Prelude to the Apocalypse

A place where you can chat about anything that isn't to do with games!

Iran War. When.

2021
3
6%
2022-2025
15
28%
2026-2030
7
13%
2031-2040
3
6%
2041-2050
0
No votes
Never
25
47%
 
Total votes: 53

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BryanM
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by BryanM »

Jonathan Ingram wrote:Because the "sensible and rational" left always invariably align themselves with the interests of their domestic elites on the issues of international politics despite the claims to the contrary.
I can see why you were annoyed by my comment that if we can't even be humane to our own citizenship, how can we expect to see humane foreign policy. It's easy to see that as something a typical "help me, fuck everyone else" person would say.

Really what I was saying is that having a humane foreign policy must also come married to a humane domestic policy. Because we'll need a humane, transformed electorate to have both.

The current poll here is an example of how revolting normal people see politics - 63% of our country does not support Goldman Sachs running everything for their benefit, or wars of aggression. But 63% of the males under 45 years of age demographic here do. The electorate does not match the general population.
ED-057 wrote:heck even the genocide and displacement of the native Americans.
One of the more horrifying stories to surface this year is that Canada is still coercing indigenous women into sterilization.
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quash
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by quash »

If Trump isn't using this as a smokescreen for keeping forces there as presidents before him have (and the Pentagon already accidentally let it slip that there's roughly ten times the number of people there than we were told), I'm glad that I'm finally getting a return on my investment. If I could say the same for Bitcoin right now, this really would be the best Christmas ever.
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BryanM
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by BryanM »

You shorted bitcoin once it hit around $10k, when it obviously peaked and was finally gonna go the way of the tulips? Good man.

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Ed Oscuro
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Ed Oscuro »

Corwill
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Corwill »

Bitcoin is unlikely to continue to grow, to be honest, this prospect is almost impossible. I think it will fluctuate in the same range, gradually decreasing.
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Rob
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Rob »

system11 wrote:Occasionally the stars align, pigs fly, and I find myself agreeing with a Cenk Uygur tweet.

https://twitter.com/cenkuygur/status/10 ... 5588719616
It's slightly odd that he doesn't have the answer since he just had a debate with him and must know his general take on things, but Tucker Carlson.
BryanM wrote:One of the more horrifying stories to surface this year is that Canada is still coercing indigenous women into sterilization.
Trying to get to something resembling the truth from pro journalists about these literally unbelievable tales of racism is always a trouble. I highly doubt that it is exactly as it's being presented.
There is a big difference between a doctor encouraging a woman to get sterilized because she can't afford to have kids, demonstrably lacks the parenting skills to raise them, and has a proven history of giving birth to kids afflicted with fetal alcohol syndrome, and one who encourages a women to get sterilized just because she is indigenous. And if an article goes out of its way to make the former sound, falsely, like the latter, then it just becomes fake news, whatever it might have been with more honest reporting.
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Ed Oscuro
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Ed Oscuro »

"A doctor encouraging ... because" is not so different from coercing, in practice. I would also want to see more facts on a story like this, but it's not as far-fetched as it sounds. Sterilization was a policy against indigenous people on both sides of the border. Canada has seen enough questions over missing and murdered women up to the 1970s that it has a Federal inquiry into the matter. In 1990, Quebec sent in police so a local developer could build a golf course on Mohawk burial grounds.
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quash
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by quash »

BTW, Ed, thanks for proving my point for me yet again. I'm sure the people stationed in Syria are just fuming at the prospect of maybe being home for New Year's.
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BryanM
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by BryanM »

_
Merry Christmas.

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quash
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by quash »

If most pictures are worth a thousand words, that one's worth a million.
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Ed Oscuro
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Ed Oscuro »

I'm glad you can find uncontroversial things to feel proud about, quash. It's kind of like Trump feeling good for signing bipartisan legislation, which he should do more of, and less of the "not having a plan / showing diplomatic leadership" and "firing popular leaders because they tell him what's going on."

Now, maybe we could wonder about whether the troops are actually happy with Trump.

BTW, the story behind that picture above:
https://www.the74million.org/article/ex ... ol-reform/
"Zuck's millions" actually didn't go towards agitating against public schools like so many other millionaires try to do, so props for that. It's too easy to say "this man is bad" and forget that even bad people do good things now and then - like Trump, even!

Happy two-days-after-Festivus, everyone!
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quash
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by quash »

Ed Oscuro wrote:Now, maybe we could wonder about whether the troops are actually happy with Trump.
No need to wonder, because they are. In fact I'd be amazed if he lost any significant amount of support even in the aftermath of Mattis' resignation.

If not for the looming economic collapse thanks to our friends at The Fed, I'd be regretting my decision to get out right about now.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Mischief Maker »

Oh god, and they're watching that fucking waiting for superman movie, too. Of course Cory Booker's there!
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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Ed Oscuro
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Ed Oscuro »

quash wrote:
Ed Oscuro wrote:Now, maybe we could wonder about whether the troops are actually happy with Trump.
No need to wonder, because they are. In fact I'd be amazed if he lost any significant amount of support even in the aftermath of Mattis' resignation.

If not for the looming economic collapse thanks to our friends at The Fed, I'd be regretting my decision to get out right about now.
Why am I not surprised quash is speaking for all enlisted personnel

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pent ... oll-shows/

It's possible they will react positively in response to the Syria pullout, but the snap reporting I saw on it seemed to indicate otherwise. In any case the trend was working against him.

Trump has done more that was negative for the Pentagon than positive, even within the last few months. The military news outlets Army Times and Military Times both had critical reporting of Trump's $200M election stunt for border deployment. Trump has eliminated pretty much every one of his "central casting" Generals from his Administration - Flynn, McMasters, Kelly, Mattis. There's more, but I'm just looking at the stuff the ordinary enlisted guy would pay attention to.
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quash
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by quash »

From the article you linked:
Enlisted men show Trump the most overwhelming support. Military women, meanwhile, have a much harsher view of Trump’s time in office. Officers still have a lower opinion of his presidency than enlisted troops.
In other words, the people who actually do the bulk of the work in the military and aren't mindlessly kissing ass for promotions are the ones who support him. Compared to Obama, whom even the pencil pushers couldn't stand past a certain point, I'd say things are still pretty favorable for the current president.

Your disdain is still showing, Ed. I don't know what kind of fantasies you have in your head about the military #resisting, but I wouldn't count on any of them coming to fruition. I'm sure if the poll was narrowed down even further to specify those who serve in primarily combat positions, you wouldn't be so pleased with the results.
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Rob
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Rob »

Image

The point, for Bryan, is to look beyond obfuscating labels, at the people and their motivations. Of course, thinking about why people use particular labels is also important (how does anyone make an "ideological journey" from Trotskyism to "conservatism" of any stripe), but who they are matters infinitely more than what they say they are.

Bret Stephens is motivated by ethnic interests - he'll tell you so in a less filtered form in this video titled "Is President Donald Trump Good for the Jews?" (already linked this once, and quite long, but worth a listen). In an ethnically diverse society you will get competing ethnic interests, and when those ethnic interests are disguised ("defending the liberal-international order against totalitarian enemies") and when some are in positions to manipulate public perceptions and steer the country's foreign policy decisions, you should have your eyes open to what those interests are. If more people were aware and could call these interests out and freely criticize them (CNN severs ties with liberal pundit Marc Lamont Hill after his controversial remarks on Israel), maybe we wouldn't have half of the problems that we have.
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Specineff
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Specineff »

Rancor and Greg, you two gave me a lot of shit for daring to speak against the hateful racist rhetoric of Trump and his dream pork project a couple years ago. (God forbid me getting protected status ends up costing you the Congressional Medal of Honor you deserve for posting jingoistic slogans on web boards, huh, Ranky?)

Care to chime in and give me your patriotic opinion on this, given that the wall is so necessary that these people must be sacrificed? I mean, that is if any of this crap is reaching you all the way to comfortable, peaceful and uneventful Japan.

Image

Image

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Oh, wait. I got it: It's because the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of patriots like these, right? Good thing that it's the fault of the democrats both when the reps had the majority for two years, and before they take office in the house. Whew.
Don't hold grudges. GET EVEN.
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Ed Oscuro
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Ed Oscuro »

quash wrote:From the article you linked:
Enlisted men show Trump the most overwhelming support. Military women, meanwhile, have a much harsher view of Trump’s time in office. Officers still have a lower opinion of his presidency than enlisted troops.
In other words, the people who actually do the bulk of the work in the military and aren't mindlessly kissing ass for promotions are the ones who support him.
Late to the party, but I find it hard to believe you're really this stupid. Desperate for some good news, aren't you?

I didn't find a breakdown by rank but he is not damn likely to make up his losses amongst officers by enlisted personnel. In the US Army, the ratio of enlisted to officers is about 4:1, meaning that in the Army, even if every officer did not approve of Trump, you still have to try and hand-wave away over half of the responses not approving of Trump. And it was clear from the article that Mattis was incredibly popular in the military, so your argument that Trump pushing out the last of "my generals" didn't matter is completely unfounded on anything other than your own "fantasies."

Your argument that officers don't work and just "kiss ass for promotions" is just disgusting. Who do you think leads soldiers in the field? You're the only one showing disdain here.

Btw, how's your Trump Furlough going? Trump views y'all as Democrats who don't deserve a dime.

Happy #PelosiDay
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Rob
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Rob »

Specineff wrote:Rancor and Greg, you two gave me a lot of shit for daring to speak against the hateful racist rhetoric of Trump and his dream pork project a couple years ago. (God forbid me getting protected status ends up costing you the Congressional Medal of Honor you deserve for posting jingoistic slogans on web boards, huh, Ranky?)

Care to chime in and give me your patriotic opinion on this, given that the wall is so necessary that these people must be sacrificed? I mean, that is if any of this crap is reaching you all the way to comfortable, peaceful and uneventful Japan.
You are very annoying.

http://www.lapdonline.org/all_most_wanted

What do you see in the list above?

Image

The time to build a wall should've been 40 years ago, but it's what many of the 65 million Trump-voting Americans voted for in 2016. He needs to deliver, and Trump voters should be willing to make a short term, shutdown-related sacrifice. Mexican nationals and people who aren't Trump voters will whine regardless.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Mischief Maker »

Rob, you realize the majority of drugs that come into the US from Mexico are smuggled inside otherwise legal shipping that would not be affected by a wall, right?

Remember that gigantic tunnel/rocketbike combo that El Chapo used to escape from prison? The cartels use tunnels for other purposes, too!

And have you ever heard of Narco-submarines?

I realize you're quivering in a puddle of fear over Los Angeles crime statistics way the hell up in Alaska, so I'm gonna give you a solution to narco crime that would cost significantly less than $60 billion. In fact it's something that would increase government revenues. Something that would cut the legs out from under these cartels completely and permanently:
Spoiler
Eliminate the profit incentive by ending the drug war.
But let's be honest. This wall is just the "make my monster GROOOOOW!" version of a confederate memorial statue for you people.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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Zen
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Zen »

Mischief Maker wrote: you people
https://youtu.be/99IoN2pymfE
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Specineff
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Specineff »

Rob wrote:You are very annoying.
Learn to deal with it; I'd say it's been a pleasure to know I've thrown reality wrenches into the cogwork of your vindication fantasies, but what you think about my post meant for Greg and Rancor is one of the 165,000 things I don't care about. Especially since you know, no one made you sign a contract in blood that requires you to read what I write on this thread.

Rob wrote:What do you see in the list above?
The equivalent, demographics-wise, of this:

http://www.anchoragecrimestoppers.com/s ... &P=wanteds&
Rob wrote:The time to build a wall should've been 40 years ago, but it's what many of the 65 million Trump-voting Americans voted for in 2016. He needs to deliver, and Trump voters should be willing to make a short term, shutdown-related sacrifice. Mexican nationals and people who aren't Trump voters will whine regardless.
Nice attempt, but no dice. Whine? Please. As one of the Mexican nationals you evidently have a vengeful (and at this point, pathologically needed) hateboner for, I can tell you that at this point the concept of his wall is laughable, because the harsh reality is that after those four decades, it's still unbuilt, and your rhetoric doesn't generate bricks that can be laid across the border. Furthermore, it's been two years today with the Repubs in the majority in both the senate and house under a Republican president, without a single quarter mile of his beautiful, Will-Fix-All-Our-Problems 30-feet tall wall yet. Which he's begging US taxpayer money (and fucking over your fellow americans) for, despite that Mexico is totes going to pay for it, dattebayo.

Though in another reality, maybe you wouldn't be saying the same about shutdown-related sacrifices were you one of the people in the posts I listed.
Don't hold grudges. GET EVEN.
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BryanM
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by BryanM »

Ed Oscuro wrote:Your argument that officers don't work and just "kiss ass for promotions" is just disgusting. Who do you think leads soldiers in the field?
NCO's? I'm going to go with NCO's, Alex.

At a certain threshold, politics is more important to getting a promotion than competence or performance does. Going beyond E-6 or O-4 does require the blessed personal favor of the higher ups. (And none are more married to monied interests as the Generals are. As that is who they answer to and work for directly. It's actually incredible to me that 20% of them don't go on to openly pocket millions of dollars from those interests after retiring. Thought that number would be closer to 4%.)

This is obviously how all systems of power work - you won't be placed into a position if it doesn't help the people giving it to you. Go watch the rules for rulers video if you haven't learned about this foundational principle of society yet.

About Mattis in particular... he's the guy who bombed that wedding, so, um... eh...

I think defending Warren and her job to help split the left and help Biden win so he can lose to Trump is less distasteful.
the wall
I like how they're using socialism and collectively paying for something they want in that GoFundMe wall. It's obviously a scam, but getting grifted is what SJW's do best I guess.

What's a little sad is how half assed their construction of a safe space is. Underground bunker stacked to the ceiling with beans, and razorwire around the perimeter of their property, okay. But what about a barrier for their block? City? State?

You know you can just drive right into Kansas from any which way. Doesn't seem very safe, this "space".
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GaijinPunch
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by GaijinPunch »

Zen wrote:
Mischief Maker wrote: you people
https://youtu.be/99IoN2pymfE
:lol: I play this in my head every time I hear that phrase.
RegalSin wrote:New PowerPuff Girls. They all have evil pornstart eyelashes.
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quash
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by quash »

Ed... you are simply adorable when you get riled up over things you don't understand.
Ed Oscuro wrote:I didn't find a breakdown by rank but he is not damn likely to make up his losses amongst officers by enlisted personnel. In the US Army, the ratio of enlisted to officers is about 4:1, meaning that in the Army, even if every officer did not approve of Trump, you still have to try and hand-wave away over half of the responses not approving of Trump.
He still has overwhelming support from, again, the people who actually do the work. The boots on the ground, so to speak. The vast majority of people in the military rarely deploy, if ever. In case you're wondering, I deployed four times in six years of service, which is more than some career deployment dodgers will see in twenty.
And it was clear from the article that Mattis was incredibly popular in the military, so your argument that Trump pushing out the last of "my generals" didn't matter is completely unfounded on anything other than your own "fantasies."
I never said anything about "your generals". You're still beyond delusional if you think the productive sector of the military isn't the one that likes Trump the most.
Your argument that officers don't work and just "kiss ass for promotions" is just disgusting. Who do you think leads soldiers in the field? You're the only one showing disdain here.


I really don't know where to even start with this one. You're insinuating that I'm the one that doesn't know how the military works, for starters. And you think I'm showing disdain for officers lol. Some of the absolute best people in the military are officers, but also so are some of the absolute worst. I'm pretty sure I could guess the demographics of officers that do and don't support Trump, and again, the results would not align with your facile view of a military equally divided on the matter. In terms of numbers, perhaps, but in terms of ability and rank... not so much.
Btw, how's your Trump Furlough going? Trump views y'all as Democrats who don't deserve a dime.
The military always gets paid, one way or another. Usually Congress approves it right before a shutdown but sometimes that doesn't happen and the military banks pick up the slack.

In any case, I'm done with my time in the service, so I'm in a better position to speak on some things now. Not that most of the people posting in this thread would understand it, but who knows, maybe someone out there is still reading this thread that appreciates the perspective.
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ED-057
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by ED-057 »

I would like to thank anonymous Twittards for "leaking" this cute video (which has evidently been hiding in plain sight since 2010)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj2Xald7NYQ

And I hereby propose that all campaign ads henceforth shall be similar in form and content.
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BryanM
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by BryanM »

quash wrote:He still has overwhelming support from, again, the people who actually do the work.
Confirmation bias is always a hell of a thing. Perhaps consider your friends will tend to be people who agree with your worldview. Or are at least less likely to say negative things about Dear Leader to the crazy guy that's very vocal about his delusion that the guy's measurably different on policy from John McCain or John Kerry.

You're doing great with your 40% support of enlisted people. Not so great about the rants about how the other 60% are subhuman parasites (yes, it's job welfare when they're on the welfare job that couldn't exist without the government stealing everyone's money, but not when it's you or them blessed Trump supporters. Never them they're so great. If it's good, it's us. If it's bad, it's them.)
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quash
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by quash »

You too? I know the Air Force has anime sword ceremonies and deploys to hotels, but come on.

This is one survey at a blink in time where Trump decided to pull out from an occupied area that doesn't even break down by rank or speciality. Believe me, I have no delusions about the military being completely behind Trump, and I know there's plenty of people sitting around that support him as well. That doesn't mean that most people on the front lines are going to be wearing pussy hats any time soon. You always have your outliers, your Mannings and such, but they're the exception, not the rule. You of all people should know this and I kinda refuse to believe that you're dense enough not to.
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Ed Oscuro
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by Ed Oscuro »

quash wrote:This is one survey at a blink in time where Trump decided to pull out from an occupied area
Today we learned quash reads books for the pictures:

Image

My bad on the officers / NCOs thing (word).

Already made it clear the poll was from *before* the Syria pullout, but again, quash doesn't read when he could be spending the time more productively, like airing his finely tuned grievances.
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quash
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Re: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary

Post by quash »

I forgot the date on an article I last read over a week ago, sue me. You're still beyond clueless on this matter (as you are on many things) and your desperate attempt to save face over it isn't working on me.

For someone who is supposedly so smart, you do a great job of focusing on minute details in favor of the larger point. As an example, here's something you seem to have missed:
Only 13 percent believe that Obama’s military was in better shape than Trump’s, according to the poll.
Really makes you wonder where the military's loyalties would lie in the event something unprecedented happens: the people who improve their working conditions, or the people who actively sabotage them.
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