That is certainly true of Bolton, and I'll take your word on the other two - that doesn't alter the fact that Trump has avoided war so far, and found a particularly devious way to avoid the gas attacks trick - to be fair Obama refused to take that challenge either, but President Trump has hopefully put an end to meddling in Syria.This is laughable. Many of your “pathological lunatics“ were people Trump chose Ffs. Bolton, Pence and Pompeo to name but three.
You should reread this thread Jim.One of the things I find fascinating about this thread how people use their imaginations to interpret my posts. They have an opinion and in the absence of information they use their imagination to create a reality that matches their opinions. It confirms my belief that most people not rational and are living a state of hysteria. People make assumptions all the time and don't know when they are making an assumption and when they are understanding a fact. I suggest if people want to reply to my posts they should limit themselves to whether they agree with it or not, and why, and provide facts and links to support their opinion. When you say anything about me you are only demonstrating to me that to you are hallucinating and are not rational.
Thanks for that Sam. I hadn’t heard of her before seeing this.
Trump knows that the voters are anti-war, enough of them to vote him out if he started another conflict, this is his first term and he will be being cautious. I think his overriding motivation is keeping these voters onside. Lets see if he wins another term. If he maintains his relatively peaceful record (by US standards), I may well be forced into tipping my hat.
What do many of the ‘crazy, pathological lunatics’ mentioned by David have in common? They are big supporters of Israel.
“Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo, who urged Trump to kill Qassem Soleimani, are ardent proponents of Christian Zionism.”
https://newrepublic.com/article/156166/pence-pompeo-evanglicals-war-iran-christian-zionism
John Bolton and Adam Schiff support Israel too. Kim Iversen thinks that Trump is relatively independent, that he is not bound to the military industrial complex or industry as are so many others. However, she, like nearly all commentators, mainstream or otherwise, is willing to overlook his ties to Israel. He has close ties with Israel and this ought to be a big concern to all of us, it certainly does me. There is no bigger threat to world peace than Israel imo. Trump may well appear to be America First, but such a policy will no doubt be filtered to make sure that it does no harm to Israel before going forward.
To me, suffering and pain are similar for almost all humans. A mother’s suffering at the death of her child is basically no different in Syria or Beijing as it is in England or California. I know that most of us in the West think we are superior to other peoples. We are not. We in the West have become ‘softer‘ than those elsewhere, the harsh realities of life for those born in poor countries should not mean that we are better than them - we were simply born into very different systems.
I think Trump is better for most people than Hillary would have been. That doesn’t mean that he is the type of leader that we should aspire to, or be happy with. It seems to me we are going backward instead of forward in our choice of leaders. Because Jimmy Dore is highly critical of the democrats, doesn’t make him a Trump fan! I’m the same. I will probably not vote in a General election again, having become totally disillusioned by all parties.
Another thing that I picked up Joe Rogan saying while interviewing Jimmy Dore, that I totally agree with, is that we should get away from calling (my example) a violent person who punched someone a name that can deflect somewhat from the act itself. A Nazi, Antifa, Right wing, left wing etc. They should be judged on their actions as standing alone. It is what I’ve been thinking for some time. What really counts, what we really know, are the way we act and experience things - not what we think. It’s a cutting away of the thinking, most of the mind bullshit. Rather than say Steve favours the left side of politics, as is generally true. Say Steve is generally anti - war. (I read AP’s rant). Steve generally favours socialism over Capitalism. Steve doesn‘t understand this whole trans-gender thing. Steve favours forgiveness. Steve probably is in favour of locking a small percentage of people up for life, life should mean dying in prison. And so on.
I know Steve can be shot full of holes. We all can.
Steve certainly doesn’t think much of being reported to the moderator because he writes a pm to an individual, where he both criticises (swears at) and praises the individual. He would much rather have a frank, grown up exchange of views with them, he has never reported anyone to the moderator (afaicr) and is relatively ok with being sweared at :). Steve is no fan of cry wolf victims and crocodile tears.
See 2:04:00, where Joe talks about individuals. There are more, possibly better examples of him saying this in his other JD interviews.
FLASHBACK, October 18, 2016 | Obama to Trump: "Stop Whining," "No Serious Person" Believes U.S. Elections Can Be Rigged Or Stolen
Sam, I am not sure why you are quoting Obama? Didn't Trump prove Obama's birth certificate was false? Why would we listen to a liar?
Try to restrict your use of the F word please!This is from 2016 ...
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/v...iggest_fk_you_recorded_in_human_history.html#!
MICHAEL MOORE: I know a lot of people in Michigan that are planning to vote for Trump and they don't necessarily like him that much, and they don't necessarily agree with him. They're not racist or rednecks, they're actually pretty decent people, and so after talking to a number of them I wanted to write this:'Donald Trump came to the Detroit Economic Club and stood there in front of Ford Motor executives and said, "if you close these factories as you're planning to do in Detroit and build them in Mexico, I'm going to put a 35% tariff on those cars when you send them back and nobody's going to buy them."It was an amazing thing to see. No politician, Republican or Democrat, had ever said anything like that to these executives, and it was music to the ears of people in Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- the "Brexit" states.You live here in Ohio, you know what I'm talking about. Whether Trump means it or not, is kind of irrelevant because he's saying the things to people who are hurting, and that's why every beaten-down, nameless, forgotten working stiff who used to be part of what was called the middle class loves Trump. He is the human molotov cocktail that they've been waiting for. The human hand grande that they can legally throw into the system that stole their lives from them.And on November 8, Election Day, although they lost their jobs, although they've been foreclose on by the bank, and next came the divorce and now the wife and kids are gone, the car's been repoed, they haven't had a real vacation in years, they're stuck with the shitty Obamacare Bronze Plan where you can't even get a fucking percocet. They've essentially lost everything they had, except one thing -- the one thing that doesn't cost them a cent, and is guaranteed to them by the American constitution: the right to vote.They might be penniless, they might be homeless, they might be fucked over and fucked up it doesn't matter, because it's equalized on that day - a millionaire has the same number of votes as the person without a job: one.And there's more of the former middle class than there are in the millionaire class.So on November 8, the dispossessed will walk into the voting booth, be handed a ballot, close the curtain, and take that lever or felt pen or touchscreen and put a big fucking X in the box by the name of the man who has threatened to upend and overturn the very system that has ruined their lives: Donald J. Trump.They see that the elite who ruined their lives hate Trump. Corporate America hates Trump. Wall Street hates Trump. The career politicians hate Trump. The media hates Trump, after they loved him and created him, and now hate.Thank you media: the enemy of my enemy is who I'm voting for on November 8.Yes, on November 8, you Joe Blow, Steve Blow, Bob Blow, Billy Blow, all the Blows get to go and blow up the whole goddamn system because it's your right. Trump's election is going to be the biggest fuck ever recorded in human history and it will feel good.
As I understand it, Congress voted to move the embassy to Jerusalem decades ago, and each president reaffirmed that commitment, but always delayed it so it didn't happen!Trump knows who he’s beholding to.
The last thing the Democrats want is for all the poor people to become wealthy and start paying higher taxes because then they will all want tax cuts and start voting for Republicans.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pe...ps-state-of-the-union-possible-handshake-snub
Pelosi told Fox News afterward that she had destroyed the speech “because it was the courteous thing to do considering the alternatives.” She also said she was "trying to find one page with truth on it" but "couldn't."
https://www.12news.com/article/news...dress/75-6586fc8e-2556-4878-bd5a-2f7e73da31c4
[Below are excerpts from an article fact checking Trumps 2020 State of the Union speech, I have included the undisputed claims because those contradict Pelosi's remarks that the speech was entirely false.]
CLAIM: “The unemployment rate is the lowest in over half a century.”This claim is true.Currently, the last recorded unemployment rate-- December 2019-- was at 3.5%. The last time the unemployment rate was 3.5% or lower was in December 1969, 50 years ago.Source: United States Bureau of Labor Statistics- Eliana BlockCLAIM: "The median household income is now at the highest rate ever."This claim is true.The U.S. Census has been tracking median household income since 1984. In 2018, the last year recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau, household median income was at $63,179, the highest number recorded. Some private company studies say that in June 2019 the median household income was $64,430. However, the Census Bureau hasn’t put out official numbers for 2019 yet.Source: United States Census Bureau, Table H-8, Median Household Income by State- Eliana BlockCLAIM: “As a result of our unprecedented efforts, illegal crossings are down 75 percent since May -- dropping eight straight months in a row.”So far, this claim is true but one month of data is not yet public.The VERIFY Team took a look at data provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The agency broke down the total number of border apprehensions on the southwest border on a monthly basis. The data demonstrates that the apprehensions peaked in May, 2019, when it skyrocketed to 144,116 apprehensions. According to the data, these arrests have dropped every single month since, and reached 40,620 in December, 2019. The data for January, 2020, has not yet been released to the public by CBP. If the number of apprehensions drop in January, this would in fact be eight straight months.The drop from May, 2019 to December, 2019 is a reduction of roughly 72 percent.Source: Customs and Border Protection- Evan KoslofCLAIM: President Trump claimed that America has gained 12,000 new factories under his administration after losing 60,000 factories under the previous two administrations.This claim is true.The Bureau of Labor tracks the number of manufacturing establishments from quarter to quarter. The United States had 398,837 such establishments at the start of George W. Bush’s presidency in 2001 and 343,972 manufacturing establishments at the end of Barack Obama’s presidency in 2017. That’s a drop of 54,865. The preliminary data for the second quarter of 2019, the most recent dataset the Bureau of Labor offers, says there are now 356,046 manufacturing establishments. That’s an increase of 12,074 since 2017. For some additional context, the United States saw a drop of 45,194 manufacturing establishments during the duration of Bush’s presidency and a loss of 9,671 during Obama’s presidency. The low was in the first quarter of 2013 when the number dipped to 333,565.Source: Bureau of Labor- TJ SpryCLAIM: "Since my election, the net worth of the bottom half of wage earners has increased by 47 percent, three times faster than the increase for the top one percent."It is verified that the net worth has increased three times faster than the top one percent. Trump’s actually low on the increase to the bottom 50 percent and the difference between the two numbers.According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the net worth of the bottom half of the population was 1,070,183 millions of dollars at the start of 2017. As of the third quarter of 2019, it was 1,668,034. That’s an increase of 55.86 percent, higher than the 47 percent Trump cited. For the top one percent, their net worth was 29,955,829 millions of dollars. In the third quarter of 2019, it was 34,533,370. That’s an increase of 15.28 percent, making the increase for the bottom half of Americans more than 3.5 times the increase for the top half.Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data here and here.- TJ SpryCLAIM: "Last year, our brave ICE officers arrested more than 120,000 criminal aliens charged with nearly 10,000 burglaries, 5,000 sexual assaults, 45,000 violent assaults and 2,000 murders."This claim is true.The Department of Homeland Security reported the same data for 2019.Source: ICE- Polly SmithCLAIM: "Three years ago, the barbarians of ISIS held over 20,000 square miles of territory in Iraq and Syria. Today, the ISIS territorial caliphate has been 100 percent destroyed."This claim is true.In March 2019, U.S.-backed forces in Syria captured the Islamic State's last physical territory. At the end of 2016, the Islamic State held about 37,530 square miles in Iraq and Syria, according to IHS Markit. By December of 2017, ISIS had lost 95 percent of its territory. According to reporting by the New York Times, however, some, 18,000 ISIS fighters still remain active in Iraq and Syria.Sources: IHS Markit, The Wilson Center, The White House- Mia SalenetriRELATED: Democrats interrupt Trump's State of the Union to protest drug pricesCLAIM: "In the last three years, ICE has arrested over 5,000 wicked human traffickers."This claim is true.According to data from ICE and the State Department, ICE has made 5,387 human trafficking arrests.Sources: ICE data here and here and the U.S. Department of State- Max MarcillaCLAIM: "Since 2016, the violent crime rate in America has fallen nearly 5 percent after rising each of the two years before President Trump took office."This claim is true.According to FBI crime databases, the violent crime rate increased from 2014 to 2015 and from 2015 to 2016. The violent crime rate has decreased every year since 2016. We can verify that there was a 4.5 percent decrease from 2016 to 2018, and preliminary 2019 numbers show a further decrease.Source: FBI data here and here- Mia Salenetri
Of course, I am embarrassed a bit and feel regret for some of my one liners, especially the one where you expressed being pissed off, so... I am sorry. BUT also, what I did can't be taken back and what I did was play a role in a dynamic which led to your post where you put Steve out there naked!
I try not to let my thoughts be dominated by what I fear most, but top of my list would be nuclear war, or any lesser conflict that might spiral into a nuclear exchange.Thanks Sam, there’s no need to apologise, but I do appreciate the thought.
I like to think that most of my posts are honest, but then maybe that’s true of everyone? Even Trump! ‘Evangelicals‘ of all flavours are a bit of a worry, but are not more of a threat to me ‘or us’ than many other things. I might start a thread about that. Asking people to list things starting from what they feel most threatened by, what occupies their thoughts.