Not long ago Europe, Obama, and every one of you was railing against the right for spending money on military and foreign wars rather than social welfare. Perhaps Trump shouldn't have publicly stated that he would cut off the holier than thou Democratic socialist Europe if they aren't willing to pay their fair share as allies. But I totally agree with Trump in priciple. Why would I pay to protect people who hate me and want to see global pinko communism? The US should have provided Putin an off ramp from the Ukraine war over two years ago. Russia took over Crimea under Obama, who did nothing to stop them. Now the US isn't even willing to hand over Crimea to Russia in a peace deal. And for what? To continue spending Ukranian blood and American treasure to take back Donback and Crimea? That's never going to happen. Ukraine shouldn't be deciding on when to broker a peace deal, we should have a say as long as we're paying for it. And I don't mean the deep state. I mean legal American voters.
Color me unsurprised that you can't grasp the obvious difference between supporting a defensive alliance to prevent war, and leading the charge of invading foreign countries, including ginning up a war in Iraq on false pretenses.
It is always entertaining to see which flavor of stupid you will introduce into a complex topic.
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers.”~Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
Not long ago Europe, Obama, and every one of you was railing against the right for spending money on military and foreign wars rather than social welfare. Perhaps Trump shouldn't have publicly stated that he would cut off the holier than thou Democratic socialist Europe if they aren't willing to pay their fair share as allies. But I totally agree with Trump in priciple. Why would I pay to protect people who hate me and want to see global pinko communism? The US should have provided Putin an off ramp from the Ukraine war over two years ago. Russia took over Crimea under Obama, who did nothing to stop them. Now the US isn't even willing to hand over Crimea to Russia in a peace deal. And for what? To continue spending Ukranian blood and American treasure to take back Donback and Crimea? That's never going to happen. Ukraine shouldn't be deciding on when to broker a peace deal, we should have a say as long as we're paying for it. And I don't mean the deep state. I mean legal American taxpayers.
Aren't you at all disturbed by the fact that Trump has openly expressed admiration for and envy of absolute dictators of the world, including Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping and Victor Orban? He hardly tries to hide his wish to possess the same absolute power and impunity that they enjoy from prosecution and indictment for any kind of criminal activity. Are you really onboard with that?
Do you really believe that Putin would be appeased by merely acquiring Crimea and the Donbas region of Ukraine, were he granted that? Are you really unaware that he openly aspires to re-acquire (by force, if necessary) all the territory possessed by the former Soviet Union and even more?
ETA: As for social welfare, Trump is apparently not at all opposed to "social welfare" as long as the main or sole beneficiaries of it are the already very wealthy and powerful (like himself) who don't need nor deserve it.
No precept or claim is more suspect or more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
No precept or claim is more suspect or more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
I would also like to add that our media has failed us. Trump is wrong to vilify the press, but the press has given him too much of a pass and created false equivalence. They passively allow antipathy for our Constitutional republic appear as a reasonable alternative to support for it. There really is no viable other option here. One either sides with Constitutional government or plutocratic authoritarianism. No vote for Biden is tantamount to voting for tyranny. I wish it weren’t so, but it is. Biden is far from ideal, but he believes in our Republic. Trump is a psycho conman who believes in nothing but himself. There is no third option here that is viable.
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers.”~Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
I would also like to add that our media has failed us. Trump is wrong to vilify the press, but the press has given him too much of a pass and created false equivalence. They passively allow antipathy for our Constitutional republic appear as a reasonable alternative to support for it. There really is no viable other option here. One either sides with Constitutional government or plutocratic authoritarianism. No vote for Biden is tantamount to voting for tyranny. I wish it weren’t so, but it is. Biden is far from ideal, but he believes in our Republic. Trump is a psycho conman who believes in nothing but himself. There is no third option here that is viable.
I couldn't agree more! The most remarkable thing about the above is how many otherwise seemingly conscious, awake and even likeable people seem oblivious to this increasingly obvious and (by now) all but incontestable conclusion!
No precept or claim is more suspect or more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
I am struck by the widespread lack of wisdom. We are like a nation of teenagers who have discovered hypocrisy for the first time. As much as I love John Stewart and am happy he is joining TDS' regular rotation, he is about the same. Recently, he made fun of the Democrats for attesting to Biden's sharpness, as though Biden could not be a tired old guy and relatively sharp for a tired old guy at the same time. It is the easy targeting of these surface contradictions and the training of everyone, much like Pavlov's dog, to seek out the same and feast on the Twinkie emotional rewards for having done so that are among the reasons we are in trouble. People mistake adolescent jadedness for sophistication and wisdom.
Go check out Tucker Carlson's ill-advised interview with Putin, where the shallow, sad little man named Tucker Carlson was surgically and methodically dissected before everyone's eyes by Putin. Putin is an evil “F”, but he is a true apex predator of an evil “F”. Carlson is a lightweight half-wit by comparison, but he is also exactly who our culture has trained him and rewarded him to be. Sadly, I fear we are too much like Tucker. Tucker is Putin's midafternoon snack. Trump will be his "starters." The American global order will be his feast. And we were too busy laughing at each other's foibles and pointing fingers at each other to give a damn. What we need is a return of the adults. We have lost them.
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers.”~Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
I am struck by the widespread lack of wisdom. We are like a nation of teenagers who have discovered hypocrisy for the first time. As much as I love John Stewart and am happy he is joining TDS' regular rotation, he is about the same. Recently, he made fun of the Democrats for attesting to Biden's sharpness, as though Biden could not be a tired old guy and relatively sharp for a tired old guy at the same time. It is the easy targeting of these surface contradictions and the training of everyone, much like Pavlov's dog, to seek out the same and feast on the Twinkie emotional rewards for having done so that are among the reasons we are in trouble. People mistake adolescent jadedness for sophistication and wisdom.
Go check out Tucker Carlson's ill-advised interview with Putin, where the shallow, sad little man named Tucker Carlson was surgically and methodically dissected before everyone's eyes by Putin. Putin is an evil “F”, but he is a true apex predator of an evil “F”. Carlson is a lightweight half-wit by comparison, but he is also exactly who our culture has trained him and rewarded him to be. Sadly, I fear we are too much like Tucker. Tucker is Putin's midafternoon snack. Trump will be his "starters." The American global order will be his feast. And we were too busy laughing at each other's foibles and pointing fingers at each other to give a damn. What we need is a return of the adults. We have lost them.
I've thought about this a lot. I honestly can't tell if politicians were always this way and if, in the process of aging, I've discovered that politicians are, as Elbow described, "little boys throwing stones." They all seem way dumber and less sophisticated than what I remember from my youth.
Elbow - Leaders of the Free World wrote:
I'm sick of working for a living
I'm just ticking off the days till I die
Oh, I miss you Louise, yeah
And the sickest little pleasures keep me going in between pulling teeth
Oh, periscope up
I've been looking for a ladder
I need to see the Commander In Chief, ooh
And remind him what was passed on to me, oh
Your mum don't sleep, oh
And the friends you keep
I didn't raise a thief
I didn't raise a thief
But the leaders of the free world
Are just little boys throwing stones
And it's easy to ignore
Till they're knocking on the door of your homes, yeah
My thinking isn't driven, oh
But the music always gives me a lift
I'm so easy to please, yeah
But I think we dropped the baton like the 60's didn't happen, oh no
Oh, periscope up
Should be looking for a ladder
I need to see the Commander In Chief, ooh
And remind him what was passed on to you and me, oh
Your mum don't sleep, oh
And the friends you keep
I didn't raise a thief
I didn't raise a thief
But the leaders of the free world
Are just little boys throwing stones
And it's easy to ignore
Till they're knocking on the door of your homes
But the leaders of the free world
Are just little boys throwing stones
And it's easy to ignore
Till they're knocking on the door of your homes
Passing the gun from father to feckless son
We're climbing a landslide where only the good die young
Passing the gun from father to feckless son
We're climbing a landslide where only the good die young
Oh, periscope up
I've been looking for a ladder
(We're climbing a landslide where only the good die young)
I need to see the Commander In Chief, ooh
And remind him what was passed on to me, oh
Oh, periscope up
I've been looking for a ladder
(We're climbing a landslide where only the good die young)
Religion is for people whose existential fear is greater than their common sense.
