breadlines.

Breadlines are created by capitalism.

There was no middle class until communists created the minimum wage. (It's right there in the communist manifesto for fuck's sake.)

You have over 40,000 years of human history where there was no middle class.

Hope this helps.

[quash]

By the way, the latest batch of anti-Trump violence took place in my hometown. This kind of thing isn't new to anyone who's lived in the area, but now that it's seeing national exposure, even some liberals are appalled.

If anyone has a rational argument for burning American flags while waving Mexican ones as a way of showing support for America, again, $100 directly into your PayPal.

[quash]

breadlines.

Breadlines are created by capitalism.

There was no middle class until communists created the minimum wage. (It's right there in the communist manifesto for fuck's sake.)

You have over 40,000 years of human history where there was no middle class.

Hope this helps.

Not even Bernie himself is agreeing with this.

[EmperorIng]

Breadlines are created by capitalism.

There was no middle class until communists created the minimum wage. (It's right there in the communist manifesto for fuck's sake.)

You have over 40,000 years of human history where there was no middle class.

Hope this helps.

I can't tell if this is a joke or you skipped history class at the uni.

Unless you are speaking in the strict technical sense that the 19th-century conception of the middle class did not exist until... the 19th-century.

Or unless you are so meta that you are implying the Marx et al. exploited very real conflicts between groups in 19c Europe in order to spearhead an intellectual movement that redefined society in terms that made Marx et al. the primary benefactors/leaders of said society.

[Ed Oscuro]

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/ ... rman-says/
oh oops

Marx wasn't interested in becoming a "primary benefactor" of his philosophy, some people are interested in social change for the sake of the people, you know.

As far as "no middle class," I think that is generally correct. There were lots of people who would have felt like the middle class do today, mainly farmers, but they weren't middle class in the way we think of it today. When was the last time you swabbed out a stable or fed the pigs? The cities were full of the poor.

A good history of wealth distribution (like Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century) shows that there was just a small window where the economy was enough to sustain a middle class without clamping down on financial sponging by wealthy interests. It doesn't look like there's any chance of a similar economic boom returning, so the old financial games once again become the most profitable means of making and maintaining wealth, absent regulation to prevent this.

[BryanM]

Also lol just lol at people bitching about losing in the free market of ideas. What a shock, the people who were robbed would like to get their money back.

Even Glenn Beck was calling the whining about facebook stuff as "affirmative action for conservatives".

Nobody cares about the penis size of Mexicans anymore. Used to be all the rage, but then Sesame Street brainwashed us into thinking they were humans.

Good thing my uncles don't think that way, tho, and will elect Trump non-ironically, and everything will be fine. I'm sure.

Remember the old days? What a couple of cucks. They'll never amount to anything. Not in this life, nor the next.

[Specineff]

By the way, the latest batch of anti-Trump violence took place in my hometown. This kind of thing isn't new to anyone who's lived in the area, but now that it's seeing national exposure, even some liberals are appalled.

If anyone has a rational argument for burning American flags while waving Mexican ones as a way of showing support for America, again, $100 directly into your PayPal.

The burning of the flag is unjustified, low, hypocritical, insulting, retrograde and neanderthal-ish. Condemnable in every way.

However, you just can't expect marshmallows and rainbows after someone who wants to become the leader of a nation, states to a whole ethnicity that, solely by virtue of their country of origin, "They are not the best that has been sent, and rapists and criminals who bring drugs." (while some, according to Truculent Trump's guess, are okay).

I mean, just try saying that all blacks are a bunch of welfare-sucking, rap-listening, education-hating, basketball-obsessed gangsta wannabes, or that the Jewish are money-grubbing, media-controlling, victim card-playing, snooty and condescending wealth controllers... and NOT getting burned, both proverbially and literally.

For anyone who may have gotten offended by my hyperbolic statements above, I'll show how much I really like you by uploading to twitter a photo of myself having some soul food and latkes, all right? (But after that, fuck you and your political correctness. I'm just telling it like it is.)

[Mischief Maker]

If anyone has a rational argument for burning American flags while waving Mexican ones as a way of showing support for America, again, $100 directly into your PayPal.

Donald Trump wraps himself in the flag.

According to 4 U.S. Code § 8 - Respect for flag

(k) The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.

[Rob]

(k) The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.

https://youtu.be/YG1vahXGDng?t=2m6s

[quash]

Remember the old days? What a couple of cucks. They'll never amount to anything. Not in this life, nor the next.

To think that liberals used to look at this and call it racism. To think that liberals accused Romney of being a racist in the last election.

This is what happens when you move the goalposts on what's acceptable within the political arena: at some point, people stop caring.

[BulletMagnet]

This is what happens when you move the goalposts on what's acceptable within the political arena: at some point, people stop caring.

Simply delicious.

[BryanM]

A moment of silence for the biggest bomb of the season. The no-hoper in chief.





The man who, when Donald Trump said we needed to murder people's families, used rote dumb talking points. He called murdering people's families "not serious" or somesuch. Instead of correctly flipping out and saying HOLY FUCK THAT'S A WAR CRIME DONALD IT GOES AGAINST EVERYTHING IN THE GENEVA CONVENTION IF WE DID THAT SHIT NO ONE COULD ARGUE THAT IT'S *US* WHO ARE THE TERRORISTS

[BryanM]

Okay back to Donald

: D

[Ed Oscuro]

I'll just leave this by
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1984-Press-Phot ... 1676654788
juxtapose with:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-1980s-pres ... 1990957097

[quash]

I read this in Dogbert's voice.

[antron]

Posted June 5th. Adams probably saw trump's attack on judge Curiel, his stomach turned, and he desperately looked for a way out.

[EmperorIng]

Uh, it must be tough not being able to detect irony.

[antron]

I was under the impression that Adams was an actual trump supporter before. I guess I was thrown off by a headline linking him and trump. How silly of me. What reason could he possibly have? Thinking Trump might actually prevent a nuclear war.

Or let me guess, stop abortion?

[EmperorIng]

Or let me guess, stop abortion?

Bad guess. Where has anyone mentioned abortion?

You... might not have caught Adams' satire in the essay; I encourage you to read it again. It'll all be clear by the last paragraph.

Okay back to Donald

Say what you will but that December tweet is too funny. The faux-innocent "Is Obama profiling?" line cracks me up.

[antron]

Or let me guess, stop abortion?

Bad guess. Where has anyone mentioned abortion?

Nowhere, that's why it's a guess.

I am just curious if you are capable of having an impartial opinion regarding this election due to your creed; in the new political reality being ushered in by trump. If race disqualifies Curiel then the religious will be vetted as well. Trump has already made similar statements regarding the impartiality of Muslims.

But I guess you don't have anything to worry about in any event. (As far as religious objections to abortion at least). My apologized.

Added: but I guess it doesn't necessarily matter what anyone's individual beliefs are. Just being a member of a group that is perceived to hold a belief is enough. Like all Mexicans and Muslims are perceived to hate Trump.