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daedalus wrote: I'm no political analyst, but I think I've narrowed this down to a couple of likely explanations:
1. He's doing this on purpose. I mean, deliberately train wrecking. It seems plausible not because I know of motive, but because it's so far outside reasonable that it is actually getting less plausible that he's that clueless, simply because he'd probably not be quite SO GOOD at train wrecking this consistently well if he was utterly inept but trying to keep it together. A person might be totally inept at cooking, but still know that you can't heat food by putting it inside their refrigerator.
2. None of what I experience is real because I am actually utterly insane. None of this is happening, and I'm scrawling this message on tile floor in purple crayon.
There's still any number of other explanations for what is going on, but I think they're vastly less likely.
re: #1 I think he has enough self-awareness such that he's doing this on purpose, or at least exacerbate it to keep up the appearance of chaos, to actually hide some of the real incompetency of his presidency.
Yeah, I've seen the simulation thing before. I'd accept that as a substitute for insanity conditionally so long as we accept that this is part of the simulation. The important part is that, while it seems real by all appearances, it isn't actually.
I think you're probably pretty spot on with number 1 though. I'd definitely keep that most likely. At least at this point. I'm gonna go spend some time this weekend to trying to divide by zero and putting mirrors face to face just to really stress test number two as much as I know how to.
I don't think there is any hiding the incompetence of the Trump presidency. Simply put, the situation is that 30% of the people and media are desperate not t admit the incompetence, and will seize on any excuse to deny it.
Also the normal run of things means that occasionally something happens that isn't obviously due to Trump being utterly incompetent, and this offers a few holdfasts to the Trumpists.
daedalus wrote: I'm no political analyst, but I think I've narrowed this down to a couple of likely explanations:
1. He's doing this on purpose. I mean, deliberately train wrecking. It seems plausible not because I know of motive, but because it's so far outside reasonable that it is actually getting less plausible that he's that clueless, simply because he'd probably not be quite SO GOOD at train wrecking this consistently well if he was utterly inept but trying to keep it together. A person might be totally inept at cooking, but still know that you can't heat food by putting it inside their refrigerator.
2. None of what I experience is real because I am actually utterly insane. None of this is happening, and I'm scrawling this message on tile floor in purple crayon.
There's still any number of other explanations for what is going on, but I think they're vastly less likely.
re: #1 I think he has enough self-awareness such that he's doing this on purpose, or at least exacerbate it to keep up the appearance of chaos, to actually hide some of the real incompetency of his presidency.
I think a lot of this stems from even though Trump chose to run and even though I'm sure on some level he really did want to win the election he and his staff never really prepared for winning. I really don't think Trump ever took time to examine everything that's involved with being PotUS, assembling his cabinet, filling all the Federal positions and governing. He's not even connected to the Republican Party that much, sure he's got buddies who work at Fox News and are pundits and he's donates money to politicians that he wants to attend his wedding but Trump's never been involved with the Party establishment, he even ran against them in his primary campaign. Consequently Trump was both unprepared to do the job and was already in conflict with the Party that was supposed to be holding it all together. Trump's not the type of person to just rubber stamp whatever the GOP wants him to do, his ego is way too big for that. So right from the start there was constant conflict with nominations between people Trump felt he could trust, people the GOP thought would advance their policies/agenda and people the Republicans in the Senate were willing to confirm which created a total gak show (and that's just for the positions that everyone knows about like the Cabinet, I'm sure Trump doesn't even give a feth about lesser positions like ambassadorships, etc.). Trump is pretty much salesman so when he flounders he just starts to bloviate, running his mouth to hide his ignorance or incompetence and through gak against the wall to see what sticks, anything to distract people and help him spin the situation to the outcome he wants. With the current 24/7 news cycle and social setting in the US this strategy actually works pretty well for Trump since in the time it takes a person to learn about one scandal/issue six more crop up and fill up the news cycle with more noise. Are the teacher in Oklahoma still striking? Who's the current Secretary of State? Are we about to launch nukes at NK or are we about to initiate peace talks? Did the FBI arrest anyone with ties to Trump today? Etc.
In a way it's a lot like this thread. Every few pages the discussion becomes completely different.
Interesting to note that Fox basically hung up when Trump started to rant about Mueller, presumably because he was likely to incriminate himself there, like he did with Stormy and Cohen minutes before.
I wonder why one of America's leading news outlets would sacrifice such a massive scoop?
We were once so close to heaven, St. Peter came out and gave us medals; declaring us "The nicest of the damned".
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
daedalus wrote: I'm no political analyst, but I think I've narrowed this down to a couple of likely explanations:
1. He's doing this on purpose. I mean, deliberately train wrecking. It seems plausible not because I know of motive, but because it's so far outside reasonable that it is actually getting less plausible that he's that clueless, simply because he'd probably not be quite SO GOOD at train wrecking this consistently well if he was utterly inept but trying to keep it together. A person might be totally inept at cooking, but still know that you can't heat food by putting it inside their refrigerator.
2. None of what I experience is real because I am actually utterly insane. None of this is happening, and I'm scrawling this message on tile floor in purple crayon.
There's still any number of other explanations for what is going on, but I think they're vastly less likely.
you missed the big one...
That being, no, you're not insane, and yes, these people really are that stupid.
IRON WITHIN, IRON WITHOUT.
New Heavy Gear Log! Also...Grey Knights! The correct pronunciation is Imperial Guard and Stormtroopers, "Astra Militarum" and "Tempestus Scions" are something you'll find at Hogwarts.
daedalus wrote: I'm no political analyst, but I think I've narrowed this down to a couple of likely explanations:
1. He's doing this on purpose. I mean, deliberately train wrecking. It seems plausible not because I know of motive, but because it's so far outside reasonable that it is actually getting less plausible that he's that clueless, simply because he'd probably not be quite SO GOOD at train wrecking this consistently well if he was utterly inept but trying to keep it together. A person might be totally inept at cooking, but still know that you can't heat food by putting it inside their refrigerator.
2. None of what I experience is real because I am actually utterly insane. None of this is happening, and I'm scrawling this message on tile floor in purple crayon.
Not gonna lie, I shut it off about 18 seconds in, the dumb started to hurt.
"There is the White house, and inside the white house is the President of the United States, Donald Trump."
Thanks Fox News, you just gave up the location of the president to all of those dirty rat commies!
I didn't agree with a good deal of Obama's policies, but I do miss the class that he carried himself with, the proper grammar too. I'd say the biggest thing that frustrates me is that Trump doesn't act in a manner that our head of state (and the free world) should. I get that that is part of what got him elected, but its old, and he's making us look absolutely ridiculous. His horrid policy decisions could be mitigated if he only kept his thumbs in his pockets and used complete sentences, at least do a decent job selling us these bad ideas.
feeder wrote: Frazz's mind is like a wiener dog in a rabbit warren. Dark, twisting tunnels, and full of the certainty that just around the next bend will be the quarry he seeks.
I don't know about that. These past 70 years of Pax Americana have been some of the safest and most prosperous in recorded history. (provided you don't try and elect a socialist government, or be brown and live on top of valuable resources)
We were once so close to heaven, St. Peter came out and gave us medals; declaring us "The nicest of the damned".
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
feeder wrote: I don't know about that. These past 70 years of Pax Americana have been some of the safest and most prosperous in recorded history. (provided you don't try and elect a socialist government, or be brown and live on top of valuable resources)
I don't intend to comment on the last 70 years in either direction, I'm just speaking in the context of now. The US needs to better learn to be a member of a team rather than a manager with subordinates.
"There is the White house, and inside the white house is the President of the United States, Donald Trump."
Thanks Fox News, you just gave up the location of the president to all of those dirty rat commies!
I didn't agree with a good deal of Obama's policies, but I do miss the class that he carried himself with, the proper grammar too. I'd say the biggest thing that frustrates me is that Trump doesn't act in a manner that our head of state (and the free world) should. I get that that is part of what got him elected, but its old, and he's making us look absolutely ridiculous. His horrid policy decisions could be mitigated if he only kept his thumbs in his pockets and used complete sentences, at least do a decent job selling us these bad ideas.
I agree completely.
-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
-TBone the Magnificent 1999-2014, Long Live the King!
Watching Trump on Fox & Friends try to throw Cohen under the bus, miss and actually fall under the bus himself, I'm left to wonder if the investigation of Trump would have been possible if Trump wasn't an incredible idiot. While we don't know what Mueller has or how he got it, all the stuff that's public is out there largely because of the incredible self-owns from Trump.
feeder wrote: I gotta admit, the GOP's Zerg Rush Assault tactics with wave after wave of scandal appears to be effective in the short term. It's hard to keep track of all the fethery, when "fethery, fethery everywhere" is the order of the day.
That's exactly what's happening. Paul Ryan fired the House Chaplain Rev. Patrick Conroy. Well, he requested Conroy's resignation, which is the same thing. It's the first time in the history of the House that the chaplain has been sacked. Ryan has not given a reason, but it's widely known it's because of Conroy's politics do not align with Ryan's. For instance, as the tax cut was debated in the House, Conroy's prayer to open the House included 'may their efforts these days guarantee that there are not winners and losers under the new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans'.
So that's Ryan just straight up rejecting religious freedom and respect for its institutions and independence, and it's barely a story today, and I doubt it will be a story at all tomorrow. But then consider if it was 2009 in an Obama administration and Pelosi was sacking the House Chaplain, this would be a big story. It would still be getting raised today. But in the Trump administration, it's maybe story #6 today, because god damn there's just so many disasters going on at any one time.
Want another one? Does anyone even remember Jason Miller? He was the guy lined up to be Trump's Communications Director. That's the role that was instead filled by Sean Spicer, Mike Dubke, Sean Spicer Again, Anthony Scaramucci, Hope Hicks and now no-one. Miller pulled out before his nomination when it broke that he had been having an affair with another Trump staffer, AJ Delgado, and she was pregnant with their child. Miller's actual wife was also pregnant with his child at the time, because Trump people are the classiest of people. Anyhow, that's a long forgotten scandal that barely even made news at the time, except it's now resurfacing because Miller and Delgado are in court fighting for custody of the child. Included in this dispute is Delgado's summary of a conversation she had with Miller, in which Miller said the moon landing was faked. So as well as having the morals of a cat on heat, Miller was also a brain addled conspiracy theorist nutjob. For any other president, bringing a nut like in to his inner circle would be a serious scandal. For Trump its barely even news, it just sounds like what we expect from Trump people.
And here's another one. Trump's first contact with the Vietnamese Prime Minister wasn't arranged through the State Department. Instead it was organised by one of Trump's personal lawyers, Marc Kasowitz. And it just so happens Kasowitz' other client happens to be a casino group with major interests in Vietnam. So if you want close ties with the US, don't bother with nonsense like diplomatic outreaches through the State Dept, what you need to do is make sure you're on friendly, generous terms with Trump's coterie. Again, in any other administration that'd be a major scandal. It'd certainly produce an ethics investigation. With Trump it's barely news.
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daedalus wrote: I'm no political analyst, but I think I've narrowed this down to a couple of likely explanations:
1. He's doing this on purpose. I mean, deliberately train wrecking. It seems plausible not because I know of motive, but because it's so far outside reasonable that it is actually getting less plausible that he's that clueless, simply because he'd probably not be quite SO GOOD at train wrecking this consistently well if he was utterly inept but trying to keep it together. A person might be totally inept at cooking, but still know that you can't heat food by putting it inside their refrigerator.
2. None of what I experience is real because I am actually utterly insane. None of this is happening, and I'm scrawling this message on tile floor in purple crayon.
There's still any number of other explanations for what is going on, but I think they're vastly less likely.
Trump has to some extent continued his carnival barker attitude, just throwing out nonsense, partly to whip up his base, but mostly just to create headlines for the sake of headlines. But there's also another factor in play as well, the Dunning–Kruger effect. That's the phenomenon where people with very low skill at a task are also really bad at knowing who is good at it, including themselves. So bad drivers are also really bad at assessing who the bad drivers are, and will often falsely assess themselves as very good drivers.
Trump is terrible at being president and he's terrible protecting a criminal conspiracy. But because he's so bad at those things, he's also bad at assessing who is good at them, and so wrongly assesses himself at being really at them. As an added bonus, he also wrongly assesses other people, which is why he's employed so many people to his personal staff and to his administration who have been so remarkably incompetent.
Dunning-Kruger is leading the free world.
Prestor Jon wrote: I think a lot of this stems from even though Trump chose to run and even though I'm sure on some level he really did want to win the election he and his staff never really prepared for winning. I really don't think Trump ever took time to examine everything that's involved with being PotUS, assembling his cabinet, filling all the Federal positions and governing.
Sort of. The work was done, but Trump and his senior most staff had no respect for the scale of the work they were taking on, and as well as that internal politics always prioritizes over governance. And it was Chris Christie who did the planning for staffing a Trump Whitehouse, so when Kushner ran his hatchet job on Christie, all of the work of Christie's team got thrown out, and instead they just started winging it on recruitment.
So as much as Trump and team didn't expect to win, that wasn't what caused their lack of preparation. Rather, what caused the lack of preparation was a lack of appreciation for the scale of work involved in operating a presidential administration, combined with a toxic culture that prevented people from actually getting with just doing the work.
He's not even connected to the Republican Party that much, sure he's got buddies who work at Fox News and are pundits and he's donates money to politicians that he wants to attend his wedding but Trump's never been involved with the Party establishment, he even ran against them in his primary campaign. Consequently Trump was both unprepared to do the job and was already in conflict with the Party that was supposed to be holding it all together. Trump's not the type of person to just rubber stamp whatever the GOP wants him to do, his ego is way too big for that.
We have actual, literal quotes of Trump saying 'you just put something in front of me and I'll sign it'. Repeal and replace was run knowing whatever could get through the senate would be signed by Trump. The tax cut was the same, and what was passed through the senate was accepted and signed by Trump. The only time there was any pushback at all came with the DREAMERS, where Trump once again promised to sign anything, but then found John Kelly and Stephen Miller were combining to sink the bi-partisan deal, and instead trying to push through their own bill that tightly cut immigration quotas.
There is friction between Trump and Republicans, but there is also a working arrangement between the two groups, that's accounted for all the basic government function we've seen in the last year and a half. That deal is for Trump to rubber stamp Republican legislation (if it ever passes), and put up conservative judges, and in return congressional Republicans will look the other way on Trump's many ethical failures and breaches of the public trust.
Trump is pretty much salesman so when he flounders he just starts to bloviate, running his mouth to hide his ignorance or incompetence and through gak against the wall to see what sticks, anything to distract people and help him spin the situation to the outcome he wants. With the current 24/7 news cycle and social setting in the US this strategy actually works pretty well for Trump since in the time it takes a person to learn about one scandal/issue six more crop up and fill up the news cycle with more noise. Are the teacher in Oklahoma still striking? Who's the current Secretary of State? Are we about to launch nukes at NK or are we about to initiate peace talks? Did the FBI arrest anyone with ties to Trump today? Etc.
Yep, that sums up that part of the mess up nicely.
NinthMusketeer wrote: Eh I think the US needed to be knocked off it's high horse on the world stage anyways.q
The US has been far from perfect, but every previous world power has been much worse. While there's always room to improve how the US behaves around the world, and note that Trump is the opposite of that improvement, we should be very wary of thinking if the US dropped back from power the vacuum would be filled by a better behaving country or countries.
We have a habit, I think, of assuming powerlessness is virtue.
This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 2018/04/27 03:19:29
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
daedalus wrote: I'm no political analyst, but I think I've narrowed this down to a couple of likely explanations:
1. He's doing this on purpose. I mean, deliberately train wrecking. It seems plausible not because I know of motive, but because it's so far outside reasonable that it is actually getting less plausible that he's that clueless, simply because he'd probably not be quite SO GOOD at train wrecking this consistently well if he was utterly inept but trying to keep it together. A person might be totally inept at cooking, but still know that you can't heat food by putting it inside their refrigerator.
2. None of what I experience is real because I am actually utterly insane. None of this is happening, and I'm scrawling this message on tile floor in purple crayon.
There's still any number of other explanations for what is going on, but I think they're vastly less likely.
Trump has to some extent continued his carnival barker attitude, just throwing out nonsense, partly to whip up his base, but mostly just to create headlines for the sake of headlines. But there's also another factor in play as well, the Dunning–Kruger effect. That's the phenomenon where people with very low skill at a task are also really bad at knowing who is good at it, including themselves. So bad drivers are also really bad at assessing who the bad drivers are, and will often falsely assess themselves as very good drivers.
Trump is terrible at being president and he's terrible protecting a criminal conspiracy. But because he's so bad at those things, he's also bad at assessing who is good at them, and so wrongly assesses himself at being really at them. As an added bonus, he also wrongly assesses other people, which is why he's employed so many people to his personal staff and to his administration who have been so remarkably incompetent.
Dunning-Kruger is leading the free world.
Oh.
Can I just be insane instead? Rest of my life in a padded cell, everything is cool outside? I'm fine with that if that's what it takes.
NinthMusketeer wrote: Eh I think the US needed to be knocked off it's high horse on the world stage anyways.
The US has been far from perfect, but every previous world power has been much worse. While there's always room to improve how the US behaves around the world, and note that Trump is the opposite of that improvement, we should be very wary of thinking if the US dropped back from power the vacuum would be filled by a better behaving country or countries.
We have a habit, I think, of assuming powerlessness is virtue.
I didn't mean it that way. As a mentioned above, its more that the US needs to learn to be a team player rather than a manager with subordinates. It needs to recognize that while it's fine to help the US doesn't run the world. Also it's a matter of knocking American arrogance down a peg, on the world stage but more so on the domestic one. We need to stop acting like we are the best at everything because that is a gigantic obstacle in US culture that prevents us from self-analyzing to any widespread degree. Without that we will continue to be held back from truly capitalizing on the many, many factors that this country has going for it.
Imagine, for instance, that we accepted how our system to college tuition doesn't work and that we need to devote more finances to helping students pay for college. Not even addressing grade school or the quality of classes, or anything, just paying for it. The benefit would be monumental because the country has a monumental amount of resources available in it's colleges. But we don't bother, because capitalism-money-before-morality is obviously the best since that's what we do. And it holds us back.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/04/27 04:51:41
cuda1179 wrote: I was looking at some of the "split CA three ways" plans. From what I was reading, Democrats would maintain the two senators from the current California, possibly pick up two from one new state (although that state could be purple and flip-floppy), and the republicans would gain two senators from a conservative state.
Having pushed the gerrymander of the House as far as they can, Republicans are trying to find ways to gerrymander the Senate. Incredible.
Anyway, it's beyond absurd that US citizens living in DC and Puerto Rico have no representation in Congress.
When it comes to Puerto Rico, I have mixed feelings. Should they have representation? Yes, I think they should. They likely would if they'd decide to become a state. They've had several votes on this and their population has decided again and again that being an actual state is not something that is desirable. They rather enjoy their limbo status. They're effectively the US, while still being their own country.
cuda1179 wrote: When it comes to Puerto Rico, I have mixed feelings. Should they have representation? Yes, I think they should. They likely would if they'd decide to become a state. They've had several votes on this and their population has decided again and again that being an actual state is not something that is desirable. They rather enjoy their limbo status. They're effectively the US, while still being their own country.
Actually in the two most recent votes (granted, one of them was officially boycotted by the anti-statehood party) Puerto Rico voted for statehood. Congress just hasn't done their part yet.
There is no such thing as a hobby without politics. "Leave politics at the door" is itself a political statement, an endorsement of the status quo and an attempt to silence dissenting voices.
New Quinnipac poll today - only 37% of Republicans say the news media is an important part of a democracy. 51% of Republican voters say the news media is the enemy of the people. That's pretty terrifying, but on the plus side only 13% support firing Mueller, and only 25% of Republicans support it. However, if Trump did do it, only 42% of people think firing Mueller should lead to impeachment, this is so low because only 6% of Republicans believe it should lead to impeachment, which means people don't think Trump should fire Mueller, but if he does do it people have no appetite to hold him to account for it.
Another interesting result - 38% support beginning impeachment if Democrats take control of the House in the mid-terms. Among Democrats its 71%, but the only sub-category where it is majority popular is among black people, among other ethnic groups, age brackets and genders impeachment is the minority position at this stage. This hints at a problem for Democrats if they take the House - there will be a big push to begin impeachment, but really until Mueller releases his findings Democrats will have neither the evidence nor the public support to make it happen.
Also, 63% support marijuana legalisation. Among Republicans its 41-55, among all other groups (Democrats, men, women, white, black etc) it was majority popular.
Also, how did Trump's call in to Fox & Friends go today? Here's the before and after of the hosts. Oh dear.
NinthMusketeer wrote: I didn't mean it that way. As a mentioned above, its more that the US needs to learn to be a team player rather than a manager with subordinates. It needs to recognize that while it's fine to help the US doesn't run the world.
True, but one problem with that is so many things really depend on the US to lead. When East Timorese independence was being sabotaged by Indonesia, Australia really wanted to put troops in and stabilize. But we couldn't do it without US backing, because we either had to turn up in port hoping our unarmoured troop carriers wouldn't come under fire, or use US troop carriers. The US took some time to come on board, and we actually got kind of annoyed that the country who'd actually invested in force projection wasn't immediately jumping on board to help us with our special project.
I agree that the US shouldn't be the leader in everything everywhere, but getting to that point will mean other countries investing in capabilities so operations aren't always dependent on the US. One good thing about Trump as president is it is prompting democracies to start looking at protecting their own national interests without US support, because the US can't be seen as the reliable ally it once was.
Also it's a matter of knocking American arrogance down a peg, on the world stage but more so on the domestic one. We need to stop acting like we are the best at everything because that is a gigantic obstacle in US culture that prevents us from self-analyzing to any widespread degree.
The US is special at thinking its special. You mention tertiary education and that's a good one - the US system is bonkers, its stupidly expensive and pushing so much debt on to 20 year olds has massive impacts flowing down the economy. But the idea of looking at other places and seeing how they do things is rejected, because there's always a reason to think the US is special and pretend things that work elsewhere could never work in the US. Similar issues are health, and guns of course.
That said, the US is also very good at a lot of things. It isn't just good luck that each new blue sky industry has taken off in the US, and that's still true today. There are reasons that Facebook and Google are American.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2018/04/27 07:14:33
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Thing is, Seb, there's a difference between the US leading the world and the US simply telling the world what to do. A boss isn't the same as being a leader, and far too often our politicians today just want to be the boss.
"Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see.
One chants out between two worlds: Fire, walk with me." - Twin Peaks
"You listen to me. While I will admit to a certain cynicism, the fact is that I am a naysayer and hatchetman in the fight against violence. I pride myself in taking a punch and I'll gladly take another because I choose to live my life in the company of Gandhi and King. My concerns are global. I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method... is love. I love you Sheriff Truman." - Twin Peaks
Tannhauser42 wrote: Thing is, Seb, there's a difference between the US leading the world and the US simply telling the world what to do. A boss isn't the same as being a leader, and far too often our politicians today just want to be the boss.
You're fired!
The Auld Grump - or sometimes they think that they are still on reality TV....
Kilkrazy wrote:When I was a young boy all my wargames were narratively based because I played with my toy soldiers and vehicles without the use of any rules.
The reason I bought rules and became a real wargamer was because I wanted a properly thought out structure to govern the action instead of just making things up as I went along.
Huh... there may be an end of armistice on the Korean peninsula.
That's good right?
I saw part of the ceremony on CNN last night while I was at work, it honestly felt like the sort of thing that'll be in history books. The war's over and it seems like they have a shot at fixing things.
And all it took was for the US to become so unreliable/irrational that they couldn't be counted on anymore.
I prefer to buy from miniature manufacturers that *don't* support the overthrow of democracy.
I don't think Trump's awfulness can take credit for this one. The Kims now have a working nuke. They don't need the constant war footing to avoid being toppled by outside forces.
Hopefully this is the real deal and the people of North Korea can achieve a better basic standard of living.
We were once so close to heaven, St. Peter came out and gave us medals; declaring us "The nicest of the damned".
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
feeder wrote: I don't think Trump's awfulness can take credit for this one. The Kims now have a working nuke. They don't need the constant war footing to avoid being toppled by outside forces.
Hopefully this is the real deal and the people of North Korea can achieve a better basic standard of living.
Its amazing how he can take credit for things he didn't even participate in. Still though, nothing concrete.
Sorry for my spelling. I'm not a native speaker and a dyslexic.
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Tannhauser42 wrote: Thing is, Seb, there's a difference between the US leading the world and the US simply telling the world what to do. A boss isn't the same as being a leader, and far too often our politicians today just want to be the boss.
This is a much better way of putting what I was thinking into words.
That's exactly what's happening. Paul Ryan fired the House Chaplain Rev. Patrick Conroy. Well, he requested Conroy's resignation, which is the same thing. It's the first time in the history of the House that the chaplain has been sacked. Ryan has not given a reason, but it's widely known it's because of Conroy's politics do not align with Ryan's. For instance, as the tax cut was debated in the House, Conroy's prayer to open the House included 'may their efforts these days guarantee that there are not winners and losers under the new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans'.
So that's Ryan just straight up rejecting religious freedom and respect for its institutions and independence, and it's barely a story today, and I doubt it will be a story at all tomorrow.
To be fair, its frontpage central news on several outlets right now. I think thay will come back to bite Ryan, and there appears to be bipartisan anger about it.
IRON WITHIN, IRON WITHOUT.
New Heavy Gear Log! Also...Grey Knights! The correct pronunciation is Imperial Guard and Stormtroopers, "Astra Militarum" and "Tempestus Scions" are something you'll find at Hogwarts.
Disciple of Fate wrote: Its amazing how he can take credit for things he didn't even participate in. Still though, nothing concrete.
I think it's impossible to quantify to what extent Trump was responsible; saying he didn't have any responsibility seems a but too far. I think the increased pressure and possibility of military action had to have been a factor, along with that mountain collapsing.
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
I see a lot of people using the phrase "Leader of the Free World" on this thread. I've always found it obnoxious, but right now, after watching that "interview" (if that's what we're calling a self aggrandizing and barely coherent rant) it's outright laughable.
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Lizardmen 3000 points Tlaxcoatl Temple-City
