LA has more confidence in Trump, the former Democrat Clinton lover, than I do.Originally Posted by Devildog
LA has more confidence in Trump, the former Democrat Clinton lover, than I do.
"It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view." -- Oscar Levant
Criticizing McCain for his politics is one thing, taking cheap shots at his military record is another. Trump demonstrated himself to be a clown by attacking a vet who had served his country with honor.
"It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view." -- Oscar Levant
"A nation that forgets its heroes will itself soon be forgotten." __ Calvin Coolidge
"It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view." -- Oscar Levant
OK in theory.
But humans are human. If I piss people off by saying things that they disagree with or that make them angry, then the fact that I served in the military doesn't change the fact that I pissed them off. When I was younger I was involved in several barroom brawls over Marines acting stupid, but I still fought on their side even when I thought they acted the ass and started the whole thing. That shit was good for the soul.
I respect your opinion USS. I disagree with it, but I respect it. I respect LA Ute's too. He is just fun to give shit to.
The period between Election Day and January 20 is a great time for a refresher course on the state of world today and what the next administration must do to ensure that the U.S. can juggle the equally important tasks of keeping this country secure and not overextending America’s diplomatic, economic, and military resources. Here are four realities that soon-to-be President Donald Trumpwill need to come to terms with.
- North Korea is already a nuclear state.
- Syria's Assad is likely to stay in power.
- Iraq is too dependent on the U.S.
- On nukes, at least, Iran cooperating.
Donald Trump has never led or managed a bureaucracy as large as the U.S. government before. He possesses less foreign policy experience than almost any other president, a fact that could cause him trouble when an international crisis hits — particularly if he doesn’t assemble a steady and knowledgeable team around him. Like all presidents, Trump will have a tremendous amount of work to do during his first 100 days. Understanding the world as it is, rather than buying into the conventional Washington wisdom, will help ease what is bound to be the most difficult job on the planet.
Link:
http://breakingdefense.com/2016/11/trump-won-four-global-realities-he-faces/
"It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view." -- Oscar Levant
"It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view." -- Oscar Levant
Thanks for posting this... I agree with everything he said. The man will be a great SecDef. IMO.
I'd call it more hope than confidence.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
ACOE denies Dakota Access pipeline easement. Interesting development.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Ann Coulter turns on Trump.
Allies respond favorably to Mattis pick:
http://breakingdefense.com/2016/12/e...ssures-allies/
"It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view." -- Oscar Levant
An interesting take on the election.
Last edited by U-Ute; 12-05-2016 at 02:22 PM.
I'm sure glad we have true patriots who are willing to stand up to bad stuff happening in our nation, like this Clinton backed child-sex ring:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...idents/509567/
(This bit of fake news made legitimate by incoming National Security Advisor Mike Flynn's son, who says "until it's proven wrong, it's true".)
A serious question is how do we as a nation deal with the problem of fake news? Our president-to-be seems to thrive on it: "Hillary Clinton started the Birther Movement, and today, I'm ending it".
I used to work with this crazy old Russian guy who was really struggling to adapt to life in America. His daughter eloped with her boyfriend, disappeared for a week, then called home to tell them she was safe, and in Baltimore. My co-worker drove down to the SLC airport, hopped on a flight to Baltimore that day, and took a taxi to where his daughter said she was staying, and THEN he was relieved that she was OK.
I thought this was really, acutely weird. He said it was because of "Russian materialism", which he explained as you can't believe anything unless it is there in front of you, and you can see it with your eyes.
Very oddly... 25 years later, I'm starting to understand where he was coming from, and I think some significant part of our population is already there. The fringes are growing bigger.
If Trump imitates Putin, expect to see a lot more outright lies, which are later waved off as sincere belief.
Rush Limbaugh was explaining part of this last week, when he said he marvels at how Trump connects with the big crowds that, to this day keep chanting "Lock her up! Lock her up!"
Limbaugh: "The media reports on what Trump says, but they completely misunderstand how people don't really care about the details - they are ONE with Trump, this is a bonding that liberals and the media will never understand".
Like George Costanza used to say: "It's not a lie, if you believe it".
Or... "I could go out onto to 5th Avenue and shoot somebody, and not lose a single voter!"
I love watching this stuff.
I am very curious to see if Trump will simply walk away from all his unhinGed rhetoric during the campaign and double-cross his true believers (who will probably forgive him instantly).
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Wow Tucker Carson has a job again (minus the bow tie) eh? Remember when John Stewart absolutely dismantled him? Looks like he is back to his same garbage.I love watching this stuff.
I am very curious to see if Trump will simply walk away from all his unhinGed rhetoric during the campaign and double-cross his true believers (who will probably forgive him instantly).
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
A pretty good article in the Wash Post about Trump's delusional and/or misleading statements.
Take Trump seriously and literally
An excerpt: "If they gave Pulitzer Prizes for pithiness, journalist Salena Zito’sanalytical couplet on the surprise winner of Campaign 2016 would get one. The press took Republican Donald Trump “literally, but not seriously,” she wrote, whereas Trump’s supporters took him “seriously, but not literally.”
The people that scare me take Trump seriously and literally. Some of his supporters are in that group. Let's hope the Chinese leadership is not. I hope international leaders cut us some slack. Maybe if we tell them we've inadvertently elected an idiot.
"It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so"
- Will Rogers
"Cyberspace is - or can be - a good, friendly and egalitarian place to meet. "
- Douglas Adams
Wow. I guess it's not too surprising when you combine people with an affinity for guns, conspiracy theories and internet gullibility. My mother in law's husband spends half his day sharing these fake news stories on Facebook. He's an otherwise genuinely nice, good-hearted man but he has absolutely zero interest in being corrected on this stuff. It doesn't matter how you try and engage him about the facts, he doesn't care one iota. It's impossible to say whether he doesn't believe the facts or doesn't care what the facts are because he refuses to have a discussion about it. I wish he would because I'd love to try and understand it better.
I remember a decade and a half ago some folks, maybe some folks on this board, made fun of the asinine rumors that spread like wildfire in the 'Arab street'. There were all sorts of goofy rumors back then about wild conspiracies involving 9-11, Bush, Chaney, Israel, Saudi Arabia, bin Laden - silly crap.
Now, Facebook, Twitter, and fake news generators (KGB?) have inadvertently collaborated to dumb down the US with crap that rivals the Arab Street nonsense. There have been crackpots spreading nonsense forever (John Birch Society, Socialist Workers Party, etc.). But social media and memes in the hands of crackpots has advanced and spread the outrageous rumor art-form like kudzu.
And now we have a president who plays innuendo and lies on social media with remarkable expertise. The guy apparently chooses to forego the Presidential Daily Briefing to browse Twitter - at least that's the rumor I've heard.
Now I'm a skeptic about everything I read and half of what I see. I'm not even sure I spell 'Tяump' correctly.
"It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so"
- Will Rogers
"Cyberspace is - or can be - a good, friendly and egalitarian place to meet. "
- Douglas Adams
Here is what we selected as president - can't really claim most of the voters selected, but I digress..
Here's how investors can capitalize on Trump's phone call with Taiwan: http://www.barrons.com/articles/the-...fit-1480966261
Aaaand... in this corner, the Chinese media are beginning to mock Trump for running the US on Twitter: https://origin-nyi.thehill.com/blogs...y-with-twitter
I guess we hope that Trump and the Chinese Communist Party disconnect from their respective military commands as the piss fest escalates, so as to avoid a "miscalculation".
Good news on the Pizza fake news shooting - nobody killed, the shooter surrendered - after he found out the pizzeria wasn't really a child sex slave operation, after all.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...-court-n692321
Apparently the fake story got started based on some of John Podesta's hacked emails, which included some correspondence between Podesta and the owner of the Pizzaria.
Let's see... information in hacked emails ends up in "4Chan", a whirlpool of conspiracy thinkers and dis-information, and somehow ends up as an allegation of a child sex slave operation, backed by the Clintons.
This seems inline with this article about the Russian propaganda efforts: http://bangordailynews.com/2016/11/2...ay/?ref=latest
Sen Ron Wyden of Oregon is pressing for rapid declassification of US intelligence which determined Russian interference in our election: http://pamplinmedia.com/pt/9-news/33...chool-students
While most Americans appear to have moved on / don't care / are happy with the results, Germany seems to have taken notice: https://www.ft.com/content/96d598da-...3-bb8207902122
Or... maybe it's really all due to the 400 pound fat guy sitting on a bed that Trump talked about, because the Russians really are our valuable allies.
Damon Linker:
Hillary Clinton blew the most winnable election in modern American history. And it's her own fault.
http://theweek.com/articles/664828/h...-history-fault
Excerpt:
****
"I don’t care if the 'fundamentals' favored the GOP. Trump was a fundamentals-defying opponent who should have landed flat on his face regardless of the baseline assumptions. I don’t care if Clinton racks up a nearly 3 million vote lead in the popular tally by grabbing up gobs of electorally superfluous ballots in California. She lost the election because she failed to win where she needed to win and where Democrats had a long record of winning — the upper Midwest — as well as where they win when they’re doing their jobs well (Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina). That’s a sign of a campaign screw-up of monumental proportions.
"Most of all, I don’t want to hear about how unfairly Clinton was treated by the media. In comparison to whom? All the other candidates who’ve run for president while under criminal investigation by the FBI? (Maybe that substantial handicap should have overridden the party’s presumption that she was owed the nomination because it was 'her turn.') Or do you mean, instead, that she was treated badly in comparison to her opponent? Really? You mean the one whose 24/7 media coverage was overwhelmingly, relentlessly negative in tone and content? Either way, a halfway competent campaign should have been able to take advantage of the great good fortune of running against Donald J. Trump and left him bleeding in the ditch.
"Why didn’t it happen?"
*****
Read the whole thing. Linker is a progressive pundit and is always intellectually honest.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
This could make things interesting...........
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=42466707&nid=1296
Admittedly, its probably only going to reach 'interesting' levels. Probably not enough to tip the scale one way or the other. But man........we would be in a lot of chaos if enough electoral voters said..........'yeah.............no.' to Drumpf.
Meanwhile Trump attends only two of his daily intelligence briefings, a man who by his own admittance doesn't know foreign policy well, but when he does finally learn it, he'll know more than anyone on earth.
https://www.google.com/amp/www.nbcne...?client=safari
I'm not big on whining about the outcome of this election and view a lot of the stuff being said about Trump right as histrionics (like the people convinced the environment is going to collapse in months and they are going to round up all the gay people) , but he lacks some core fundamentals that are disconcerting and he seems to be completely apathetic about it.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I agree with the article. Clinton really underperformed, when it came down to it.
I think the media was fairly strongly biased against Trump, not so much because of the inherent liberal bias among people with college degrees, but because Trump was/is such a fundamentally flawed individual. Basically what Romney was trying to tell us. When the Russian/WikiLeaks stuff became apparent, the bias was stronger. The media assumed most people would figure while Hillary was flawed, Trump was completely unacceptable. The media highly underestimated how little most Americans think of them, and they grossly overestimated their ability to inform people.
In terms of strategic use of information, I thought the WikiLeaks leaks were well played, and ultimately most people were unaware of the Russian interference, or didn't care, or thought the media was trying to appoint Hillary, or chose the lesser of two evils, or whatever.
Now we have a public that trusts the media even less, with fake news / propaganda people in the White House (Flynn, Bannon, et al).
On Ron Wyden's call for Obama to release the Intelligence assessment of Russian interference, I have mixed opinions. I think the public has a right to know what happened, but I think releasing the report would smack of sour grapes (obviously) and it would undermine the incoming president.
The people who voted for Trump would mostly just consider the Intelligence to be cooked, which would undermine any remaining faith in our system of government... which is exactly what Putin wants.
If Obama doesn't de-classify the Intel assessment, Trump would deep-six it, and the Republicans would pretend no such document exists, which would further erode confidence in Trump, in the Republicans, etc. Which is exactly what Putin wants.
I guess Trump wasn't kidding when asked a few months ago who he listened to for foreign policy advice and he said, "“I'm speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things."
I remember J.D. Williams talking about a few instances where Electors voted their consciences, but it was never in this kind of circumstance.
If nothing else, this provides the opportunity to remind people that voting for the president is not a democratic process, exactly. The Electoral College is not "democracy in action", was never intended to be.
Doing the math, voters in Wyoming have 3 and a half times more electoral "power" when they vote for president than do voters in California, and 2.5 times the power of voters in Utah.
There really needs to be big disclaimers on the ballot that remind voters that when they vote for the President / Vice President, it's really just an expression of preference, not a direct vote.
Comet pizza (where the shooting took place) is right near our house). It's pretty gross pizza, but not child sex ring bad.
We usually reserve that level of bad for Little Caesars.
[Who wants to read or talk about Trump when we can re-live the remarkable comeback the Utes had last night, and Van Dyke's first best moment as a Ute? Very worthy question.
It's human nature to avoid negative topics and look for more positive things - a big part of why most people avoid the news. This stuff is certainly corrosive to the soul, it's more than an academic debate. My instinct is to steer away, but I feel an obligation to speak up / pass along some of this info, at the risk of being tuned out.]
Michael Flynn, Jr is no longer part of the Trump transition team, after his remarks about the CometPizza child sex ring fake news / rumor.
Today, Fox News' Megyn Kelly admits to dealing with death threats, instigated by another Trump insider, Dan Scavino. https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...a-online-abuse
Simple question: If these two incidents had originated from Obama's camp in December 2008, what would be the reaction?
Most people are likely looking away, seeking more positive news, tired of politics. Maybe some are giving Trump the benefit of the doubt, hoping he'll be inspired by the position he's been elected to.
My (uncomfortable) question - given that both Flynn and Scavino were/are part of Trump's inside circle, is this a larger issue most Americans should know about / be concerned about?
Back to a more uplifting topic, *awesome* late comeback by the Utes. Great to see Zamora emerge, we'll have 3-4 excellent guards, and Van Dyke's clutch shot reveals him as a Jacobsen-like threat, hopefully.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote