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Post by ErixonStone on Dec 27, 2018 10:04:23 GMT -5
A: Identity politics.
Criticism of a leader is considered a criticism of the party, and a criticism of the party is a direct attack on individuals.
Democrats engage in similar thinking; I don't want to represent that we don't.
Politics is not the only realm where we see this behavior. It's a social thing. Whenever we engage on this type of thinking, we are selling ourselves short.
Our heroes should be subject to criticism. If they pass, then they should continue to exalted. If they fail, we should stop portraying them as heroes.
Our heroes are all people. People are imperfect. We should investigate all of our heroes, find the good ideas and trumpet those.
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Post by nevadaballin on Dec 27, 2018 17:07:53 GMT -5
Going to give Reagan some props on an idea he had ..... The Strategic Defense Initiative aka Star Wars Initiative. With the advent of hypersonic delivery systems, it would have been worth pursuing at the time. But instead, we get Space Force. Could be the same difference but I like SDI better L) More info on SDI if anyone isn't aware >> www.coldwar.org/articles/80s/SDI-StarWars.asp |
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Post by joegolferg on Dec 28, 2018 5:50:42 GMT -5
I'd have thought that helping the 43 million Americans who are living in poverty would be a higher priority than spending money on abstract space weapons.
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Post by cliffs on Dec 28, 2018 8:15:07 GMT -5
This is perfect:
Before taking office President Donald Trump shouted from the rafters about his ability to get deals done. He truly sold white America on his business acumen and ability to seal the deal. Now we all realize that his business methods are equivalent to a goon holding a debtors kids in a seedy basement until he gets his money.
With the tact of a rhinoceros in a bong shop, president Trump seems to have totally forgotten that he has complete control of Congress until January rolls around. He doesn’t need Democrats to push anything through, including funding for his dumb-ass wall that no one wants.
There are enough Republican and Democratic votes in the House and Senate to pass a bill that funds the government without money for Trump’s anti-Mexican Night’s Watch border wall. But, as we’ve learned over the past two years, when has Trump ever let the truth get in the way of stoking the flames of his gas fueled base.
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Post by nevadaballin on Dec 28, 2018 11:42:15 GMT -5
I'd have thought that helping the 43 million Americans who are living in poverty would be a higher priority than spending money on abstract space weapons. The needs of the many (360 million) will outweigh the needs of the few (43 million). Considering China and Russia are already in the hypersonic delivery business, the USA needs to get caught up. The UK isn't going to shield us from those weapons. And we may not be able to shield them either so they may want to start looking at some defense systems of their own for it. Welcome to the new arms race. Americans - be prepared for some serious taxes to pay for it. Mexico said no again. |
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Post by joegolferg on Dec 28, 2018 14:56:02 GMT -5
Ah well, never mind those poor destitute people. Being jealous of China's technology is much more important.. Absolute madness. Nor Russia or China are your enemy.
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Post by nevadaballin on Dec 28, 2018 15:27:26 GMT -5
Ah well, never mind those poor destitute people. Being jealous of China's technology is much more important.. Absolute madness. Nor Russia or China are your enemy. Ignoring the capabilities of your enemies is a huge mistake. Trump isn't even that dumb. At least I hope not. And it isn't an "either/or" situation. We can defend and still help the needy. Make no mistake, Russia is absolutely an adversarial government and an enemy. Please don't start sounding like Trump. |
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Post by joegolferg on Dec 28, 2018 15:38:31 GMT -5
Ah well, never mind those poor destitute people. Being jealous of China's technology is much more important.. Absolute madness. Nor Russia or China are your enemy. Ignoring the capabilities of your enemies is a huge mistake. Trump isn't even that dumb. At least I hope not. And it isn't an "either/or" situation. We can defend and still help the needy. Make no mistake, Russia is absolutely an adversarial government and an enemy. Please don't start sounding like Trump. They are not your enemies. Absolutely no reason to say this. In fact, it's this kind of mentality and rhetoric that provokes other countries. |
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Post by joegolferg on Dec 29, 2018 1:45:29 GMT -5
And there we have it. Syrian kurds are aligning themselves with Assad in the absence of US support. This is great if it happens.
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Post by nevadaballin on Dec 29, 2018 9:56:20 GMT -5
Ignoring the capabilities of your enemies is a huge mistake. Trump isn't even that dumb. At least I hope not. And it isn't an "either/or" situation. We can defend and still help the needy. Make no mistake, Russia is absolutely an adversarial government and an enemy. Please don't start sounding like Trump. They are not your enemies. Absolutely no reason to say this. In fact, it's this kind of mentality and rhetoric that provokes other countries. Last time i need to say this and i have every reason to say it, Russia is our enemy. Any other view of that relationship is short-sighted and a big Trumpian mistake. Try this "mentality" for an example - only an enemy state would produce a video of hypersonics attacking the US mainland. Like it or not, the Russian government is an enemy state to the USA and vice versa. They should also learn to hack elections better. You can say they aren't our enemy until the cows come home, it won't change the fact that they are. Otherwise, both countries can bring home all of their spies (not happening anytime soon - neither country is taking its eyes off the other). The Kurds taking on the protection of Assad is horrible. What an f'd up situation for them. |
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Post by joegolferg on Dec 29, 2018 10:27:59 GMT -5
They are not your enemies. Absolutely no reason to say this. In fact, it's this kind of mentality and rhetoric that provokes other countries. Last time i need to say this and i have every reason to say it, Russia is our enemy. Any other view of that relationship is short-sighted and a big Trumpian mistake. Try this "mentality" for an example - only an enemy state would produce a video of hypersonics attacking the US mainland. Like it or not, the Russian government is an enemy state to the USA and vice versa. They should also learn to hack elections better. You can say they aren't our enemy until the cows come home, it won't change the fact that they are. Otherwise, both countries can bring home all of their spies (not happening anytime soon - neither country is taking its eyes off the other). The Kurds taking on the protection of Assad is horrible. What an f'd up situation for them. I've never seen that video, personally. But that sort of thing happens all of the time between many different nations. The "war games" drills simulate invasions by certain countries etc etc. It's all hypothetical. It's not as if the US hasn't provoked other countries into doing these things - remember the leaks about NSA spying and diplomatic cables on wikileaks? You've got to expect some blowback if you're going to try and be the big boys. I thought you were concerned for the safety of Kurdish fighters? Aligning with their own countrymen is surely better than siding with foreigners? And with so much US interest in Syria over the past decade or so, I had to check... 75% of Syria's oil is state owned, I wonder if that had anything to do with the US throwing its support behind a group that wants to overthrow the Syrian government. Just saying ☺ |
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Post by nevadaballin on Dec 29, 2018 14:50:29 GMT -5
Last time i need to say this and i have every reason to say it, Russia is our enemy. Any other view of that relationship is short-sighted and a big Trumpian mistake. Try this "mentality" for an example - only an enemy state would produce a video of hypersonics attacking the US mainland. Like it or not, the Russian government is an enemy state to the USA and vice versa. They should also learn to hack elections better. You can say they aren't our enemy until the cows come home, it won't change the fact that they are. Otherwise, both countries can bring home all of their spies (not happening anytime soon - neither country is taking its eyes off the other). The Kurds taking on the protection of Assad is horrible. What an f'd up situation for them. I've never seen that video, personally. But that sort of thing happens all of the time between many different nations. The "war games" drills simulate invasions by certain countries etc etc. It's all hypothetical. It's not as if the US hasn't provoked other countries into doing these things - remember the leaks about NSA spying and diplomatic cables on wikileaks? You've got to expect some blowback if you're going to try and be the big boys. I thought you were concerned for the safety of Kurdish fighters? Aligning with their own countrymen is surely better than siding with foreigners? And with so much US interest in Syria over the past decade or so, I had to check... 75% of Syria's oil is state owned, I wonder if that had anything to do with the US throwing its support behind a group that wants to overthrow the Syrian government. Just saying ☺ There's war games and then there is public intimidation. When countries run war games, they do it in privately their war rooms, not advertised on YouTube. (Or the occasional public war games in conjunction with other countries). Of course, part of it is also Putin playing "whose got the bigger d1ck" games with Trump by going public with it. I'm happy to see we have not responded in kind (so far). There's no need for us to whip ours out. I prefer they didn't know what we were packing. Expect blowback - I guess I'm providing your expected blowback then. Two way street (as I've mentioned already). Don't shake your fist one way and then cry foul the other way. Hypersonic threats don't go over well here - and they shouldn't where you live either. Please understand that at no point have I said the USA is an innocent party. In fact, I've recognized our nastiness we have engaged in moreso than what I've seen others in here admit to from their own countries. The Kurds have been put in a horrible spot, not like they had a great spot to begin with. Having to side with Assad to protect themselves from Turkey is simply a pick-your-poison proposition for them. As for Syrian oil - that's Russia's goal for being there. Trump wants Iraq's oil, which is why he isn't pulling troops from there. Not sure if you caught his comments during his campaign, but he had said he'd like to take the oil fields from ISIS and then use the money from those to pay for our own invasion of their country (Yes, Trump is that kind of dikhead). More info in regards to that Iraqi oil and Trump. He wanted to plunder it for his own purposes >> www.axios.com/trump-to-iraqi-pm-how-about-that-oil-1a31cbfa-f20c-4767-8d18-d518ed9a6543.html There is a very important point to be made about that oil - American citizens don't want it. We couldn't care less about foreign oil except on how to end our dependence on it. We're more than capable of producing our own oil and we are presently the world's #1 oil producer right now (not all that dependent .... at the moment lol) : Top 10 Oil Producing Countries in the World 2018 Country Production USA 15.6 Saudi Arabia 12.1 Russia 11.2 Canada 5.0 China 4.8 Iran 4.7 Iraq 4.5 UAE 3.7 Brazil 3.4 Kuwait 2.9 *2017 production in million barrels per day Source: US Energy Information Administration (EIA) And back to the original point of contention - the Russian government remains an enemy of the USA and vice versa. As much as the peoples of each country would like to have it be different, the governments of both countries will not get us there. There's too much lying, cheating and spying for it to be anything else but adversarial. |
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Post by joegolferg on Dec 30, 2018 8:15:59 GMT -5
I agree with a lot of what you've said, Jimmy but, I can't come to terms with using the word enemy. There are high tensions between Russia and the US, geopolitical differences and all. I think most of the anxiety from the US is that you're currently the top dog who is being toppled by China and backed by Russia. That's just the nature of the current global economic system. The east is on the rise, the west not so much. But this doesn't mean that aggression needs to be used to attempt to contain the inevitably of China's dominance. Why not build relations with the countries mentioned? Surely that's a much better option.
Regarding Syrian kurds I have to say that you're dead wrong about the whole situation. What you would prefer is more of the same of what has already happened the ME and look at what it has brought us. Slave markets in Libya, extremist Islamic groups capturing cities and towns as bases and acts of terrorism on our streets in our countries. Give the Syrians a chance to unite and a chance for a fresh start. The US has spent decades trying to destabilize Syria, I think now is the perfect time to let them decide for themselves before it causes more division, terrorism and refugee crises.
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Post by cliffs on Dec 30, 2018 8:26:23 GMT -5
If Russia is NOT the enemy of the USA, what the freak was the Cold War all about?
Better question for you...who do you think is an enemy of the USA?
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Post by joegolferg on Dec 30, 2018 8:44:49 GMT -5
If Russia is NOT the enemy of the USA, what the freak was the Cold War all about? Better question for you...who do you think is an enemy of the USA? That wasn't Russia, it was the Soviet Union. Entirely different. Genuine enemies of the US are those who seek to litteraly destroy it or countries that you yourselves have made an enemy of, for example North Korea. Another good thing that Trump did was to reach out to Kim Jong Un and use diplomacy instead intimidation. As we all witnessed, NK didn't give a sh%$ about any of the threats Trump hurled at them and that's when he realized that throwing your weight around has become much less effective over the past decades. Unpopular opinion time... Trumps military foreign policy is already miles better than any other president since WW2. |
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