why should we entertain any of it as true when someone does it here in the forum?
5h

Inductive reasoning.

I think it's like this:

When a crisis at the border first starts, we're lucky if there are Democrats to deal with it. Put Hillary Clinton in charge of finding out if there are homes across the nation who are willing to host refugees until they can appear before judges. (And there were, btw.) Does this risk sending a message to Central and South America that everybody is welcome? Yes. But it's the right thing to do, so.

After that, when all resources are exhausted and we have to get diabolical about it because we really have no choice, we're lucky if we have a Republican in charge because they're good at that.

Please use the quote function. Just highlight text and press the quote button.

After that, when all resources are exhausted and we have to get diabolical about it because we really have no choice, we're lucky if we have a Republican in charge because they're good at that. — frank

Republicans are good at running a tight governmental ship where nothing goes over budget?

I understand the cleverness you thought you were getting at, but it's based on the myth that republicans are efficient at what they just keep saying they are efficient at, and when you start to implicitly accept not simply myths but myths that are empirically false as part of your thought process, you have a garbage-in-garbage-out analytical framework.

You would still want a sane person motivated to do what's right in charge, even if times are tough ... probably you'd want it even more in tough times.

I love Boethius btw. I read Consolations in several visits to a Japanese restaurant.

Completely agree, boethius is amazing.

Trump’s defence against the impeachment enquiry basically boils down to ‘lese majesty’:

the insulting of a monarch or other ruler; treason.
"the Shah would whip him for his lese-majesty"

presumptuous or disrespectful behaviour.
"he responded to the lese-majesty of the young man with an arctic stare"

So, in a move that several posters have predicted, the Kurds have now struck a deal with Assad, and the Syrian army is moving into the contested are and clashing with the Turkish army.

Trump has thus managed to hand control over the situation entirely to Russia, Iran and their allies. In addition to supplying them with a new ally, the Kurds.

What a great job.

Do you think it's possible that Assad and the Russians know how to maintain an organic peace in the region better than Americans do?

Is it possible that the American alliance with the Kurds may have been partly about fostering western values in the region?

I'm asking genuinely. I'm not a Trump defender. Just looking at the situation mechanically.

ABC using a video from Kentucky, pretending it was Syria. Apparently the video was taken down. Here’s a side-by-side comparison.

https://streamable.com/p9nod

That Kingsman movie video of Trump murdering networks, individuals, and social movements was something else

That Kingsman movie video of Trump murdering networks, individuals, and social movements was something else

It was just a meme, a joke, a gag, a parody.

For those that don’t know, this meme was shown at a pro-trump event—not on the stage, mind you, but on a screen streaming Trump memes nearby. The press has used this as an example of Trump inciting violence against the media (while saying nothing of the churchgoers underneath the super-imposed logos).

Do you think it's possible that Assad and the Russians know how to maintain an organic peace in the region better than Americans do?

Is it possible that the American alliance with the Kurds may have been partly about fostering western values in the region?

I'm asking genuinely. I'm not a Trump defender. Just looking at the situation mechanically. — frank

It's possible. I wonder if they're interested in peace though. Both don't seem particularly concerned with how they reach their goals.

That said, I'd not be against leaving building an organic peace to regional actors. That's not really what either the US or Russia are doing though. And it'd take a lot more of an international framework.

I am not sure how much the American engagement was about "fostering western values". I am not in principle against fostering western values. Some western values are pretty rad. Fostering them takes patience and a light touch, though.

It was just a meme, a joke, a gag, a parody. — NOS4A2

Yeah shooting 'Black Lives Matter', or media organizations, which have been threatened and attacked, isn't some innocuous parady or gag. There is no doubting that a vocal segment of MAGA supporters fantasize about massacring perceived enemies.

Yeah shooting 'Black Lives Matter', or media organizations, which have been threatened and attacked, isn't some innocuous parady or gag. There is no doubting that a vocal segment of MAGA supporters fantasize about massacring perceived enemies.

Did you complain about the original movie? The Christians being shot in their place of worship? Or did you realize it wasn’t real?

Or was it only when they haphazardly superimposed CNN’s logo in there?

I actually hated that scene in the movie itself. For some reason it really left a profoundly bad taste in my mouth when I watched it originally. I still can't articulate why (maybe its a class thing?), but I suppose I'm not surprised by the appropriation.

Did you complain about the original movie? The Christians being shot in their place of worship? Or did you realize it wasn’t real? — NOS4A2

We are talking about a video, created for a Trump conference and shown at one of his resorts, which glorifies the President of the United States murdering political opponents. You seriously don't think that's vile? Is that where your brain is at?

What monsters!! No, I do not agree at all.

It's possible. I wonder if they're interested in peace though. Both don't seem particularly concerned with how they reach their goals. — Echarmion

I think it's just that we're horrified by the way they achieve peace. If we go looking for allies in the region, of course we'll find them, just as Russia and Assad would find allies in the US or the UK if they had the power to intrude. But by intruding in the US, Russia would be ripping open old wounds, and then: surprise! the US falls apart. "It's just like those people to turn on each other" the Russians would say.

Aside from the occasional civil war and mob protest, Americans actually get along really well (because we're left alone to discover our own balance.)

That said, I'd not be against leaving building an organic peace to regional actors. That's not really what either the US or Russia are doing though. And it'd take a lot more of an international framework. — Echarmion

There's nothing like a Norwegian peace-maker to settle things down. But some conflicts have to play out. Putting it off doesn't solve anything. Or does it?

I am not sure how much the American engagement was about "fostering western values". I am not in principle against fostering western values. Some western values are pretty rad. Fostering them takes patience and a light touch, though. — Echarmion

The Iraq war was about democratizing the middle east. Bush's strategists made that clear. What followed was one three-stooges style error after another, giving rise to ISIS and then the cherry on top was Obama's apparent promise to Syrian rebels that the US would give them aid.

Years later. Holy fuck. Yes, American engagement was largely about fostering western values such as exhausting your energy in democratic bickering rather than in blowing up world trade centers.

Here’s a better video of ABC’s blatant, egregious propaganda.

It was just a meme, a joke, a gag, a parody. — NOS4A2

No accounting for taste or judgment, other than it's presence or absence. nos4 seems to possess neither. Because we know from some - too few - of his other posts that he does, our cognitive dissonance in the face of his posts can only resolve itself in the understanding that nos4 is vicious.

I can conceive of a video that might offend you, nos4. Can you too conceive of such a video - doesn't have to be the same conception? That is, are you able of being offendable? Of course that video, that would be just a meme, a gag, a joke, a parody.

Maybe you should check out some of the memes, jokes, parodies, gags of 1930s Nazi propaganda. You might enjoy it.

I am extremely offended by the urge to censorship, which I imagine you clutching, like pearls, whenever your feelings get the best of you. That urge is the same one that reached it’s manifestation and zenith in Nazi germany. You might want to loosen your clutch, at least a little bit, because we know where it all leads.

Me: the camps at the border are concentration camps
You: wow how dare you make a comparison between what is occurring at the border with Nazi concentration camps
Also You: censoring a video depicting the president murdering political opponents is basically Nazi Germany

You confuse issues of censorship with those of judgment. Stupid? Or vicious? Ah yes, the urge to censorship in 930 s Germany? What are you referring to? I am referring to the systematic and deliberate demonization of minorities there, then. And "we know where" that led.

And you confuse freedom of speech with license, here meaning raw ability, to concatenate words. Freedom of speech has never anywhere been total - whether current bounds are right or should be adjusted a separate issue.

But you know better. So what are you about? Or rather, you've made that clear. Do you own it or deny it.

Why lie? I would never say that.

Yes, I’m aware that you’re trying to connect me, speciously, to the demonization of Jews in Nazi Germany. I was merely turning it back on you. Does it scare you that you possess the same urges?

Neither has freedom from slavery ever been total, but the persistence of slavery is an not argument against freedom. But you know better.

Trump apparently buckled to pressure. What a shame. In doing so he gives the thought police exactly what they want: Power.

What a shame. In doing so he gives the thought police exactly what they want: Power. — NOS4A2

Muah ha ha haaaaa!

*twiddles super-villain hands together*

Yeah not even Orwell could have imagined this

jUsT a HaRmLeSs PaRoDy