US Politics: A small step from going viral to going postal

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 9/10/2020 at 11:43 AM, Mindwalker said:

He IS as stupid. He was stupid enough to talk endlessly to a reporter (one of the Watergate guys no less), open up to him, and let him tape him.

My problem is that he is often so stupid, I forget that doesn't mean he isn't evil. He is both.

Not only endlessly talk to a Watergate guy, but to do so after that Watergate guy already published a damning book on Trump just two years ago.

[DanteGabriel]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

From what I’ve read the calibrators had Or to tie this back to politics, I’m sure Ayn Rand never envisioned Christian fundamentalists falling in love with her works given how little she openly thought of them.

To be fair, if Christian fundamentalists only admired people who liked them, they'd have no one to look up to. Even their own preachers seem to have deep contempt for them.

[Jace, Extat]

6 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I still have not seen a good reason for having kept him in jail until his death. Even if he had cynical reasons, he still turned his back on Hitler.

He also participated in the overthrow of a legitimate democratic government. Paving the way for the liquidation of ten million innocents in a little event you might have heard of.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

3 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Another article on the Woodward book-

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/10/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-bob-woodward-book/index.html

The theme is especially accurate in pinpointing what Dems have see all along about this Man and his administration.

"He has failed his date with destiny!"

There is simply no other conclusion to draw for a civilized society. The November election will indeed be none other than a referendum on whether this society(U.S.) can pass that test, are we a civilized society? 

We failed that test 4 years earlier and we have exactly the pos we deserve leading the country. Were we to double down on that failure this November, is a historically significant question?

Can a State backtrack itself off the cliffs edge? We will reap what we sow with these November ballots.

 

I disagree. We did not fail the test four years ago--and I'm including in that all these people who voted for Trump. I'm including the mind-numbingly, infuriating people I heard talking on Left, Right, and Center yesterday. Our government has failed us. It has failed us consistently since at least Reagan. This country has allowed people to be pushed down, their money whittled away so a few can hoard everything. Trump is not a referendum on the American people, but on both major political parties for being staunchly anti-citizen in everything they do. 

We do not deserve Trump. No one in this country deserves Trump. If he is re-elected in November, this is just more evidence of Trump being the symptom of the completely broken two party system in this country which registers as "Right" and "Loony-Tunes Right." 

[HoodedCrow]

Trump was roundly booed in NY. He wouldnt dare go and seems intent on punishing NY. He’s a sicko.

[Fury Resurrected]

2 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

General observation/remark.

You lot (Americans) are just huge suckers for redemption stories. I am not sure, whether I blame it as some remnant of hippie culture, being way too much into Jesus, or George Lucas and Star Wars.

Small historical trip if you allow me.

Rudolf Hess left Hitler's second in command left his side in 1941, to negotiate a peace with the UK. So he spent a good part of the WWII as a POW in England. After the war, he spent the rest of his life as a prisoner in Berlin Spandau. He died in 1987. Not very forgiving.

Sean Spicer loses his gig as Trump's propagangha tool, after the Scaramucci arrived (which was glorious by the way). And Stephen Colbert let's him on stage during his Emmy gig and people give that guy standing ovations?

Well, and now, we have this weird love for Michael Cohen. Wasn't he the guy, when confronted about the child seperation policy, and the case of a child with a disability, that just went: wop wop

Ofc neither of them is Hess, and Trump is not Hitler, but merely Twitler. But they are not exactly Vader, who sacrificed his life by killing the emperor either. I mean, I can continue this list with the Mooch himself. Any single one of those, should really be banished from public life for a good while. Just because they can string together three coherent sentences after they left the sinking ship, doesn't mean they are good people.

Afterall I'Ve decided to blame it on Star Wars.

Does anyone love Michael Cohen??? It seems to me he’s regarded nearly universally as a shitty guy, and on the left, a shitty guy who is happy to sell out an even shittier guy. He’s not liked, he’s just useful for the moment. Being a shitty guy, he knows that usefulness is at maximum right now and is trying to milk it for all it’s worth, because once that’s gone he’s a guy who operates on having the trust of clients, and that ship has sailed and sank

[DanteGabriel]

11 minutes ago, Fury Resurrected said:

Does anyone love Michael Cohen??? It seems to me he’s regarded nearly universally as a shitty guy, and on the left, a shitty guy who is happy to sell out an even shittier guy. He’s not liked, he’s just useful for the moment. Being a shitty guy, he knows that usefulness is at maximum right now and is trying to milk it for all it’s worth, because once that’s gone he’s a guy who operates on having the trust of clients, and that ship has sailed and sank

He's Wormtongue, but he barely drew blood when he tried to stab his Saruman.

[Mindwalker]

Is it just me or does Peter Strzok bear a strong resemblance to Kiefer Sutherland?

He really evades the question about the FBI and protesters...

[Fragile Bird]

1 hour ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

He also participated in the overthrow of a legitimate democratic government. Paving the way for the liquidation of ten million innocents in a little event you might have heard of.

Well no shit, Sherlock, but that’s not the reason why he was kept in jail. All the other Nazis were let out, Speer was alone in Spandau prison for 16 years. All the allies, yes, including the US, asked that his years of solitary confinement end, and many asked that he be released. The move was blocked by the Russians.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

1 hour ago, Simon Steele said:

I disagree. We did not fail the test four years ago--and I'm including in that all these people who voted for Trump. I'm including the mind-numbingly, infuriating people I heard talking on Left, Right, and Center yesterday. Our government has failed us. It has failed us consistently since at least Reagan. This country has allowed people to be pushed down, their money whittled away so a few can hoard everything. Trump is not a referendum on the American people, but on both major political parties for being staunchly anti-citizen in everything they do. 

I agree with Woodward.

The American people voted in the person that kicked off his campaign by calling Mexican rapists, drug dealer and murderers. That was not a deal breaker. Then that candidate bragged about his sexual assault of women. Oh, and his major campaign promise was his monument for racism, aka the wall.

Which civilized country, would let any such person anywhere near a position of power? Apparently nothing of that was a deal breaker for a significant number of US citizens.

You can try to push the discussion on to some meta level, where anything becomes irrelevant in the bigger picture. But that doesn't change the fact, that the US decided he should be the guy to lead it.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 hours ago, aceluby said:

You a pothead Focker?

I've got nipples, Ace. Can you milk me?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 minute ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

I agree with Woodward.

The American people voted in person that kicked off his campaign by calling Mexican rapists, drug dealer and murderers. That was not a deal breaker. Then that candidate bragged about his sexual assault of women. Oh, and his major campaign promise was his monument for racism, aka the wall.

Which civilized country, would let any such person anywhere near a position of power? Apparently nothing of that was a deal breaker for a significant number of US citizens.

You can try to push the discussion on to some meta level, where anything becomes irrelevant in the bigger picture. But that doesn't change the fact, that the US decided he should be the guy to lead it.

To be fair we didn't. A stupid, outdated system did.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

2 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

To be fair we didn't. A stupid, outdated system did.

If that makes you sleep any better.

[Jace, Extat]

39 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Well no shit, Sherlock, but that’s not the reason why he was kept in jail. All the other Nazis were let out, Speer was alone in Spandau prison for 16 years. All the allies, yes, including the US, asked that his years of solitary confinement end, and many asked that he be released. The move was blocked by the Russians.

Again, your issue? I know my Nazi lore, man. The dude deserved to hang. Practicality only goes so far in alleviating guilt for mass crimes against humanity. He didn't hang.

[Paladin of Ice]

4 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

 

Well, and now, we have this weird love for Michael Cohen. Wasn't he the guy, when confronted about the child seperation policy, and the case of a child with a disability, that just went: wop wop

 

That was (one of) Trump’s 2016 campaign managers actually, a piece of weasel shit named Corey Lewandowski.

[Kalbear]

47 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

To be fair we didn't. A stupid, outdated system did.

No; we did. Enough US citizens thought that he was the best choice, and Clinton was not. It's a stupid outdated system, but the mere notion that enough people in enough states thought he was good enough is enough of an indictment on our culture and population. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

10 minutes ago, Paladin of Ice said:

That was (one of) Trump’s 2016 campaign managers actually, a piece of weasel shit named Corey Lewandowski.

I stand corrected. There are so many POS involved in the Trump campaign, that referring to them as such, feels kinda redundant.

[Lollygag]

On Americans and redemption arcs -

Our whole existence is about redemption arcs. So many white people left Europe because of religious discrimination, plague, poverty, general terrible quality of life in general.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

 

That and we have terrible attention spans.

 

[DMC]

As far as redemption arcs go, I blame Bob Marley.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

I agree with Woodward.

The American people voted in the person that kicked off his campaign by calling Mexican rapists, drug dealer and murderers. That was not a deal breaker. Then that candidate bragged about his sexual assault of women. Oh, and his major campaign promise was his monument for racism, aka the wall.

Which civilized country, would let any such person anywhere near a position of power? Apparently nothing of that was a deal breaker for a significant number of US citizens.

You can try to push the discussion on to some meta level, where anything becomes irrelevant in the bigger picture. But that doesn't change the fact, that the US decided he should be the guy to lead it.

Everything is not irrelevant. People have been getting screwed so long, that they're trying anything new. A lot of vocal Trump supporters are clearly racist, but so many of them also have rationalized this choice as not racist. Choosing Hillary would not have helped a huge majority of people. Would she have been better than Trump? Yes, there are places she would have been better. Blaming people for being fucked over for decades is pretty arrogant. Trump is what the system has produced. This isn't some "meta level" point. This is just what it is. Trump, for all the damage and long-term problems he has caused, was, for many, a clear choice that bucks the broken two party system. All Trump is doing is saying out loud what many politicians, including Democrats, won't say. He's a prolific liar who hits on several truths within his base. 

Blaming "the American people," beyond that, is also pretty ridiculous. You're blaming all the people who went out and voted for Hillary. All the people who actively worked against and still work against Trump? The people who outvoted the Trump voters, but due to an archaic system, handed Trump the victory? These are systemic issues. Not character flaws within the people of this country.