The US response to the Kashoggi murder was appropriate.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-bans-16-saudi-individuals-u-s-role-khashoggi-n992311

~That’s more than what the UK or EU did.~

I retract the previous statement. The EU imposed travel bans.

As I’ve pointed out his standing up to Chinese totalitarianism is one of the biggest for me. For instance he signed into law the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy act. But he also gets detained Americans out of foreign prisons, for instance the recent one in Iran. As for prison reform, his First Step ACT is monumental in that regard.

He always touts freedom and fairness and justice in his speeches. A good one would be his UN speech.

Justice and liberty, as I said earlier. Perhaps it is you who doesn’t understand plain English.

I think the issue is that this is all so vague as to be meaningless. Perhaps you can offer something more concrete, like "his tax cuts has given the average working-class American $x extra a year and helped the economy grow y%" or "he passed this executive order that has achieved this great thing".

I think the ethos of the country is important and meaningful. I’m explaining why I believe Trump’s presidency is a good one in that regard. Why is it meaningless?

What do you want to know? I’ve already answered your questions and I’m willing to justify my answers. If you could make your concerns explicit I could try to address them.

No. You manifestly don't. I suspect you have no idea what they are. Those principles are not only expressed in the founding documents, but were sharpened and refined in an astonishing national discussion. Astonishing for it's comprehensiveness, intelligence, and ethical grounding.

You suspect wrongly, and I’ve already stated my beliefs.

The American experiment is a colloquial term for the founding of the United States, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I mean the principles as laid out by the founding fathers of the country.

There would be no “when” because there is no beginning or end to infinity. I’m prone to think a symbolic representation of infinity suggests finitude, but then again I am a layman in math.

I think the United States is the brightest beacon of liberty in the world and Trump is making it brighter. The Statue of Liberty, the American flag and Trump himself flash on the placards of the Hong Kong protesters, for instance, as they protest in the shadow of Chinese totalitarianism.

He has pointed the country in the direction of those principles and reignited the American experiment. I truly believe this.

For whom? By what standards?

For Americans in general. The standard I apply most is justice and liberty, but also includes the economy, defense and politics. But not only that its how he’s altered politics. So far so good in my opinion, but that could all change of course. What I dislike about his presidency is his vaping ban.

In one of my previous topics, I distilled the issue to be about a mind that is the same with the world, which is very similar to a conception of God being the one and the same with the world of Nature.

Think about it analogously to a person inhabiting a dream. The person's self is one and the same with the dream world. The unconscious, which is accessed at a deeper level during dream states, may-be in "control" over the process of a dream; but, it is still part of the self.

What are your thoughts on solipsism in light of this?

I don’t see how it is possible that a person can be both the world and inhabit the world at the same time. He is either the world or the inhabitant.

Doesn't have to. Enough voters think it was so. Repetition is the way to get lies to work.

The IG report found 17 failures at the highest levels of the FBI. Mueller mentioned zero of them. Eventually we’ll find out whether it was corruption or incompetence that leads people to believe the inquiry was just.

Giuliani is going off-the-wall insane, suggesting that not only was Shokin fired, but also poisoned!

He’s doing a great job. It’s hard to believe how much time we’ve wasted hiring politically-correct lawyers to run a country, when we should have been hiring billionaire playboys.

None taken.

If you’re ever bored read through these Reddit threads. They are anecdotes of people who have worked for him or have met him. If what they say is true he it seems he is a very nice and likeable man, and not the villain people make him out to be.

People who have met or dealt with Donald Trump in person prior to the race, what was he like?

People who have worked for a Trump company - what was your experience like?

Yet with all your bluster you have not produced a single evil act.

The Great Scapegoat. Blame him for everything; give him credit for nothing. But as far as we know the worst he’s ever done is said things you don’t like—thoughtcrimes. His heresies lead the prudes and hypocrites to expose themselves as they cry wolf.

I oppose bigotry and injustice and I champion liberty and free thought. I wouldn’t make a good Nazi in that respect. Since you understand the nature of evil, I wouldn’t mind hearing your arguments as to why Trump is evil.

Identity politics in general is a sort of essentialism, insofar as people are deemed this or that based on some superficial, phenotypical characteristics. So essentialism isn’t so much conservative given the prevalence of identity politics on one side. But to be of a certain sex one must have some essential biological qualities that pertain to that sex.

The other group is screaming various batshit crazy conspiracies theories and in which which Greta is merely a puppet.

Let me know when they fawn over a teenager and become activists in her name.

You really do not understand the nature of evil, do you.

Perhaps, but I understand the nature of snobbery, arrogance and sanctimony, which is what your little diatribes amount to.

Only one group is screaming “apocalypse” while glueing themselves to buildings and streets.

Fair enough. To some he’s a folk hero. To other’s he’s a folk devil. The reality is somewhere in between.

Congress passed a law in 1995 called the Jerusalem Embassy Act, wherein the embassy was supposed to be moved to Jerusalem by 1999. So by the standards of today’s house, subsequent presidents abused their power and broke the law to keep that from happening—well, until Trump came along. So I’m not sure it’s such an empty gesture.

I agree with what you say. The Middle East policy is a disaster and an utter failure. All the more reason to get out of there. Russia neighbors the Middle East, so it only makes sense to let them and other middle eastern countries keep each other in check. So instead of keeping countries like Russia at bay with military force, we partner with them. This a roadmap to world peace.

Trump, through his twitter feed and economic posturing, can bring countries to their knees without shedding a drop of blood. I’d love to see any technocratic politician manage that with empty and ineffective diplomacy.

Or alternatively you could have paid attention to the SNP, which you didn't, which is why you now think I have magical powers.

Of course I never asked what the SNP ran on. And I know you don’t have magical powers

Why is he immune to it? Is it that the voters don’t care if he does it, but do if others do it? Is it that others are too quick to apologise and resign, but could in fact get away with it if they shrug it off and ignore it?

Yeah, I think it’s the latter. The standard of a politician was too high that to attempt to live up to it becomes quickly absurd. It leads to the public/private view and public relations style of politics—politics as a form of acting, deception and fakery.

A lot of Trump supporters love this side of Trump. Basically the reason is that they are fed up with the ordinary politics done by the two parties. And why wouldn't they? The two party system has gone on and on. Another thing that many are happy about is that those who they dislike in general are extremely irritated by Trump.

I get it, but that still doesn't make him a great President.

That’s fair. Personally I refuse to judge his presidency until the entirety of it is apparent.

Because we love wisdom and it’s articulation. There is a certain beauty in it.

Yeah I figured it was irony born in the toxic nether-regions of the Internet. I don’t think he rises to the level of corruption. I think it’s more that he isn’t swayed by the political niceties and lullabies of previous politicians. That’s projection on my part, but we’ve seen entire political careers destroyed by minor gaffes, political incorrectness and other nonsense, that it’s not only refreshing to see someone who is immune to it, but also renders useless the power and sway of those who until now thought they were king-makers.

Oh, you know the reasons why people voted the way they did? I don’t claim to so that’s why I’m raising the question. But I’d love to hear it.

Not at all, I acknowledge that you are looking on from afar. But for Scotland, it would give them autonomy, to be free of a Westminster with overbearing control, little accountability and little concern for the plight of the Scott's. They would join the EU as an independent country cooperating with 27 partner countries.

This is not something they wished to do, but rather is a remedy to a chaotic destructive Westminster.

I guess the question is whether people voted for SNP to have another referendum or did so in order to give a big middle finger to Labour.

Unfortunately it gets worse. There is a meme of Trump as God-Emporer, GEOTUS. I think it’s a joke, at least I hope it is.

I guess they chose Brussels over their own country. What a shame.

It’s why they taught the trivium before the quadrivium in classical education. One needs the requisite understanding in order to grasp the more complicated topics. Most importantly, as with the liberal arts, one needs an education worthy of a free person. Without critical thinking I’m not sure that’s possible.

Congrats to everyone in the UK!!

Stephen Barr? It’s William Barr. Not only that but It was Sessions who commissioned the report. Let’s start recognizing these simple fact before we continue.

It’s because the FBI lied to judiciary committee, lied to Congress, lied to the media. I too thought the same until I read the report, which thoroughly refutes the FBI’s claims. It’s a bloody shame.