Feigning ignorance of debate rules is clownish, if that's what you're asking.

I'm going to leave this here. Clearly you are not willing to engage honestly, sincerely, and respectfully. May our paths never again cross. — creativesoul

I’d hate to say ‘I told ya so’, if I did. :razz:

I’m not sold on your sincerity, your dismissal of my good intentions, nor your rigid idea of “acceptable debate”, whatever that means. — NOS4A2

You can easily review any portion of creativesoul’s posts and see his sincerity for yourself, as well as get an idea of what acceptable debate is. It strikes me as a bad faith statement to claim ignorance of what acceptable debate is, by the way.

Don’t forget the high quality abuse and ridicule thrown at you. You can’t get that just anywhere.

The abuse, accusations, and ridicule is all well deserted, I’m afraid.

Members are banned all the time for low quality contributions. Not sure how low is too low. They haven’t banned me yet so their standards can’t be that high.

Frankly, I suspect that you haven’t been banned because you’re the only dissenter (Trump supporter) in this topic.

Let me put it this way, if you offered a higher standard of opposition no one would complain about its quality.

The forum is replete with opposition but of a higher standard.

Do you care about meeting standards? — creativesoul

How many more pages of his trolling do you need to convince you that he does not?

There’s only one way to stop a troll from trolling and that is to deny them attention. Personally, I don’t think he should be stopped. As someone mentioned, it’s good that there’s at least one person participating in this topic with a different view, even if he’s just playing around. Of course it would be better if he met higher standards, but considering that he’s a Trump supporter, it’s probably unrealistic to ask for better.

IPA still-life, inspired by yesterdays shoutbox. Might have turned out better without drinking it while painting.

Now you know what I feel. Sorcerers and mindreaders. — NOS4A2

Well, it’s not like there’s a lot of depth to fathom. :razz:

Fox isn’t working for us anymore! — Relativist

Utterly shameless.

He also said “Maybe you should look up the difference between a lie and something said with tongue in cheek”, which is suspiciously but expectantly missing. That’s what I said “exactly” to. — NOS4A2

This only makes your assessments less credible, if that’s possible, in that you acknowledge your lack of discernment regarding lies and tongue-n-cheek comments.

In any case, it seems obvious that you agreed unwittingly because that’s what you feel to be true, and simply forgot your troll position.

S stated that Trump has a tendency to both lie and exaggerate. You responded with “exactly.” So you acknowledged his tendency to lie.

As I just pointed out. You just acknowledged the lies, perhaps unwittingly but there it is for us all to see.

Over 12k lies since taking office is quite a stack indeed. You should learn to protect yourself from its influence.

Maybe you should look up the difference between a lie and something said with tongue in cheek. Your idol has a proclivity for both.

Exactly. We can forgive each other’s hyperbole and sarcasm. — NOS4A2

And the lies from Trump that you have just acknowledged in this post?

They don’t, as is evident by your powerless words. — NOS4A2

The evidence shows you reacting to his words. Reacting childishly but reacting nevertheless.

Your reasoning is absurd (as usual). ANY accomplishment by anyone is more or less attributable to the contributions of others.

Lol, what, he didn’t do it entirely himself??? What a fraud!

Seriously, dude...

Did you see the example of the Affordable Care Act? Take a look at my last post again if you missed the addition.

But what has a slick talker or ivy-league lawyer ever really done? What have they created? — NOS4A2

You can google all of Obama’s accomplishments yourself.

You can also google all of Trumps failures yourself.

By the way, they say it’s easier to destroy than to create. Trump couldn’t even destroy the Affordable Care Act, despite his best efforts, and majority control of both the house and senate.

Given our world now, and the number of such liars in it, and their effectiveness in occupying positions of power, it seems to me that maximum push-back to the limit of the law just is the best that can be done and the least that should be done - in a civil society. — tim wood

Positions of power make or enforce the law. Also, if people like Trump supporters accept lies as a sign of solidarity with their tribe, it’s unlikely that truth itself will be an effective antidote. Truth will never be as valued to them as their group identity or tribe is. I think all that can be done is somehow change the group narrative to a positive direction (rather than Trumps direction). He changing the meaning of American conservatism, and not for the better.

Nice. Photoshop? What does the character mean?

Speaking of Obama and lies, yesterday at a G7 news conference, Trump said:

[Crimea] was sort of taken away from President Obama. Not taken away from President Trump, taken away from President Obama. … President Obama was not happy that this happened because it was embarrassing to him. Right. It was very embarrassing to him and he wanted Russia to be out of the, what was called the G8, and that was his determination. He was outsmarted by Putin. He was outsmarted. President Putin outsmarted President Obama.

Putin outsmarted Obama by annexing the Crimea and Obama was so butthurt by this he got Russia kicked out of the G8???

Dementia or a bad joke? Either way, it's not a good sign.

The Russian influence canard is mostly an anti-Trump hoax. — NOS4A2

You say “mostly,” and given your penchant for hyperbole, this claim is rather meaningless.

They’ve already tried to sell us the notion of a dark future before the election—recession, race wars, nuclear fallout, concentration camps, the second coming of Hitler, Russian influence, ecological collapse—and they are doing everything in their power to make this a reality. — NOS4A2

The anti-trumpists are doing everything in their power to cause environmental and economic collapse, nuclear fallout, concentration camps, etc.?

You appear to have contracted Anti-Trump Derangement Syndrome. As a possible remedy, I suggest that you stop watching Fox News.

Anti-Trumpism is the opposition to trump as an ideology. Most people want their leaders to succeed and their country to prosper. Anti-Trumpists want their leader to fail and are willing to ruin the country to do it. — NOS4A2

So if Trump had worked to improve the Affordable Care Act rather than damage it, not waste billions on a border wall, cared about the environment and practiced responsible regulation reform, etc etc, these so called anti-trumpist would still want to sacrifice the country to get him out of office?

It's natural for human beings to have conflicting desires. I want Trump to fail because that would make his reelection unlikely. I also don't want the country ruined. Trying to conflate these natural impulses into an "ideology" is beyond idiotic. Even Trump and Fox News haven’t gone that far.

For reasons that shouldn’t need to be explained, markets and the economy in general doesn’t respond well to instability or unpredictability.

Reactionary responses to Trump are reaching absurd and dangerous levels. — NOS4A2

Yup.

Part of a Trump tweet today, “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China.”

Dementia or a bad joke? Either way, it's not a good sign.

It's kind of adorable how hard he tries.

He's like a pet. — frank

Poor pup has an Elizabethan collar. So he can’t lick his wounds, I imagine.

For whatever reason, Trump made a campaign promise to reduce the trade deficit.

We don't need to look at ancient history, unfortunately. All of Trumps meddling with foreign trade, damaging American industries and raising prices for consumers, and the trade deficit is still higher than it was under the Obama administration.

Okay, he's the second worst businessman in history. In any case, the act (as seen on The Apprentice) is that he's a great businessman.

I think Trump is one of the most liberal presidents in a long time. He upended the GOP so much that they welcome the LGBT community with open arms, something that was unthinkable only 5 years ago. — NOS4A2

It's hard to tell if he's liberal or conservative because he doesn't appear to actually stand for anything.

He also has half a century worth of leadership experience. — NOS4A2

It's reported that in some of those years he lost more money than practically any American, which could make him the worst businessman in history. Then how is he so rich, you ask? His father, who gave him over 400 million and, by the way, was making money in the years that Trump was losing it.

The point of a leader is to lead. Trump only leads his base, which is not even half the nation. And let's not forget that Trump is a TV celebrity. He owes his presidency to that celebrity.

Does anyone doubt that his role as a conservative is an act?

Right next to the good old days when politicians were truth-telling saints. — NOS4A2

So Trump should be condemned, as you condemn the media.