Badmovies.org Forum

I think we need one of these. Give the civilians a break from highjacked threads.




To start with I was settling in to watch a live feed of Fallout 76 beta gameplay yesterday when this commercial came up. I almost clicked out after five seconds because I don't care a lot for FOX News but got sucked in and I ended up watching it all.

I think from an economic perspective (though not a sociological one) it hits the nail on the head about the long-term consequences of illegal immigration, and I'd like to hear what anyone else WHO WATCHES THE VIDEO thinks ABOUT THIS VIDEO. Not the issue in general, but THIS VIDEO.

It's only about five minutes and it's fast-paced and surprised me several times with facts I had never heard in my life about Caesar Chavez, and of course President Clinton's SOTU speech in the mid-90s.

Sven, a left-leaning perspective, if you'd be so kind?

! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUU2iWxrH2M#)

Man....I dunno.
Do we really need to argue about politics anymore than we do anyway.  :question:

Let the slaughter begin!  :wink:

(https://media.giphy.com/media/pUeXcg80cO8I8/giphy.gif)

I hear ya, my thought was this way maybe we can contain it instead of having it be all over. Sort of the rationale for smoking areas in school, y'know? Shrug.

Don't be stupid be a smarty-come and join the Nazi Party!

(https://i.imgur.com/CfyMWvN.gif) (https://lunapic.com)

Your opinion on Nazi's?
Well-I don't like them, myself.
Seem like folks with low esteem issues using bigotry to influnce idiots.
 

How in the world did MJ get his teeth that white?

Your teeth would look that good to if you had his money and talent!

This should be interesting.....

Teeth whitening products.

http://youtu.be/ETR9qrVS17g (http://youtu.be/ETR9qrVS17g)

https://www.facebook.com/TheWorkFM/videos/335446707257229/ (https://www.facebook.com/TheWorkFM/videos/335446707257229/)


<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https://www.facebook.com/TheWorkFM/videos/335446707257229/&show_text=1&width=560" width="560" height="445" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allow="encrypted-media" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>

snicker...

Dunno, David Bowie was as rich and talented and his teeth weren't taking home any prizes. Nah, I'm almost forty and I've never had a cavity and Jackson's teeth impress even me.

I'm missing 2 teeth in the front- (one is an Alfred E. tooth!) and 5 in the back!
But when I was in my 30's, my teeth were good!

And that proves right there that the Vikings discovered Easter Island!

(https://i.imgur.com/CfyMWvN.gif) (https://lunapic.com)

On the internet people call English people with bad teeth the London Look. Now whether or not it's a tongue in cheek jab or casual stereotyping is up to you. As for MJ having perfect white teeth again it's probably teeth whitening products at work, since teeth themselves are supposed to have a little bit of yellow in them.

(https://belowthebeltsportscom.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/oh-behave.jpg?w=480&h=372&crop=1)

http://youtu.be/JEAG9SRd-x0 (http://youtu.be/JEAG9SRd-x0)

I agree with the "right to a speedy trial". controversial I know but...people shouldn't have to wait for a trial

So...the mid-terms are about done-what do you thin is gonna happen?
Me- I have no clue. I gave up predicting the actions of living mortals long ago. :wink:
Your just a midnight nosh for me.

OK, here's a political question-
Who, in you life time, has been the best President?
Me- I would a say Jimmy Carter.
To this day, this man does nothing but try and help the poor.

Dammit RCM, there are time I wanna knock you in the head making it so we can't good karma you! :teddyr:

Jimmy Carter has often embodied the best that is in Christianity, and his service to the poor and to the cause of peace is admirable. He deserved his Nobel Prize and it made me happy when it was awarded to him. A fine man.

Rating presidents in my lifetime, not as people but by the job they did.

Carter: B+
Reagan: A
Bush: A-
Clinton: B+
Bush: D+
Obama: F-
Trump: Too early to rate him but personality aside I think he's doing a better job than his detractors claim.

(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/drIAAOSwC8pb1jwL/s-l1600.jpg)

What the...?

Carter was and is a decent man, but his Presidency was largely a failure.
Much of it was due to circumstances beyond his control, but the main thing is that he simply had no clue how to do the job.
His own party opposed him often, and his opponents came to have a visceral disgust with him.
Nathan Miller, author of STAR SPANGLED MEN, rates him as one of the ten worst Presidents.

I don't know who Nathan Miller is.
He's an author? So was Hitler and Ed Wood Jr. The Scaramouche guy wrote a book about Trump-'The Blue Collar President"-and he was in the White House for 11 days. So-MEH! I read lotsa books. I believe nothing I read and only half of what I see. It takes a lot to make me believe anything. I AM convinced Trump is a racist,rich boy moron with more money than brains who bought the White House.
Carter had 4 years to clean up after the 60's, Vietnam and Watergate.
I'm sure I'm crazy, but I am not stupid.
He is in his 90's and still going out there and building homes for the homeless.
f**k this Nathan Miller. So this guy who rates Presidents like we rate Bad Movies- I'm gonna just take his word for it?  Bulls**t.
I wish we had folks like Jimmy Carter in office now.
No offense, Indy, but that's just makes no sense.
And Reagan was no angel. He put in place dictators in 3rd word countries that we eventually went to war with. Gimme a break.

Whenever I hear Reagan's name it's hard to not think of this song, which is appropriately titled for here!

! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLtRHN7fsgY#)

As a political neutral, good wishes to all for the mid term elections tomorrow.

Well, Ronnie, I pretty much agree with you on Trump.
And I agree Carter is a remarkably decent and good person.
As a President, I don't have as high an opinion of him as you do.
But, hey, opinions are cheap, right?
Miller, FWIW, is a biographer and author on American politics.
His book simply gives  his opinion on who the 10 worst Presidents were and why he rates them as such - along with noting that he actually voted for two of the guys that wound up on his list!
STAR SPANGLED MEN is a good, entertaining book.  I don't agree with all his conclusions, but it is quite well written.

Ranking the recent presidents:

1. Reagan - although I was not a fan at the time (the War on Drugs was a disaster), looking back I think he did the best job. My political philosophy would be most similar to his, with some tweaks
2. Obama
3. Clinton - Clinton and Obama are about the same and could be swapped, but Obama wins the character tiebreaker
4. George H. Bush - not nearly as bad as people thought at the time
5. George W. Bush - Iraq War is a stunning failure
6. Carter - Good man, not a good leader
7. Nixon - duh. His policies weren't bad but his character flaws were gargantuan

Whether Trump finishes ahead of or behind Nixon is yet to be seen.

For comparison, this list of average historical rankings ranks them

1. Obama
2. Reagan
3. Clinton
4. George H.
5. Carter
6. George W.
7. Nixon
(8. Trump - only one survey includes him)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_presidents_of_the_United_States

Reagan set the stage to destroy unions, and the working class in america has gone downhill ever since.  He also mande it clear that human rights we're not a concern of his government when dealing with central America.  Since Reagan poverty and homelessness have grown,  the share of american wealth owned solely by the upper percentile has exploded,  middle class and working  class wages have shrunk. 

Before Reagan,  a person working 40 hours a week could have a home,  car and family. Now it takes two parents working full time with side hustles to barely support a single apartment.

Reagan slashed taxes on the rich and cut services and spending  to the rest of america,  telling us "less is more".

Crack cocaine made it's debut in america under Reagan because that idiot decided to fight drugs by raising the penalty to smuggling marijuana to the same level as it was for smuggling cocaine. Result: marijuana imposters switched to cocaine since it was easier to smuggle in a profitable amount of it while do estic growers took up the slack,  increasing marijuana availabkilyt in america and making cocaine so abundance t it grew out of the Hollywood and wallstreet markets and into the street in the form of crack.

Reagan advocated the "prisons,  prisons and more prisons" attitude which had made america the world's premiere prison state and turned private for profit prisons into an industry that consumes american lives to fuel corporate profit.

Reagan created the myth of the "welfare queen" to scapegoat the powerless in america while the corporate overlords began driving down the middle class's wages to make themselves richer.

The 41st president of america didn't give a damn about AIDS until a friend of hers, Rock Hudson,  caught it.  Then she told her husband to start dealing with it.

The 41st president of america didn't give a damn about gays until her daughter came out as a lesbian,  at which point she told her husband to advocate accepting gays.

The 41st president of america didn't care about stem cell research until her husband's alzheimers go so bad even she noticed,  then she advocated for stem cell research.

Needless to say I have an incredibly low opinion of the 41st president of america and her husband.

Didn't someone previously prove that Reagan had been funding aids research before Hudson caught it on another thread?

See "And the band played on".  The facts speak clearly despite conservative revisionism efforts.

Yeah, I did, Alex. Despite revisionism, Reagan, who had many gay friends, was aware of AIDS and funded it more per patient than cancer, which is of course a bigger killer.

Yeah, as much as I don't like Reagan personally, I thought I remembered someone posting up the figures that proved he had been funding research.

Reagan couldn't fund aids at all. Congress allocates funds,  congress sets the budget.  Aids research was funded by congress.  Ronnie ignored aids until president Nancy told him to talk about it.  People don't get that the president doesn't fund things,  congress does. The president can ask for funding but congress gives it.

As to funding aids more than cancer,  2 things.  1 cancer had been studied heavily for a long time,  aids was new.  Also the extent of how contagious aids might be was uncertain at the time,  studying it's transmission levels was a damn good idea.

So your previous assertion in another thread that Reagan reduced aids funding was wrong then?

The executive branch creates and submits budgets, Sven.

Honestly I think so many of your prejudices are just that, prejudices, unbased on fact and reality.

no I never said Reagan cut aids fnfing,  he ignored the issue for the first few years.

You Gave Reagan an A and Obama an F-.  That alone shapes my opinion of your political views.

To distract from the Reagan argument, let's have another argument: Who was the most bad ass president in history? Personally I'm going for George Washington on the basis for helping defeat the British Empire and helping cement the US.

He was also a dick because he had a slave escape to free country, and Washington did try like hell to get her back under his heel and put her in her place.
In his own words-
from a letter to a man who was trying to get her to agree to come back-to which she said NO of course...

She wasn't even a person to Washington-just property. He wouldn't even call her by her name-she was just the Girl.

"I regret that the attempt you made to restore the Girl (Oney Judge as she called herself while with us, and who, without the least provocation absconded from her Mistress) should have been attended with so little Success. To enter into such a compromise with her, as she suggested to you, is totally inadmissible, for reasons that must strike at first view: for however well disposed I might be to a gradual abolition, or even to an entire emancipation of that description of People (if the latter was in itself practicable at this moment) it would neither be politic or just to reward unfaithfulness with a premature preference [of freedom]; and thereby discontent before hand the minds of all her fellow-servants who by their steady attachments are far more deserving than herself of favor"

Of course he was a man of his time. It was a different world. I do respect him in regards that he actually was out there with his troops and was at Valley Forge, which was hell.

Myself, I like Lincoln or FDR.

As far as all out balls, Teddy Roosevelt is not someone I would wanna get in a fight with. He was a Rough Rider, fer crying out loud! He hunted bears for fun!

Mr. Merchant has it right. TR or Andrew Jackson are about neck in neck for badass presidents.

Wussiest? Maybe Buchanan.

Jackson was most certainly a cold blooded mother f**ker. 
Buchanan? I don't know jack s**t about him.
I know that Calvin Coolidge was very low-key.
Hoover was a worthless jackass.

My favorite era was honestly Bush the elder. you forgot he was there and politics wasn't such a huge part of life.


His son should never have been president honestly. Every time he opened his mouth was torture. He was an idiot. Iraq is one thing but the bailouts were almost as big a scam. almost


most bad ass president hands down was Caligula

The most recent Presidential historian's poll put Reagan in the top ten, Sven, so I would say that your personal animus simply doesn't match the verdict of history thus far.   

As for the most bada$$ President, TR, hands down, with Andrew Jackson a close second.

Cracked.com has a great article from a few years back called "The Five Most Bada$$ Presidents of All Time."

the presidential polls are bulls**t. if you started war that killed a billion people you are automatically in the top 5 because the pollster are academics and media people who get paid to write about such things.

https://www.amazon.com/Recarving-Rushmore-Ranking-Presidents-Prosperity/dp/1598130226 (https://www.amazon.com/Recarving-Rushmore-Ranking-Presidents-Prosperity/dp/1598130226)






http://www.quebecoislibre.org/12/121015-9.html (http://www.quebecoislibre.org/12/121015-9.html)

Jesus never ran for office or sought political power, so why do so many people claiming to follow his ways do it?  :question:

Because most people in democracies are Christians.

Read it in the funny papers today....
Two kinds of people you should never trust:
Religious leaders who tell you how to vote
and Political leaders who tell you how to pray.

Tyler was the ONLY former President who sided with the Confederacy when the Civil War broke out.  He died in 1862, a traitor to the country that had entrusted him with its highest office.  He was also the first President to be expelled from the party which elected him.
Frankly, I don't agree with Libertarians on much, so this author doesn't impress me.

whose point are you trying to make  :cheers:

Noooo, by prejudices I meant things like you calling everyone from Alabama "inbred" and you stereotyping all billion and a half Chinese in ways that sound like the return of the Yellow Menace, or calling Walmart workers "bots" and other sweeping, unkind generalizations about conservatives, Christians, Trump voters, women, babies, past Presidents, the rich, the poor, the police, the military, doctors, priests, etc. etc. etc. You know, the attitude you have that makes you wish large groups of people, including my children, would "die"?

No, you mostly have a handle on my outlook, though you miss the fact I find danger in the extremes of both directions of the political spectrum, and also that I stand for free expression above nearly all else. Metaphorically speaking, these days the left seems to be burning more books than the right, so I am more leery of it.

Truth is when you're not spewing misinformation and hate you come up with many good topics here, from A or B to quite a few more. I just figure you're lonely, sad, misinformed, bigoted, confused, angry, and eat too much sugar, all of which are correctable.  :thumbup:

Why can't you two just admit that you're in love with each other?

Gee, I thought I was the "lonely, sad" one...   :question:

Nah, you were lonely "and bitter."  :wink:

No, no.  No.  It was "lonely and sad:.   :bluesad:

Hmmm, have you ever thought of moving in with Sven and mutually curing that condition then? I smell great sitcim potential. Or maybe Court TV movie of the week... Just sayin'.   :teddyr:

Did you all go out and vote today in the US? Remember, vote early and often.

Agreed. Make your voice heard, or be ignored.

Please, I get along even less well than you with that person.  And more to the point, I was quoting you, and I do not own "sad and lonely".  If there is a "condition" apparent that needs "curing", it's your need to insult and argue.   :thumbup: :smile:

Aw, John, you don't know when you're being teased, do you? Actually I consider you a sunny person with deep warmth and a jocular sense of humor, not at all literal-minded or tone deaf to a joke.

I too joke; this is why I smile.  But, I'm always honest.  In many quarters, a shortcoming.  Damned funny to me. 

You pair sure you aren't an old married couple?

You have insight...  However, I will take the compliment "a sunny person with deep warmth and a jocular sense of humor".  I don't, however, see Evelyn as "sunny" or "warm" or with a "sense of humor".  It's a thin line.   :thumbup: :smile:

AHD,  you may believe your waste material  does  not release airborne molecules that produce unpleasant stimulus  in the average human's olfactory nerves but your posts replying to mine with links to a trump speech disprove your hypothesis.

What even is that sentence?

The first part translates to "you think your s**t don't stink." The second part appears to refer to some past exchange between Sven and AHD.

Did I report something inaccurately?  Oh, yes, one might perceive a defense of you in my remarks so you must perceive an enemy since I defended you.   :question:
More to the point, the exchange is between ER and I.  Why go after me?  Put a cork in it.  



I meant to share this, I teased Sven with it (instead of laughing, he was like playing with matches):

http://youtu.be/ZuhLqeq_E0M (http://youtu.be/ZuhLqeq_E0M)  

Look in my karma (EVERYBODY) and see in September where Sven wrote: "for being a goatcocksucking ratcumstain."   :bluesad:  I couldn't resist teasing him.  The karma knock to me has a link to Sven's story about particularly bad behavior in a movie theater.  

So dems took the house, but  the pubs expanded the senate. Not bad, trum's agenda is dead now. Dems control investigations, trump is already displaying his ignorance and arrogance by threatening to investigate dems which he can't do now.

The fact remains that the pubs were in full voter suppression mode including a last minute change of rewuirements that made it impossible for a whole area t vote because they did not have hom,e street addressed but rural route numbers.

About the caravan...

(https://images.dailykos.com/images/608463/story_image/1362.png?1541532197)

........What does Pepe have to do with Trump?

He's become a symbol of professional a--holes and trolls,  I. E.  Trump supporters.

........ that whole thing is one of the dumbest things I have heard. It's a s**tty frog meme.

Sometimes I just wanna stick a gun in my mouth.  :bluesad:
But then I think--Nah!  :drink:
It's like a Bad Movie. I just have to see how it ends.  :wink:

How did you miss this whole story two years ago?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/pepe-frog-dead-meme-matt-furie-kills-alt-right-image-white-supremacists-hijacked-a7723586.html (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/pepe-frog-dead-meme-matt-furie-kills-alt-right-image-white-supremacists-hijacked-a7723586.html)

I never even heard of "Pepe" before the flap about the alt-right using him to support Trump.

Ahh, now I remember. Yeah, I think that it's a reaction to when Hillary's crew said that it's a symbol of hate. Personally I still think that the whole thing is a waste of energy.

Same here. I've never seen him used in a non hateful way.

Who the f**k is Pepe?  :question:

Cartoon frog.
EDIT: here's some Pepe, and I still believe that he's being falsely accused of being a meme of hate
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c5/5f/ee/c55feef728d9e2c1413eb274de18b6f1.jpg)
(https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/mobile/000/017/618/pepefroggie.jpg)

This was my FB post tonight:


After some thought and reflection, here are some of my takeaways from the mid-terms:

A. With the Republicans controlling the Senate and actually picking up a couple of seats, impeachment is most likely off the table. Although my personal loathing of Trump is so strong I would love nothing better than seeing him removed from the job in disgrace, the facts are that an impeachment trial would divide our already fractured country even further and most likely fail to convict, since there has never been a successful impeachment trial of an American President.

B. With the Democrats in control of the House, this President's life is about to get a good deal more difficult. They will investigate his wrongdoings with vigor and enthusiasm, and he won't get a free pass on his non-stop barrage of lies and exaggerations anymore. I foresee many subpoenas being issued to the White House over the next year, and some of them may be merited. Trump's team has played fast and loose with the law, and it's going to catch up with them.

C. Given that the President's party did better than many expected in terms of managing their losses, the more radical Democrats will not look as attractive to donors and pundits for 2020, which means that the likely nominee is going to be more centrist and lest extremist. That is good for the Democratic Party and for the country as a whole, since the center is where the real art of governance has traditionally taken place.

D. The likelihood of a strong challenge within the Republican Party to President Trump is lessened somewhat by the party's gains in the Senate and better than expected performance in the House. However, it is still quite likely that Trump will be challenged for the GOP nomination by a more traditional Republican candidate, especially if the parade of scandals, indictments, and criminal allegations continues. While this challenger will most likely not win the nomination, the presence of such a challenge usually bodes ill for the incumbent President in the general election.

E. All that being said, my favorite story of the whole night was that, in Nevada, a dead pimp won some 67% of the votes in his district and was elected to the United States of America. Only in America could a recently deceased brothel owner win a seat in the national legislature! Or, as I saw one meme put it: Dead democrats may get to vote, but dead Republicans actually win elections!!

Yep, republican voters sure showed their deep commitment to christian and biblical values by voting for a "whoremonger", to use a biblical era phrase. I loved that too.

Seriously if the right is going to wave the bible and scream "GOD!" all the time can't they act like they actually believe in that stuff?

First of all, President Trump was not on the ballot Tuesday, so I'm not sure who you are talking about unless it's the brothel guy.  That election was in Nevada, not a state known for its strong evangelical base!
But yes, I am appalled at the enthusiastic support that so many Christians have thrown to this godless man, and his utter immorality is the main reason that I could not vote for him.  However, the Democratic Party has done little to court Christian votes since the 80's, and their relentless championing of abortion and sexual deviancy seems unlikely to change.
I voted for a third party moral conservative candidate last time and will likely do so again . . . unless I choose to run myself, which I am thinking about.
So what about it?  Can I rely on your vote?

(https://scontent.fewr1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/44938117_2113525592005056_4540123689953263616_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_ht=scontent.fewr1-2.fna&oh=ddb1a83f2f227f99a27a819bfe294638&oe=5C83A511)

You over trump?  Yeah,  you've got  my vote. In the primary.  For the general i'm voting for the Dem.

As to why I bright the ochre tumor into this,  he's a symbol of one reason I don't like a lot of people claiming to be religious in america.  They like to beat other people over the head with their views and demand their views be respected and held above criticism,  but boy,  when the proverbial rubber meets the metaphorical road, they don't follow their views very closely.  They vote for candidates who worship Mammon if any god,  certainly not Jesus.

Yep.  And if the shooter is Muslim the response is "Ban Muslims!!!" If the shooter is Mexican it's "build the wall!!! " If he's black it's "Crush BLM! "

If he's  white as usual it's "This man obviously suffered severe mental illness,  he was obviously disturbed,  there were  a lot of issues that lead to this,  we can't blame all gun owners for this,  he got his gun legally so gun control won't work...... "

I honestly wonder what caused that marine to go on that bar room shooting spree.  I doubt we'll ever know.

Speaking of religion in American politics, all franken pretty much hit it dead center with this.


https://m.imgur.com/gallery/bCqRp

Personally I think the last real christian we had in office was jimmy carter, and look at how the right treated him.

Perhaps this explains why you have always treated me unkindly and shabbily.  I expect you think that because I have asserted that I am Catholic, I must be religious and hate me for it.  I have a long memory, but I don't follow any member's writing here except RCMerchant, so I now see why ER has repeatedly alluded to this "hate" thing you have for religion.  You might be surprised how often we'd agree, but friendliness and courtesy are missing from your makeup.  That's a deal breaker.  

RC has writing?

Not really, but compared to you I'm Robert f**king Frost!  :tongueout:

 :teddyr: :teddyr:

(https://www.biography.com/.image/t_share/MTE5NDg0MDU1MjkxOTIxOTM1/robert-frost-9303322-1-402.jpg)  :wink:

compared to you Robert Frost is quite tall

I almost put it in the picture of the day page but decided to put it here.,

(https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/46262353_10216477104415724_2761277042019270656_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_eui2=AeFfqkobHmCad4CsaSEHfqSbvAyFxmx4GcNpnQ5P5H_NROssVNMNFgDRrIJtHGwRi8yjqIJ2x17Z2MKK2P8_S0lflIZeEbz23fUtLh1gUk3PQw&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=7db1b07d4fcd71913414bf0d5d4b596a&oe=5C790A2F)

In an old Hindu proverb there was once an angry man who spent all day denying the gods. Every waking hour he said to anyone who would listen: "There are no gods, there are no gods, there are no gods, there are no gods...."

So declared this angry man.

One day the angry man fell dead in the road and to his surprise he passed into the bardo, where the god Ganesh sat waiting for him.

Filled with surprise, the angry man demanded of the deity,"Why am I in this place? I never even believed in you!"

"Yes, that's true" Ganesh agreed, "but you spent so much time talking about gods all day long that you kept us constantly in people's thoughts, and for that," the elephant god chuckled, "we are grateful."

You know that's false, Trump would never be out in the rain. It would damage his toupee. :tongueout:

I've just read that handbag magnate Lana Marks - born in South Africa - is going to be the new USA Ambassador to South Africa.

Well... that was a low blow!
Low blow-get it? Cuz I'm short!  :twirl:

What made me laugh my ass off was when Our Fearless Leader said-in a 'tweet!' that folks need voter ID to buy f**king CEREAL.
I s**t you not.
Should I get Fruit Loops or Cream of Wheat? I dunno!  :question:
If I'm buying Count Chocula ,I may not be able to! s**t! I better get a voter ID!  :buggedout:

Oh! And folks go out to they're cars and change shirts or hats, and re-vote!
Is he as stupid as Lois Lane?  :question:

He also said the California had fires because people didn't rake the leave in the forfests.....


https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-california-wildfires-how-star-blame-climate-change-leaves-raking-1220377 (https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-california-wildfires-how-star-blame-climate-change-leaves-raking-1220377)

Naturallynhis long term goal is to put forfests under corporate control.

Make America rake again! 

Well former president George H W Bush passed away. No idea what he was like, he's before my time.

to paraphrase Dave Chapelle "Damn, Macron f**ked up!"

Mark my words- It will happen here. Worse.
Bad s**t is coming!  :bouncegiggle:
Ah- I love Anarchy....

http://youtu.be/i3BDlx_9Tz4 (http://youtu.be/i3BDlx_9Tz4)

the last guy Hollande didn't have riots but he had even lower approval. When France doesn't like the president its much more unified than here.

It's his own fault. There were regular protests for weeks and he blew it off. so it gathered steam

Yeah, Macron is doing a good job of messing things up. He is being seen as a president for the rich with his tax policies and when the French are unhappy they tend to get quite active about it, although at least for a change they are not burning lorries full of sheep.

they stopped the tax which stopped the riots. hey idiot, next time don't wait for the riot.

france makes a quadrillion dollars a year from tourism they shouldn't have any taxes

This new thing where you type the word IDIOT into Google Images and Donald Trump's picture comes up: I'm not a fan but that is incredibly disrespectful.  :thumbdown:

To show respect to one unworthy of it is to disrespect those worthy of respect.

Agreed. I've known a few idiots who were otherwise damn fine people, and none of them deserve to be associated with trump.

There is a strain of American political theory that would argue it's important to be disrespectful to the President. It's one of the checks on the power of the office.

I believe the military rule that you salute the rank, not its holder should probably apply to the dignity of the office of President, whoever occupies that role, and however much that person might fail in the role of President. Not the reverence paid royalty, but a respect for what the office is, so I have to agree with our South African friend. That's why I always tried to say "President Obama" and "President Bush" no matter how deeply I disagreed with those Presidents.

I believe this topic of Googling "idiot" arose out of hearings about Google's partiality toward certain political leanings, which certainly exists, of course, but you know, I am not sure I can entirely fault Google for that, since supporting an agenda has always been part of the business of newspapers and the like.

Does Google owe the world impartiality and neutrality in content delivery? It'd be nice, but does the mindset of the operators of a business not have a right to direct how the business operates? For instance Hobby Lobby and its Christian overtones, the blatantly pro-Israel mentality of an accounting firm I deal with.

If Google is prejudiced against conservative thought and biased toward leftist opinion, isn't that Google's right? And isn't it the right of the marketplace to adjust to any existing desire on the part of those who use the internet to put forth alternatives in competition? (Or to try to, since Google right now is probably more dominant in its field than Standard Oil was in its time.)

Google should be up front about how it does steer web searches, and consumer reaction aside, be left alone to do so.

If this sounds like a contradiction, it's really not. Setting a President up to be called an idiot in web searches (as a Democrat pointed out, by the way) is disrespectful, though Google has the right to do it, though by doing so Google shows what it is.

Maybe that's a good thing.

Google doesn't manipulate image search results. Pictures of Trump are coming up marked "idiot" because people on the web are tagging pictures of Trump with the word "idiot" on pages with lots of contextual text using the word "idiot." It's only accelerating now because even pages defending Trump or reporting the story objectively are necessarily using the word "idiot" in their stories.

Really hoping they walk away. I doubt the benefits would live up to his promises.

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeen/1630776/trump-organisation-warns-it-will-walk-away-if-north-east-housing-plans-are-rejected/?fbclid=IwAR0mjHUYlH2Bpp3pUGcnkMU321GPyIV2UMx2yPiTYCe9EAgBG6_-R3ZbGlg (http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeen/1630776/trump-organisation-warns-it-will-walk-away-if-north-east-housing-plans-are-rejected/?fbclid=IwAR0mjHUYlH2Bpp3pUGcnkMU321GPyIV2UMx2yPiTYCe9EAgBG6_-R3ZbGlg)

Hell, if the whole thing was closed down and packed up I doubt there would be too many tears shed.

How we do know Google doesn't manipulate image search results?

Occam's razor. The normal unconscious operation of Google's algorithm that occurs a billion times a day explains the observed phenomenon perfectly well. We'll never know for sure but it makes more sense than the alternative, which would require a ton of currently nonexistent evidence to prove.

 Trump's an idiot.
It's like the f**king sky is blue.
If you type 'Nazi'- you get Hitler.
You type 'idiot' you get Trump.

If you do an image search for "very stable genius" you also get pictures of Trump.

Next to Mr.Ed.

Could it be because the ochre tumor acts like an idiot?  He doesn't know no to work an umbrella,  he can't remmebertbe name of the town he just toured for a photo op,  he doesn't get that murdering dictators are bad and democracies are good,  he thinks clean coal exists,  he doesn't get the fact presidential power is limited by the constitution,  hecd ran one business after the other into the ground,  etc.

This is kind of fun. Also, if you search for "best president," 7 of the top ten hits show Trump's face. Half of the attached articles are satirical, but still.

I never could understand why chrsitians in america get into politics. They seem so certain that absolutely everything is going to go their god's way no matter what we mere mortals want or do, yet the seem to feel they just have to get into politics so they can make christian values into laws that are forced on people ultimately at the point of police guns.


If christians really think their god exists and is so all powerful why not stay out of politics since it doesn't matter what governments do, their awesome god will have his way no matter what it costs us.

When i see christians so feverishly running for office I can't help thinking that it's almost as if, deep down they realize their god can't do anything at all, really, so they must make his will come to pass by seizing worldly power.


Also I'm going to say I do not want christians in political power, because they pretty much generally look for ways to abuse their power to force their views on other pepople and make life just that much harder on people who aren't part of their collective.

Also, I don't want people who are convinced the world is coming to an end and it's all going to be great for them and to hell (literally) with everyone else in power. I don't want someone who believes that humans can't affect the climate and the environment because it's all god's will. I want people who acknowledge that we are affecting the climate and the environment and we can do something about it and that the end of the world is something to look forward to.

I want leaders who want to prevent the end of the world as much as possible. I want leaders who will try to do things to make things better instead of just chiming "Oh it's all god's will!"

You are confusing people  and  God.  They do not speak for such, though they may imagine that they do.  I believe that God would be diplomatic yet direct. 

I think, otherwise, I might agree with everything you say. 

I NEVER thought I would see the day when I missed Nixon.  :bluesad:

Well, I realize that many Christians have done bad things.  That is true of every faith in the history of the world; but most of the bad done by Christians has been done when they ignore what Jesus actually taught.
To be honest, we are often our own worst enemy.

Thank you.

This is true.  Humans evolved from what we would call animals who had a string survival drive.  Killing others of your kind and taking their food,  etc,  was a valid survival strategy for our earliest ancestors,  but as we evolved to be social animals we developed traits that made it easier to work together,  and those who could work together we're better at surviving than the "lone wolves" so these traits became reinforced.  But at that base of our brains we still have the animal drive to survive and thrive at all costs without regard to others.  That's the paradoxical duality of humanity, we evolved from animals that our personal survival above all else but evolved into social animals that do better by cooperation.  We are a conflicted people within and without. 

" But at that base of our brains we still have the animal drive to survive and thrive at all costs without regard to others."

I wouldn't construe the drive to survive as a "lone wolf" as being different from having no regards for others. independence is pretty universally seen as a positive trait.

also depends on how you define "lone" for example:

Laura Ingalls wilder and little huose on the prairie were heavily dependent on their families and larger community, but didn't pay taxes or get services from the central govt. I don't think? maybe they had the post office or something, the point is there are gradations of lone wolf and "working together".

You know there is a concept that a half-empty glass is also half-full, right?

I think inside your perpetual anger at the world not handing you what you feel you deserve, your jealousy of happy people has given you an unrealistic view of Christians you are too afraid to confront and therefore have to correct, so like all bigots you find the distortions of reality appealing and seek any affirmation that you are right.

Jesus said not all who call him Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and it's true there are many self-identifying Christians who fail to live up to Christ's ideals and even harm Christianity, but there's also the other side, which is much larger, that being people who despite their faults do try to be good and are bolstered by their relationship with Jesus. Hating is very easy, and you are very lazy, I can tell that by the hours you keep on here, getting up late, staying up late, having no job, clearly loving no one more than yourself, making "sour grapes" your unstated motto.

Also you're crazy, there's that factor.

But how about you challenge your own convictions and see if they stand up to reality? Look for the good in this life, because it is there, even in people who completely disagree with you. It would take courage and effort, but you should try those things sometime and see how you feel afterward.

Ever wonder why I invest time in replying to you in here? It's not that I hate you, it's that I really do pity you. You're like a human version of Gollum.

 :bouncegiggle:

Your calling people crazy?
That's like me calling you crazy.
I don't think anybody on this board is crazy.
But I do think we are all kinda twisted.  :tongueout:

Sven is young and angry. ER is young and angry.
I'm old and angry.
We're all f**king angry!  :hot:
Ain't it groovy?  :twirl:
Merry f**king Christmas!

I have to keep reassuring myself that my mental health gets tests all the time, so I must either be acceptably crazy or still north of the cutoff line.

Sven's a lot older than you'd think, and I'm not angry, just poking the turd on the beach with a long stick.

This place is my sound-off zone, and in my day to day life I'm a lot more....shrug. I bet 20% of the times I've cussed in my life have been on this site.

Dam. Use your Christian upbringing...don't call the person your debating a turd.
Me-I ain't a Christian.  You say you are- but being very aggressive about it is not very Christ-like.
Or maybe it is- I don't pay a lot of attention to religion too much no more, it's all  crazy s**t to me.
P.S.
You come across as very angry all the time.

I'm a bad Christian, barely holding on by the tips of my fingers, denying my instincts in every way, holding in a raging flash flood that stirs in my pagan (small p)  soul, driving me into the night to howl and kick and growl at the moon in cemeteries while reading Mary Shelley and grinding my fists into the dirt and cursing my mortality as the wind gusts and the clouds form diabolical Indian-ink shapes in the coiling heavens.

But, noooo, Sven isn't the turd I mentioned poking, I meant....the crazy stuff that washes up on the beach of life. The turd is a lot bigger than ol' Sven here.

I didn't know I came across as angry. Darn, I'm really happy and upbeat. I think I let loose certain parts of myself here that maybe....slant that view. I get down in the mud here and so that aspect gets exaggerated when I'm much calmer and more polite, I think. Remember how the first seven years I was here I was a wallflower?

Above all I'm usually half-kidding when I say something over the top on here.

Yeah. You come across as angry.
You don't post about films too much.
Mostly just your life and why your p**sed at the moment.
Oh- if your a bad Christian and don't practice what you preach- don't f**king throw it in my face.
Because I'll throw it right back.
You b***h at Sven all day long, and you do what you b***h about-
You hate. You do your best to grind him into the ground.

I started a thread "Things you Hate"
and you wrote you hate 'Hate'?
I don't see that. You eat it up.

Of course I came out of my Mama b***hing and screaming and havn't stopped since.
I f**king hate everything.  :hatred:
I get so p**sed I just wanna drop an atom bomb on the whole f**king world.  :hot:

Then I have a drink and smoke a bowl and I'm OK.
Self medication.

Oh yeh?  How old is he?   :question:   :smile:

Yes, that's true, but then it's just incoherent rants jumping from subject to subject uninterested in anybody else's words.  Werdz.  Wurdz.  Turds.  Ha!  Back on topic!  Now what beach did said turd wash up on? 

The turds on your beach!
Poke me! Whip me , beat me, make me write bad checks!  :twirl:

Well, at least you've got a sense of humor. 

I just found out Trump wants to legalize pot.

GET THE PICTURE, LIBS; NO WALL, NO WEED!

I wrote this and posted it to my FB feed this afternoon:

IS DONALD TRUMP THE NEW JOE MCCARTHY?

First of all, I would ask all my Trump supporting friends to read this post in its entirety before commenting on it. Same with you who are Trump critics - frankly, I think both sides will find some points to agree with here, and perhaps some points for discussion and debate as well. Just, please take it all in FIRST, then comment.

Now, a history lesson. Joe McCarthy was a no-name Senator from Wisconsin, generally scorned as an exceptionally useless member of that body who had served four years without sponsoring a single significant piece of legislation. He was doomed to be a one-term wonder, except that he caught hold of a hot-button issue that he rode to re-election and eternal notoriety. Four years into his lackluster term of office, he stunned Washington and the nation by boldly claiming that the United States government was riddled with Communist spies; particularly the State Department. For the next four years, he accused pretty near every Democrat in the country of being a Communist or a Communist sympathizer; even going so far as to say that Secretary of State George Marshall, a five star general and the architect of America's victory in World War II, was a dupe of Stalin. (Note: It was Marshall's plan to reconstruct the war-torn nations of Western Europe that KEPT Greece, Italy, and possibly France from going Communist!) The fact that virtually every person mcCarthy accused of having Communist ties was actually innocent meant nothing to him. The Senator was drunk on power - when he wasn't literally drunk! - and ruining the lives of his fellow Americans meant nothing to him, as long as he remained famous as America's anti-Red crusader. Eventually his lies and false accusations caught up with him, and he fell from power spectacularly, was censured by the Senate, and drank himself to death.

Here is the truly ironic part: America's government in 1950 WAS riddled with communist spies! We know now that Stalin had planted multiple agents throughout every level of the U.S. government and the military; he boasted to the Politburo on one occasion that he had agents in every Executive Department of the government and in every branch of the American military. What McCarthy did, by his vicious rhetoric and nonstop false accusations, was totally discredit the cause of anti-communism and create sympathy for the very people he despised most. In short, Joe McCarthy was the worst thing that ever happened to the cause of anti-communism - at the very beginning of the Cold War, no less! Had it not been for the feckless Wisconsin Senator, American history might have been much, much different.

Seventy years later, a strange parallel emerges. You see, illegal immigration is a REAL problem in America. We do need to have more secure borders, a better idea of who is coming and going, and a comprehensive reform of our immigration system that will allow people who want to come here and work to do so legally while keeping out those who are coming here with malicious intent. Illegal immigration places a huge drain on our social services, especially down here in the border states (one reason health care professionals, especially emergency room workers, get so emotional about this). Although the crime rate among undocumented workers is exaggerated by right wing demagogues, there is still no doubt that drug trafficking and human trafficking do take place along our Southern border, and we need to shut those things down. In short, Trump has a valid point!
 But President Trump's approach - his constant flow of hateful and abusive speech towards all critics, his disdain for compromise and finding a middle way, his avalanche of untruths (yes, all politicians lie, but none has ever lied with the frequency that Trump does - an average of 30 falsehoods a day!), and his hateful speech about Latinos, stereotyping refugees desperately seeking asylum as armed invaders out to plunder our border towns - have made real progress on the issue impossible. By banishing the middle ground, Trump has destroyed the one place where real reform comes from. By feeding the fires of racial and ideological hatred, Trump has gotten Americans so busy yelling at one another that they have quit talking to one another. By his insistence on the Wall, the whole Wall, and nothing but the Wall, Trump has made sure that other border security measures are either neglected or relegated to secondary status. By demonizing his critics and political opponents as "open border fanatics," he has CREATED open border fanaticism at a level that never existed before. Not a foot of his wall has been built yet; with a Democratic congress about to take office, it likely never will be. The first act of his successor will most likely be to undo whatever measures Trump is able to undertake along our Southern border, likely making the problem worse in the name of correcting racist policies. Trump's rhetoric has alienated far more Americans than it has attracted, and will make it impossible for any real progress on immigration reform or border security to be made, now or in the near future. Somewhere, the shade of Joe McCarthy is surely laughing.

If he does get his wall built, my guess is someone will just dig tunnels beneath it and the whole damn thing will turn out to be an expensive waste of money.

Really? You think?  :bouncegiggle:

But he and his base will get to declare victory over the "leftists" and "libs," which is what it is really about for them--not improving the lives of Americans.

If you want to talk McCarthyism, you could start with the bamster, who threw a guy in jail for making a video nobody’d heard of to cover up his Benghazi debacle, A president under whom cartoonists couldn’t make some wisecrack about some zoo primate that had to be put down without a visit from the secret service, as it could somehow be twisted into some vague threat on the bamster’s life in some very strange way. An administration under which his opponents really had to watch what they said, lest they be called all sorts of ridiculous names associated with racism.

Compare that to the number of death threats & name calling Trump and his supporters have had to put up with daily since 2016. It’s been my opinion from the very beginning that Trump’s crass behavior is the byproduct of eight years of name calling as an argument.

I was no fan of President Obama, but he NEVER behaved or spoke the way Trump does.  I disagreed with many of his policies, but at the end of the day I could have some respect for him as a person.  Trump's behavior is beyond the pale for an 8th grader, much less for a President.

To make a long story short, Trump is reacting to his enemies on a level they would understand.

I understand that this is not your position but your explanation of Trump's behavior, so this is not an attack on you personally.

You make it sound like an younger brother complaining that his older brother called him a name first.

We've got an real life country to run here. We can't afford immature politicians and name-calling. It's actually dangerous.

Speaking of politics,  plus the fact this  is the time to make predictions for the new year, I'm going to bet I can predict one of trump's dick moves of the year.

This is the year that the so called "American Taliban". John Walker Lindh, gets out of prison after a 20 year sentence.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/06/23/john-walker-lindh-detainee-001-in-the-global-war-on-terror-will-go-free-in-two-years-what-then/

Also some other people who were hit with massive sentences post 911 are approaching release dates.

I bet you trump will pull something to stop this just to appeal to his base. Just to make himself look and feel like a tough guy.  Maybe he will order Lindh seized upon release and held indefinitely as a potential terrorist. That ought to make his base feel good. They love it when they're hurting someone "not of the body".

His release is scheduled for may, when he plans to move to Ireland.

I think he and his family need to be prepared for a little "trumprise" on or near his release date. I honestly would not be surprised if trump set tis up in secret and no one hears about it until Lindh is literally released, only to be instantly seized and whisked away at the gate.

Given trump's childish cruelty and sadism I could see that ochre tumor setting this all up in secret,  having lunch "released" while he family is waiting for him,  only to be tackled and pigpiled at the gate,  dragged back inside and held indefiniteky under the presidents  powers under the badly named "patriot act".

I can just see trump calling a press conference,  waddling up to the mic,  asking if peolle remmebr "the american taliban" then saying he was just released from prison,  then!  With a bug evil smile,  announcing he had a little surprise for him,  and ordered him detained as a terrorist suspect,  ending with "He ain't getting out while I'm in office!"

His fans will love it,  they seem to love  hurting other people .

If I make it to may we'll  see if I was right.

Somebody needs to explain that to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer

They called me a name first. Mom!  :tongueout: :wink:

For 8 years president Clinton was abused and assaulted constantly, the term 'libtard" was coined for anyone not in the fox new collective,  democrats we're called traitors and Satan worshippers by Ann counter and others,  jokes about killing liberals became popular,  etc.

Then for 8 years we we're told we had to support the shrub or we we're j patriotic,  and criticism of l'il bush was considered treason.

8 years of Obama resulted in more jokes about killing Obama,  his family,  etc.  During the 2016 campaign a trump supporter called for a "liberal genocide" in america,  which the media barely mentioned.

After decades of having excrement,  threats,  jokes about being murdered and more thrown in our fades we non conservatives are throwing it back. Do unto others, remember?  

So get used to it,  snowflakes,  your own vileness is coming back at you now.  Amd cry all you want abiut it,  I look forward to making trump lover tears martinis.

And yes after decades since the days of Reagan of democrats and liberals  being subjected to an ever increasing level of hate,  abuse and violent rhetorhic I have come to hate the far right,  as embodied by trump and his supporters. I hate them and am not ashamed of it.

You are talking about the "free press" "fake news", right? 

 
That's an excuse for a lifetime of bad behavior; eh, "crass behavior"... I've lived in the Tri-State area my whole life and was aware of Trump's existence for DECADES.  He was always a crass publicity hound... and an infamous bankrupt.  Stories of nonpayment of bills and aisles of lawsuits become overwhelming. 

I guess you're not old enough to remember the press narratives on these incidents, Such as how even after Hamid Karzai insisted that wasn't the case, the press went looking for the actors, and kept talking about this video as though it was still the case, or how Members of Congress AND the Press kept parroting this false narrative about comparing the president to a monkey because he was black, and the threat to kill him was in poor taste, even though that wasn't what the jokes were about at all.


If you want to get into excuses, look a the saints & angels you're supporting.
As for me, I spent eight years in Texas, spent most of my life being told I'd never be good for anything other than unskilled labor by employment councilors, until a bunch of fat cats in suits on the hill started parroting "jobs Americans aren't willing to do", and found myself forced out of the only line of work I ever knew by criminals and bullies.

I'm tired of being polite about this, and I'm just plain sick of my leaders trying to be reasonable about this, when after twelve years in UNPAID leftist radio, I hafta sit & push the buttons as these people get louder, & more ignorant.

I voted for somebody who's going to be ballsy, outspoken & determined.

The video that is being referred to, "innocence of Muslims" , did in fact cause violent riots in many islamic countries and despite denials by the right may have been a major cause of the attack on the beh ghazi embassy, which had diminished security forced due to the Republican created budget crisis known as the sequester.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_of_Muslims (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_of_Muslims)

The maker was arrested for violation of his parole which he was on for a conviction of bank fraud. Part of his parole was not to use the internet without approval from his parole officer which he did not get in order to use the net to make and distribute his film.

He also created a false alias to make the video under, which was a violation of his parole. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/us/maker-of-anti-islam-video-gets-prison-term.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/us/maker-of-anti-islam-video-gets-prison-term.html) Those are the reasons he went to prison.

(https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/48426140_2509225449093823_8945872443218591744_o.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=3ff8c2fc7c6953c3049fb8600aa25f1f&oe=5CD55AE1)

(https://i.imgur.com/ZKADkSi.png)

I'm supporting?  I don't support saints or angels... in a figurative sense.  I am a fan of Saint Francis. 

I understand your last statement, but what are you on about?  I don't understand what you're tired of being polite about... "UNPAID leftist radio"?   :question:  Maybe you should work for Alex Jones...?  I think politics is bigger than anecdotal commentary or personal experience. 

Politics too often seems to be an emotional decision for people rather than a rational one.

People also have an unfortunate tendency to "choose sides" and then root for their "team" to score points against the other "team," like it was a ball game between heated rivals.

Your political views become part of your identity. People will defend their political "side" to irrational lengths, because a challenge to one's identity is a challenge to a deep part of the self. 

We would be better off with no political parties, and instead discuss each individual issue facing the citizens and how best to solve it. A utopian idea, I know.

That was the idea our founders originally embraced - and then they went on to create the first parties, anyway!!! LOL

meanwhile:

"Between Christmas 2017 and Christmas 2018, the US government added a staggering $1,370,760,684,441.54 to the national debt."

Sorry... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5zIlWSMlU8#)

Suggests that targeted ads have helped people become less civil, since reactionary stories get more reactions. But Facebook's software doesn't know the stories are polarizing; it just knows they're getting shared more often. It's a computer! It has no concept of right, or wrong, of denotation or connotation, of context or motivation! All it has are numbers! It only delivers what we react to. To quote Pogo: "We have met the enemy, and he is us." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogo_(comic_strip)#%22We_have_met_the_enemy_and_he_is_us.%22 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogo_(comic_strip)#%22We_have_met_the_enemy_and_he_is_us.%22)

Is it true that trump has said he doesn't care about the national debt as by the time it becomes unmanagable he won't be around to deal with it? Heard this from a few sources but nothing 100% official and I've not really being following the news quite as closely as I used to recently.

Reported by an anonymous source, so probably but not definitely.

He did brag he would erase the national debt in 8 years, and it's currently headed in the opposite direction.

I've almost given up on watching the news. None of it's good. Just p**ses me off, or usually, just brings me down.
Trump's a crook.
 And not even a good one! At least Nixon had the smarts not to brag about it in public.

most of our spending in the future will go towards interest on the debt

Here's some good news for you RC.  I laughed and smiled at it.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/big-game-hunter-shot-dead-11937664 (https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/big-game-hunter-shot-dead-11937664)

And here's more good news for people tired of bad news.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/social-worker-left-surprise-dollar11m-to-childrens-charities/ar-BBRwcpZ?OCID=ansmsnnews11 (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/social-worker-left-surprise-dollar11m-to-childrens-charities/ar-BBRwcpZ?OCID=ansmsnnews11)

And from a good story to a controversial one.

Apparently everything really is political now, even Rudolph:

https://www.avclub.com/we-regret-to-inform-you-that-rudolph-the-red-nosed-rein-1821393418 (https://www.avclub.com/we-regret-to-inform-you-that-rudolph-the-red-nosed-rein-1821393418)  :bluesad:

Apprentice Producers Struggled to Make Trump—and His Decisions—Seem Coherent 

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/12/mark-burnett-profile-in-the-new-yorker-apprentice-producers-struggled-to-make-trump-and-his-decisions-seem-coherent.html (https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/12/mark-burnett-profile-in-the-new-yorker-apprentice-producers-struggled-to-make-trump-and-his-decisions-seem-coherent.html) 


 Television producer Mark Burnett was a key part in making President Donald Trump possible. When he approached the now-president to host the Apprentice, Trump was a mogul on the decline. But Burnett, and the popular reality show, turned him into a household name that was synonymous with success. The New Yorker talked to several people involved in the show for a profile on Burnett that has several interesting revelations about how producers worked to make Trump seem bigger than he was.

“He had just gone through I don’t know how many bankruptcies. But we made him out to be the most important person in the world. It was like making the court jester the king.” Bill Pruitt, a producer on the show, said, “We walked through the offices and saw chipped furniture. We saw a crumbling empire at every turn. Our job was to make it seem otherwise.”   

Although Trump immediately proved himself to be an ideal character for reality television, producers had to do a lot of editing work to make him seem coherent. “He wouldn’t read a script — he stumbled over the words and got the enunciation all wrong,” Katherine Walker, a producer on the show, said. “But off the cuff he delivered the kind of zesty banter that is the lifeblood of reality television.” Although editors “cleaned it up so that he was his best self,” Walker is convinced “Donald thinks that he was never edited.”   



continued...

What if we just ignore things like this to death?

Not a bad idea.

With stories like the Rudolph one, the problem is you only need like a couple hundred idiots on social media to cause a viral sensation and consequent outrage. Even though millions and millions of people think it's a stupid argument.

Pacman remind me to karma you when I can do it again in 6 hours.

That's like the fake rumor that Christians everywhere were outraged by the change in design on the Starbucks cups a couple of years ago.
I'm regularly plugged into churches, I teach at a Christian school, and I have hundred of Christian contacts in my social media.  The vast majority of them were either unaware the cups had changed or else simply didn't care.  I don't think I met a single actual person who was personally offended by the new cup design, and only a handful that copied and pasted the original meme someone made about it.

Fake controversy all the way around.

http://www.platypuscomix.net/educational/stoplikingthings.html (http://www.platypuscomix.net/educational/stoplikingthings.html)

Satirical article, arguing against all entertainment.

Spent most of the last three weeks avoiding the news. I wonder what will await me on Tuesday when I start to catch up on current events.

Let me catch you up. About two and a half weeks ago they found Bigfoot and Amelia Earheart hanging with Andy Kaufman, who was pretending to be Kanye West all these years. It was a big news week.

Who is Andy Kaufman?

tony clifton's alter ego.

LOLOL

The biggest bombshells from Michael Cohen's testimony before Congress


https://www.yahoo.com/news/the-biggest-bombshells-from-michael-cohens-testimony-before-congress-224614574.html   (https://www.yahoo.com/news/the-biggest-bombshells-from-michael-cohens-testimony-before-congress-224614574.html)

...
Hush money reimbursements from Trump

In his opening statement and throughout his testimony, Cohen made clear that hush money payments made to porn actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal came at the direction of Trump himself.

“Mr. Trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a home equity line of credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign,” Cohen testified, adding, “I am providing a copy of a $35,000 check that President Trump personally signed from his personal bank account on Aug. 1, 2017 — when he was president of the United States — pursuant to the cover-up, which was the basis of my guilty plea, to reimburse me — the word used by Mr. Trump’s TV lawyer — for the illegal hush money I paid on his behalf. This $35,000 check was one of 11 check installments that was paid throughout the year — while he was president.”

Furthermore, Cohen testified that a year after being elected president Trump told Cohen to mislead the public about his knowledge of the payments.

Why it matters: Cohen is going to jail over the payments to Daniels and McDougal. If Trump told him to make those payments, he’s guilty, too...  

...
Trump may have known about his son’s meeting with Russians

For years, President Trump has insisted that he knew nothing of his son Don Jr.’s June 9, 2016, meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer in order to obtain damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

In his prepared statement, Cohen implied that Trump had advance knowledge of the meeting, and approved of it.

“I remember being in the room with Mr. Trump, probably in early June 2016, when something peculiar happened. Don Jr. came into the room and walked behind his father’s desk — which itself was unusual,” Cohen said in his statement. “People don’t just walk behind Mr. Trump’s desk to talk to him. I recalled Don Jr. leaning over to his father and speaking in a low voice, which I could clearly hear, and saying: ‘The meeting is all set.’ I remember Mr. Trump saying, ‘OK, good ... let me know.”

Why it matters: Meeting with a foreign national to solicit help in a U.S. election is a violation of U.S. law.

Something seems to have went wrong with the North Korean summit today. Expecting a news conference shortly to provide some details.

After trump opened that anus between its nose and the first of it's many chins and  began making noises about how great north Korea would be with resort hotels on its beaches I can't blame them.

Maybe not every country wants to be a resort for wealthy Americans and other foreigners.

I think Kim Jong un wants to move into the future. Its 2019 they cant hold up much longer with their bizarro smurf village style of communism. Trump and co aren't doing it right though. forget the nukes, just drop the sanctions. Once north koreans can get american goods and so forth DPRK will be a memory

NK is not communist, it's fascist.

Is it just me, or does Steven Miller look like he sleeps in the attic during the day, hanging upside down like a bat?

svengoolie- if they were real fascists they'd be doing a lot better economically i think

"The DPRK is the Juche-oriented socialist state which embodies the idea and leadership of Comrade Kim II Sung, the founder of the Republic "

Whatever they claim to be, Kim Jung's a piece of s**t.

I doubt any piece of dung in history murdered as many people as Kim Jong Un has.

Trump was getting ass-f**ked by Kim Dung from day 1.
Unreal. And he comes home to a job he has no clue how to do.
With all his cronies going to jail or about to.
He's f**ked.

Sadly I fear Kim Jung and his entire family count as no more than enthusiastic amateurs in the grand scheme of things and yet once more all the parts of the world who should learned lessons from history do nothing to prevent such a state continuing.

Because people are stupid.  :bluesad:.

Indeed.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0lkfo6WoAAmg5A.png)

waitresses at local brazilian steakhouse showing support for their candidate

Some people will accuse me of being anti american, some will accuse me of supporting north korea's horrible regime and what I'm actually doing is telling the truth here.

During the Korean war america did things in Korea that would be considered war crimes if anotber country did them.

https://www.vox.com/2015/8/3/9089913/north-korea-us-war-crime (https://www.vox.com/2015/8/3/9089913/north-korea-us-war-crime)


America,  naturally,  considers itself above the standards other countries are held to. We don't teach this little incident in our history courses.  MASH never referred to it.  Most Americans today don't know it happened.

But the people  of north Korea remember it.  Their grandparents have raised them with memories of it,  their children are educated to know about it.

We tend to forget what we do to other  countries. We don't teach our children much history.  So maybe we don't understsnd how other countries can have bad feelings towards us,  we let our leaders tell us they hate us for our freedoms.

But we did this to north Korea, and they remmeber.  Their vile government uses this to keep the peolle in a state of fear and hate towards america and other countries.  

Now you know some of the rest of the story.

You decide:  

(https://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/7-things-trump-henchman-stephen-miller-has-been-compared-to.jpg)  

(https://www.batworlds.com/wp-content/uploads/fruit_bat_picture_624.jpg)

(http://www.ukhorrorscene.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ntv4.jpg)

Or

(https://www.bing.com/th?id=OIP.e2K3wBaR5v1WZ4hDSPcIrAHaE8&pid=Api)

I changed my mind- even the bat looks scared of him!  :buggedout:

OK- wrap yer brain around this-
Republican senators keep calling Micheal Cohen a liar. They're right. He is. He said Trump was as pure as the driven snow.
BUT!
Cohen lied under oath.
 And so they are saying- "Yes! he lied- he's a proven liar!'
 But even the act of saying that-and saying -"Hey he's lying again!"
So seems like make up yer f**king mind! Was he lying then or now?

Yeah, if Cohen was a slimy, lying, perjuring crook, what does it say about the Donald that he kept the man as his personal "fixer" for ten years??

Edcellent.  Which is higher than excellent. 

Aye aye, Captain Bligh!  :cheers:

Trump supporters are hypocrites of the  most  despicable type. Many of them attacked Obama and cknton for every thing they said, every act they committed,  every breath they took and yet support trump fanatically despite he is everything they usually wrongly accused Clinton and Obama of being.


Even worse are  the peolle who attacked them on religious grounds yet support trump zealously.

(https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/52852015_2111147222298811_7885132683519459328_o.jpg?_nc_cat=101&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=34d6338d6778d7a01c5709bf9512aa48&oe=5D1E68F1)

(https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/53204860_2063548380367751_6038254732869369856_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=21aad087a9d3c639d819b947ac59bf23&oe=5CE5494F)

I don't follow any of the trump russia stuff. on twitter the people who talk about it are like scientologists they just want to be part of some thing where they can talk to famous actors or pretend they do

(https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/53226601_1494547894014902_543420191665553408_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_eui2=AeFEbowOe7bYbW5Ot0MeZh7xv9ZacrjPTjsQwCOzajKUSkqikjTN2fs7n72eXnpSV9-DMleZ4ARfm52YL7fLptcPLIW36le0L3dmux1j_u2PjA&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=b3138763eaf726a855c8d37e41fed86f&oe=5D27F0C4)

Then you are very ill-informed.
Watch the news.Any channel-well..maybe not Fox. Fox is like Trumps personal propaganda channel.
And that's not biased. Because Fox is the National Enquirer of TV news.

I could just about kick you in the pants for making it so I can't karma this post,  ya git!

RC- its just a silly conspiracy theory. no basis

plus, Russia is cool now they're killing ISIS in Syria

Good lawd, you can't see the forest because of all the trees .  
It's a proven fact they meddled in our elections. It's also a fact that Manafort is going to prison. And I don't now how many others have been indited. Robert Mueller (who's a Republican, by the way) has been digging into this for 2 years now. Why was Comey fired? Trump said on TV in an interview with Lester Holt that he fired Comey "-because of the Russia thing." Why did he nag his own Attorney General into resigning?
Because that old bastard recused himself. He wanted no part of this s**t.
Why hasn't Trump agreed to testify? Just yesterday, Eric Trump went on national radio and said that everyone involved in the House Committee Hearings and the upcoming hearings should stonewall, or plead the 5th. Nixon said the same exact thing to his Att. General in 1973!
Why, if there is nothing to hide?
During his campaign Trump shouted "Please! Please Russia! Send me the E-mails!" Now he says he was joking. Yeh. I usta use that bulls**t excuse when I was a kid  :lookingup:. If there is nothing to find, why stonewall?
Trump himself said "Only gangsters plead the 5th" 2 years ago!
And Russia's only the tip of the iceberg! the District of NY is investigating the hush-money payments made to a pornstar,which Trump denied. Except it was proven, that's why Cohen is going to prison. And there is possible money laundring, illegal finance violations, bank fraud, and etc, etc...this could all be herded into a possible Rico investigation.
And no, Russia is NOT cool.
The only reason they're fighting Isis, is because they want a foothold in Syria. Turn it into a puppet.

And the publisher and owner of that gossip rag and Trump are pals! And he's turning State's evidence too!
The s**t's gonna hit the fan. Trump is f**ked. If he was smart, he would do like Tricky Dick and give up the ghost and resign.

My biggest takeaway from this investigation is a strong admiration for the professionalism of Robert Mueller.
No grandstanding, no press interviews, no passionate defenses against the daily shower of abuse heaped on his head by the "Trump can do no wrong" brigade.  He just does his job, quietly, grimly, relentlessly, handing down one indictment after another on Trump's crooked cronies.
Whether he proves actual wrongdoing by Trump himself or not, one thing he has demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt is that our President has surrounded himself for decades with a bunch of felons, liars, crooks, and cheats.

Sad truth.

my biggest take away is trump is still president and it was a huge waste of time.

the whole "russia" thing was concocted out of whole cloth to try and cover up for the DNC leaks, where it was revealed Bernie Sanders was getting screwed over. rather than apologize Hillary and co came up with this ridiculous conspiracy theory

RC- let them have it then. assad is their president its up to him. why would I care? let them have a base or something in Syria

Ok if we're going to get into Syria here,  I kinda gotta go heath ledge joker here.

The Syrian civil war has lasted 7 years and over 500,000 people bad  been killed in it,  about 85% of which we're civilians killed in the crossfire or by assad's forces for suspected disloyalty.

They were  killed by bullets,  guns,  bombs,  artillery, beatings,  stabbings,  hangings,  lack of food,  water and medical aid.

For years all the world did was b-tch about the refugees from Syria fleeing to othe countries.

Then a few dozen people were killed by (GASP!  ERMUHGURD!)    nerve gas!!!


Suddenly  the world loses its mind over that.

 Why?

Now sure I can see Trumpa the hutt,  who during the campaign vowed to tell Syrian refugees in america "Yuhr going' back! " because he's a megalomanical psychopath who got a sense of  godhood at the thought of ordering "Yuge, byoodiful bombs making huge,  byoodiful 'sploshuns at my command, killing' hundreds of nobodies because yes,  I am God. I AM GOD!!!  "

But how it's it the wrest of the world ignored half a million  causalties over 7 years and went absolutely nuts for a news  cycle or two over nerve gas strikes? 

Peolle,  I am insane and have been adjuged so,  and do not deny it. But honestly I think i'd rather be insane than inane.  And frankly the world's reaction to Syria is utterly inane.

Agreed: I am a fan of neither Presidents but I would be pleased to have a beer with President Obama: I know he likes a beer as he had one with Congressional Medal of Honour winner Dakota Meyer at the White House.

We interrupt this program for a special news bulletin!

(https://i.imgur.com/9jBbq2g.gif) (https://lunapic.com)

Trump openly  asked russia to get hillary's emails.

I'm surprised that vaccinations doesn't have a federal law about getting your children vaccinated (that is if your child doesn't have a condition where they can't) Seems like we wouldn't have this outbreak. Personally since I'm sick of these people being ignorant about it that we should start calling these parents bio-terrorists. It's extreme I'll admit, but drastic measures should be taken if these parents refuse to do the right thing of keeping their alive and everyone else's children alive.

Kristi mentioned something about California having brought in a law saying that if you don't vaccinate your children they can't attend public schools after a measles outbreak.

I did see a meme that I agree with that we should stop calling people 'Anti-Vaxxers' and call them 'Pro-Plagues'.

Daffy: what are you doing?  :buggedout: +  :teddyr: :teddyr:

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/05/rand-paul-mandatory-vaccines-measles-1240542 (https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/05/rand-paul-mandatory-vaccines-measles-1240542)

svengoolie - it was a joke.  he was onstage. I agree with you about Syria and we should not have been feeding the opposition, unrepentant jihadists, at all much less for 8 years. maybe it started out as an arab spring sort of thing but it devolved into sunni- shia age old stuff that has nothing to do with us.

RC- well some people liked bernie and resented the way the DNC treated him. maybe you're not one of them

State by state, more gun ownership equals more mass shootings, study shows 
 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/state-by-state-more-gun-ownership-equals-more-mass-shootings-study-shows-220918498.html (https://www.yahoo.com/news/state-by-state-more-gun-ownership-equals-more-mass-shootings-study-shows-220918498.html) 


...Gun rights advocates have long held that mass shootings could only be prevented by the proverbial “good guy with a gun.” But the new study finds that, in fact, states with less restrictive gun laws are more likely to experience mass shootings, defined as a shooting in which four people or more were killed... 

AHD,  my reply to this study,  and not  you for posting it, is "Duuuh! ".

No. I agree 100%. Bernie Sanders got f**ked. I like Bernie Sanders.
I don't like Hillary.
I REALLY don't like Donald Trump! Even if there was 'No collusion' between Russia  and Trump -don't matter! He's a gangster.
He f**ked himself.

RC- is your girlfriend still cheating on you? or did that end

WTF??  :question:

He's just barking mindlessly.
Can't bite-don't got no teeth.  :lookingup:

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/10/why-the-tom-hanks-snl-sketch-black-jeopardy-matter.html (https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/10/why-the-tom-hanks-snl-sketch-black-jeopardy-matter.html)

Article on an SNL Sketch.

RC - I thought you had mentioned that before? my mistake. if this was a painful issue I'm sorry I brought it up.


indiansmith / rev- sorry for defending myself. I forgot this was the RC forum not badmovies.org anymore the follows me around and posts negative stuff abuot everything I say.

anyway i've just about had it with this place. may keep my account may delete it so consider this issue resolved at any rate

Defending yourself against what? I don't see anywhere you were personally attacked. Did I miss something? What it looks like is RC attacked Trump, and you responded with a mean-spirited, off-topic personal attack on him. Not a good look.

This is why Andrew didn't want political talk on the forum. You guys insisted you wanted it and that you could behave like adults.

lester, I think you should apologize but we can consider it resolved. I prefer you stick around, not delete your account. Your an old-timer and a generally good guy who I think just made a dumb mistake in anger. 

Maybe I should close these threads. It seemed like the majority wanted political talk, though.

he quoted my tweet then showed a picture of daffy duck jerking off?

"generally good guy" haha yeah thanks for the overwhelming vote of confidence there.

usually I let it slide, this time I fought back and everyones mad because they like being bossed around and turning this board into a forum for one guys ego.

don't close any thread on my account.

I'm Dark Overlord of Bad Movies!   :buggedout:
Yeah- I posted a picture of Daffy Duck jerking off!
I love this picture!
(https://i.imgur.com/9jBbq2g.gif) (https://lunapic.com)
[/quote]

you posted it under a quote of mine. and you are a complete jerk to me on here day in and day out, I phone in a comeback off the top of my head and these guys get p**sy. whatever. I don't need people pretending to be friendly with me, at least you're honest

Lester, rcmerchant is the cranky,  eccentric but still lovable old geezer on this forum.  Don't get too pi$$ed at anything he does or says.

Yeah, I did post Daffy Duck under your post. Because I think your an idiot when it comes to politics.
But that's my opinion. What I WON'T do is comment on your personal life or family. I don't go down that road.

Yeah, I get p***y, what of it?   :bouncegiggle:

I wasn't pretending to be friendly with you. I do like you, even though I admit I find your political opinions odd. This is the first time I ever remember seeing you doing something I thought was out of bounds (at least in many years).

I didn't connect the Daffy Duck thing. I figured there must have been something I missed, because your attack seemed to come out of nowhere. I don't think it would have offended me if it had been aimed at me, but oh well. Let's call it over and done with.

This is like Covington Catholic. Everyone thought I was attacking RC but as it turns out he was the one who attacked me. He admits it and doesn't apologize.

Les- why you say Daffy is jerking off?  :question: There's no proof he's jerking off. Maybe he's shaking a martini up.
It just looks like he's jerking off. Maybe he's trying to start a lawn mower!

Outside Daffy Duck- I like the vet from West Virginia.

well, this was a fun experiment

So here's something that has been flowing through my mind: those who aren't pro choice, is it because of abortion? I saw a pic that said that not everyone who is pro choice would even consider abortion.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PPIixsI6Pes/TrLO8c0hjNI/AAAAAAAAktM/vpM1lRpVVHY/s1600/Jesus_and_Mo_abortion.jpg)

from what I can tell, most people are against intervening in venezuela militarily or otherwise. At the same time, anyone who reads the paper or better yet talks to a South American person realizes Maduro, their president, really is a meatball and the country is headed for a long decline. Already Venezulans are pouring into neighboring countries which says a lot because these countries aren't doing particularly well either. anyone want to move to Columbia or Argentina for all the job opportunities?

I'd say what's going on there is much closer to the Arab Spring than the Iraq War. I'm not in favor of the US military getting involved but I feel some people are so anti America and also pro socialist that they are missing the big picture. If this current guy Guaido or whatever his name is doesn't win out Venezuela is going to stay in the same position they are in now and the whole thing is going to happen again next year. Maduro and his whole squad of Cuban advisors are hardline marxists living in the 1940's

Nice try.  Scripture clearly enunciates in Psalm 139 that life begins and is ordained BEFORE birth.
Secondly, my strongest objection to abortion is not Biblical or even Christian but CONSTITUTIONAL.
LIFE is the first inalienable right.  It is enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and it is clearly, specifically protected in the FIFTH and FOURTEENTH Amendments.  Life is the right that trumps (pardon the pun) all others, for without the right to life, all other rights are irrelevant.

So, the question turns on these two points - first, are the unborn alive?  That's a no-brainer.
Second, are they human?  While some might try to argue that their humanity doesn't begin until birth, the fact is that the human fetus develops its own DNA very early in the first trimester.  By any biological measure, a child in the womb is still a HUMAN child.
And to kill it is to end a human life.
It has nothing to do with keeping women barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen.  I am strong believer in contraception.  But I also believe that human life is too sacred to be thrown away on the altars of convenience, or feminism, or sexual liberty.

Even if there is some doubt about the answer to the two questions above, in the end, should not the government err on the side of life, rather than arbitrarily authorize what is, for all practical purposes, the extermination of an innocent human being?

I have read all the justifications and arguments for abortion, but in the end, none of the horrible wrongs that can lead to terminating a pregnancy are made one less whit wrong by killing a human being who never asked to be in that situation to begin with.

Where is the due process for the unborn?

I'm anti-abortion. But I ain't gonna force my belief done someone's throat.

Remember, the Hebrew word for breath can also be translated as "spirit:" https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7307.htm

And, apparently, wrath or anger. O_o Did not know that last bit...

Very much depends on the circumstances for me. I don't believe that any woman who was raped, for example, should be forced to give birth or where it puts her life in danger going through with a pregnancy. I don't think it should be used as a form of birth control though.

I try not to judge anyone who does have a termination though. I am not in their shoes and can't imagine what it would be like to take such a decision.

the Didache, a very early Christian teaching document, explicitly prohibits abortion.

In my opinion, people who are young and single tend to be more pro choice and people who are older and married or want to have children tend to be pro life.

Hosea 13:16.

16 The people of Samaria must bear their guilt,
    because they have rebelled against their God.
They will fall by the sword;
    their little ones will be dashed to the ground,
    their pregnant women ripped open.”

So the Bible acknowledges the death of an unborn child is a terrible thing which should only happen to the vilest of offenders?

I'm mixed on abortion. I was unwilling put in a rough spot between a mentally ill recovering drug addict and an egotistical a***ole.

(https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/53469167_10156943492658076_3963149186546794496_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=02b6fab8e35ea0869bf52c027f41500e&oe=5D0D111F)

If that logic is true, then why not execute all the unwanted children in the world AFTER they are born?
They are just as alive as the children in the womb.

You know NOTHING of what it means to be pro-life any more than you know what it means to be a Christian.
You only have your warped stereotypes of both.

Awwww. C'mon! Someone, somewhere wants a steak!

Can't decide which is worse. Being a politician and making all these promises you know are lies, but hey you know people are stupid enough to believe them, or being one of the people who do truly believe in whatever party they vote for.

I assume a politician convinces himself he's not lying; that he really is going to do what he says. Or, at the very least, he convinces himself that he'll do what he says if the other party doesn't get in the way.

Before I went to law school I asked my uncle, a judge, why people couldn't sue politicians when they blatantly lied and didn't even attempt do what they campaigned on. His answer was that campaign promises were basically advertisements, not contracts. Buyer beware.

I apologize for bringing up the abortion issue. My intention was to get a yes or no answer.

Can someone explain Beto O rourke  to me

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beto_O%27Rourke#Drugs

(https://images.dailykos.com/images/653675/story_image/1429ckCOMIC-socialists-from-the-future.png?1552523889)

I suspect that Lester could find the Wikipedia article himself... he asked someone to "explain" Beto O'Rourke...

he referenced in particular his drug prohibition efforts which was informative. I dn't know that its a very radical position in 2019 though. marijuana is legal in many states and calling for a "conversation" ending the war on drugs isn't exactly advocating such a thing.

I like Tulsi Gabbard

Beto was in a couple 'punk' bands too, which is hard for me to believe.
He ain't no punk.


http://youtu.be/FrJWkTSld0Y (http://youtu.be/FrJWkTSld0Y)

Well,  the first funeral for the new Zealand mosque victim hasn't been had yet and the scum is already oozing out from under the rocks.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2019/03/christian-host-bryan-fischer-defends-new-zealand-terror-attack-as-vigilante-justice/?fbclid=IwAR3FokYsXWqWRyR6Eql1098Nmot8v3KHrPdSJ63uM3cnLByc1BwBACyH_j4 (https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2019/03/christian-host-bryan-fischer-defends-new-zealand-terror-attack-as-vigilante-justice/?fbclid=IwAR3FokYsXWqWRyR6Eql1098Nmot8v3KHrPdSJ63uM3cnLByc1BwBACyH_j4)

Jello Biafra ran for Mayor of San Francisco once!

http://youtu.be/kTs_Q4hEqmA (http://youtu.be/kTs_Q4hEqmA)

https://i.imgur.com/sppHyeD.mp4 (https://i.imgur.com/sppHyeD.mp4)
Guy getting egged  is a member of Australian Parliament. He said that the victims of the mosque shooting is because of immigration.
(https://i.imgur.com/5oCec5v.png)
Teenager behind him has had enough of his s**t and egged him live while talking to news reporters. Apparently the guy isn't great with other members of Parliament..

Nigerian Muslim Militants Kill 120 Christians in Three Weeks

https://www.breitbart.com/africa/2019/03/16/nigerian-muslim-militants-kill-120-christians-three-weeks/ (https://www.breitbart.com/africa/2019/03/16/nigerian-muslim-militants-kill-120-christians-three-weeks/)

Strange how THIS story isn't getting much coverage...

As it is practiced in most of the Middle East, Islam is the most violent and least tolerant religion on earth.
That being said, it does not follow that all Muslims are violent and intolerant.
Most of the ones who emigrate to the West are coming here to get away from the strictures of Sharia law and the fanatics who police it, and the thugs that run their governments.
Most Western Muslims may not like the damage the "war on terror" has inflicted on their people, but most of them also reject violent jihad as a means to spread their faith.  These moderate Muslims are the ones who need the encouragement and understanding and tolerance Western culture is built on; otherwise the fanatics win the debate and things become even worse than they already are.

In the days after the Las Vegas shootings, I recall there being a bunch of bombs going off in the Philippines (I think it was there anyway), that received next to no coverage. Sadly the news in the west seems to treat things happening in poorer countries as being less important.

New Zealand is going to reform its gun laws to limit access to the kinds of weapons used there and has told the gun lobby to shut up while they sort out what is wrong with them. Seems sensible. If the gun lobby can't sort itself out then someone else needs to step in and do it for them. I am sure given their previous gun laws, it will not be easy to make the kinds of changes they are talking about but at least they aren't just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh, it would be too difficult to do anything so let's not bother."

The problem with any kind of serious gun reform in America is that it runs into the Second Amendment.
When your Constitution recognizes the right to bear arms as a fundamental civil right, you have to get massive buy in at all levels to change that, and I don't know that it will ever happen.
For those overseas, or those who slept through Civics class, it takes a 2/3 majority of all 50 states to propose and amendment, and it has to then be ratified by 3/4 of the states to become part of the Constitution.

Gun laws are very very strict here in South Africa. In my birth country of Rhodesia however, kids would bring pistols and revolvers to school and when a sports team went on tour during the war, the teachers and coaches were armed.

Strange that even though children (teens, actually) were armed, no shootings occurred and no one thought much of young peeps bearing arms. I used to walk around with one of these - my Dad's when he was in the Police - a lot

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Uzi_of_the_israeli_armed_forces.jpg)

until one day the neighbors crapped themselves and called the cops on me.  :teddyr:

I haven't had an in depth look at the US constitution, only a cursory read and I know the supreme court has interpreted it differently, but I feel they need to go back and look at the bit that talks about being part of a militia. But hey, that is just my view. I am not against gun ownership, I do feel you need to look at who you are giving guns to though, what guns people can have and what they want them for.

Where I live is filled with shotguns and it isn't unusual to hear them popping off some rounds out in the shooting areas, or under bird control. Combined with the daily firings on the shooting range, the occasional practise firing for military funeral drills, it is a rare day when we don't have guns going off nearby. I've been unable to find the last time someone was shot in Morayshire though.

I think the problem is not with our guns but with our culture.
When I was a kid, during hunting season, you could look out on our parking lot and every pickup truck had a deer rifle in the gun rack that was attached to the rear window.  Kids and teachers alike.  No one shot up a school.
It's like Columbine kicked open a door and now any psychotic nutjob who wants to be on the news grabs his AR-15 and heads for the nearest church, school, or mall . . . it's become a part of our culture now and I see no easy way to be rid of it.

In Bowling for Columbine michael Moore goes to Canada and they all have guns and play shooting video games and so forth but don't have the gun violence problems we do. of course, he doesn't explore that at all!

It does have to do with culture. It's usually a result of the environment basically lacking any sort of legitimate money, which in turn creates poverty. One of my professors said that a huge reason why poverty is rampant and why there's a lot of gangs is that the education system always gets f**ked. With public schools being in the heart of some sketchy areas and doesn't get funding for basic updated textbooks and equipment kids are starting to just skip school and get in a gang. Why? Because if they go to the school they really don't get the knowledge.
Another reason is the lack of mental health. Reagan's administration I believe started the cutting to mental health, which trickles down to some people doing massacres at an accelerated pace.

That seems to be the problem Indy, it involves hard work and people seem to be scared of that. Every time there is one of these attacks in the states there seems to be a lot of hand wringing and wailing accompanied by "Oh we need to do something to stop this, but anything would be too hard!" Attitudes can be changed, but enough people have to say enough is enough. I do agree with you that it is very unlikely to happen and it just becomes something in the background of the news as people become blase about the deaths.

Tye funny thing about the second amendment is that people love to shout "Shall not be infringed" but seem to forget "a well regulated militia".

I agree wholeheartedly with you about islam being violent and expansionist.

The thing is if you go back not that far in history christianity was the same way. The concept of "manifest destiny" was used to justify expanding america by crushing the godless aboriginal populations of the continent.

So it's not really the islamic faith that's a problem, it'[s the fact in mideastern culture the religfion is placed above all else, in western culture we place law and civcillization about religion.

Isn't it kinda funny that for years the right has been ranting against "liberal elites" running government and are now screaming that AOC isn't fit to be in government because she was "just a bartender"?

Christianity became violent when it abandoned the teachings of Jesus.  When it follows them, it is a peaceful faith.

What I think is funny is that folks think the 'cult of personality' involved in politics is a new thing.
Its been around forever.
As far as propaganda and 'fake news' talk- that's been around a long time too.
You have to use your BRAIN.
But if folks did that-the world would be perfect! In the long run-people are f**king stupid.
I'm as dumb as dirt. I have NO answers.

Trump visits tank factory and renews attack on war hero McCain


https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-attacks-on-mc-cain-bomb-at-tank-factory-203505733.html (https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-attacks-on-mc-cain-bomb-at-tank-factory-203505733.html) 

 :thumbdown: :lookingup:

Donald trump is morally, ethically, intellectually and developmentally sub human... :bluesad: :hatred:

Just ugh.  I truly wish the man would just SHUT UP sometimes.  For his own good, and for ours.

Regan hated McCain. he came back from vietnam and promptly dumped his wife after she got in a car accident. She had waited for him all during the POW years. if you've ever seen the clip of Nancy Reagan struggling to support him in 08 thats the backstory. fun fact: her (the former Mrs McCain) hospital expenses were paid for by H ross Perot

Now that is cool.  I always liked PEROT.  
As far as JOHN McCAIN, I liked him as a politician (myself being an uninterested outsider) and admired his experiences and public persona (a world away from where we are now).  What any of us who are inclined to look closer might see is that it doesn't look good if scrutinized.  

I have mixed feelings on McCain.

on one hand there is the disaster on the USS forrestal that he may have caused with a "wet start" just to show off, and there is evidence his father and grandfather, both admirals, mkay have covered it up. I know that had McCain been a democrat the right wind media would have rad 24 hour a day "investigations" into the forrestal disaster he was supposedly part of.

I know he could have agreed to early release as a POW due to his family connections and told the VC what to do with their plan to divide american troops by showing him preferential treatment.

I know that when he ran for president against Barack Obama a supporter of his said that "obama's not one of us" and Mccain, in a display of courage and decency, shut her down and said that Barack Obama was indeed a real american and a god man. Was that one of the last gasps of decency in the republican party? Maybe so. I respected Mccain for that show of decency.

http://time.com/4866404/john-mccain-barack-obama-arab-cancer/ (http://time.com/4866404/john-mccain-barack-obama-arab-cancer/)

I think Mccain was a little to eager to go to war with some countries.

Mccain did in one of his last acts stop the republiscum effort to take what little healthcare coverage millions of americans had away from them.

He was the target of abuse from that walking colostomy bag in the white house.

After her died he was the target of some hateful cartoons implying he was in hell for opposing the thing in the white house. One cartoon implied his death was like removing a tomor from uncle sm's brain.

(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y-1GJgy-yWM/WXu2YJIrceI/AAAAAAAACtw/KizOXWvqfEg0teZVgsrrCb9i66qTn3y9QCLcBGAs/s1600/mccain_tumor_removal.jpg)

He was neither saint nor demon, he was a man and all in all if there is a good after life I hope he squeaked into it. Ater all, if you judge a man by the quality of those who hate him, he passes the test.

One thing about american politics I'll never understand is why the military supports gop politicians so much.

Reagan (SPIT!) sent the marines into beirut with orders to keep their weapons unloaded as a political gesture. a lone suicide bomber drove a truckbomb into the marine barracks and killed 241 marines, wounding, maiming and crippling i don't know how may more. Reagan was like ""Uh, well, heh heh, i guess i pulled a major boner there."

Bush sent the US into iraq to free what was essentially a family owned oil corporation with a flag, causing hundreds of americans to die and be injured to save a private oil company named kuwait.

Later his son the shrub launched a full scale invasion and conquest of iraq to secure the country's oil supply for american oil corporations. Thousands and thousands of americans were killed and many more maimed and crippled. Bush's administration did not expand the VA or benefits to cover these wounded soldiers and if anything cut VA funding.

The GOP is always to quick to send in the troops and get them killed and maimed, yet never wants to provide treatment for them after the war is over, if it ever is. I honestly can't comprehend why the military loves the GOP so much.

Kuwait was a sovereign country, a member of the UN, and an ally of the USA.
I guess we leave our Allies to get invaded and brutalized if they don't pass your seal of approval?

Saddam Hussein signed 11 UN Resolutions when he pulled out of Kuwait at the end of the war, promising to abide by all of them.  According to the armistice that ended the conflict, his failure to do so would result in sanctions at best and resumption of hostilities at worst.  He proceeded to violate every one of those resolutions over the next 12 years, flagrantly and repeatedly, and also sent assassins to kill former Pres. Bush during a visit to Kuwait after Bush left the Presidency.  He was given multiple opportunities to avoid being invaded, and refused to take them.  In the end, his fate was due to his own corruption and evil, no one else's.

Few wars in American history were more justified than taking that douchebag down!

Missouri Senate Bans All Federal Gun Control Laws in Proposed Bill

“All federal acts, laws, executive orders, administrative orders, court orders, rules, and regulations, whether past, present, or future, which infringe on the people’s right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States I and Section 23 of the Missouri Constitution shall be invalid in this state, shall not be recognized by this state, shall be specifically rejected by this state, and shall be considered null and void and of no effect in this state.”

http://thesentinel.net/politics/missouri-bans-all-federal-gun-control-laws-in-23-10-vote/ (http://thesentinel.net/politics/missouri-bans-all-federal-gun-control-laws-in-23-10-vote/)


I find this really interesting.  It's not often you have states basically flipping off the federal government.  I can't wait to see where this goes.

States can't nullify Federal law; that was settled in 1865.  They can file suit if they think a law violates the Constitution, but if the Supreme Court goes against them, then it's pretty much settled, unless they can get 3/4 of the states to go along and amend the Constitution.  Petty grandstanding is all this is.

??? thousands of Americans died to "take down" a guy who was no threat to us. Since when do Americans care about Un resolutions? everything Iraq had (under IAEA seal) was looted mere days after the invasion began anyway


deranged conspiracy theory. Why would a guy who didn't WANT war with the US try to kill one its presidents?, knowing what that would entail

am continually amazed at your gullibility on this issue. in the stock market you are what we call a bagholder.

It's not conspiracy theory; it's a matter of record. The Kuwaitis caught, tried, and executed the paid assassins.  As far as why?  Pride.  Bush humiliated him; in Arab culture that demanded payback.

theres nothing in arab culture that says if someone humiliates you you have to kill them. the Duelfer report stated Saddam was convinced the CIA had utterly penetrated his regime. the idea that he would have sent assassins to a foreign country is asburd. He wanted sanctions on his country lifted and to get out of the hotseat


more to the point, none of this was the reason we were told it was neccesary for us to attack Iraq after 9/11. a war that left thousands dead, divided the country and led to inumerable permanant injuries and suicides among veterans. all of which could have been avoided and should have been

The fear was that Saddam would turn biological agents over to terror cells to use against us.
The real spur for the invasion was not the events of 9/11 but the still unsolved string of anthrax attacks that happened a month later.
The war could have been better fought, but I am still convinced it was fully justified.

the guy most people think did the anthrax attack killed himself https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Edwards_Ivins

your implication that its "still unsolved" implies it could have been saddam hussein which no one maintains.



I guess it depends on how you are using the word justified. you seem to use it as we had an argument at the time, much of it later debunked, therefore it was okay. I don't think thats what justified means there. did we NEED to sacrifice young men and women to prevent the highly unlikely possiblity that saddam, himself a target of stateless islamic, terrorists from somehow working in cahoots with them? relative to other far more overt concerns: afghanistan,  saudi arabia whose mosques pump out this stuff.

Saddam was the OLD enemy, Al Qaeda was the new one. They used anger toward the new one to fight the old one. They "pinned the intelligence around the policy" as the UK accurately described it. they deceived then failed us

it isn't just your view, my dear, it's also the view of millions of americans who did their homework and know what a militia is. i am fine with guns to hunt for food or take care of varmints who mess with your livestock. i am also fine with ONE gun for home protection. i am NOT fine with anyone thinking they have a right to enter my home or my place of employment with a gun. EVER.

Well, the evidence is that the l'il shrub was going to find an excuse to invade iraq and depose hussein from day one. 911 was just the pretense he used. There have been numerous documents turn up that showed he was directing his minions to work on any pretense for an invasion of iraq as soon as he entered the oval office.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bush-sought-way-to-invade-iraq/ (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bush-sought-way-to-invade-iraq/)

Sure hussein was a scumbag, he was a murderer, he was a tyrant. So are a lot of government leaders, I don't see us invading china or singapore to effect regime change. Hussein flipped off bush's dad, that was enough for the shrub to go into action. All in all nearly a million iraquis have died and over 5,000 US soldiers did to, along with countless maimed and crippled.

If there is a hell, I'm sure the shrub and his acolytes like condoriza lice have seats reserved for them right by the fire.

Saddam was such an imminent threat the no one on september 10 was saying we should invade Iraq.

there are days like this when i really wish we had no political threads here. or that we had an ignore feature. or that we all lived in a better world. :bluesad:

I never understood the Trump russia thing and am super glad it's over

(https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/54236901_10156718957583429_7320651965099147264_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=32c605255849890a8b3cd05fac4a10f1&oe=5D4E2636)

your silly meme is rather outdated sven. do  your research, google is your friend. i'm REALLY tired of people not paying attention to NOW, and REALITY NOW, and posting the past AS the present. i expect better from you. :thumbdown:

before 1912 the income tax rate was 0%

 :bouncegiggle:
Bless yer heart!
It has only just begun!  :bouncegiggle:

Before 1912 we didnl;t have much of a national army, didn;t have much of a national road system, didn;t have a lot of things we have today. People got sick, they died, people went broke, they starved. We didn;t have inoculations against diseases. Yeah, no thanks.

now we have too much of an army


as opposed to now?


taxes invented those okay


at any rate, the point is we had a variety of tax rates in the past. Our current issue is spending not taxes. we're 22 trillion dollars in debt. at this point we are just paying interest on the debt, not even paying it off. and THAT cost is soaring.

our govt gets PLENTY of revenue  https://www.thebalance.com/current-u-s-federal-government-tax-revenue-3305762 (https://www.thebalance.com/current-u-s-federal-government-tax-revenue-3305762)



RC -
you'll have 5 more years to investigate then. all this thing has done is Confirm everything trump says about the media

I read all of the recent remarks, and came back to you.  Particularly considering the content of the remarks.  I myself never felt the compulsion to read all new or updated threads.  Your "ignore" feature is an old idea I don't dig because it's a kind of censorship.  Be your own censor, and censorship fails.  Just don't read the stuff you don't want to. 

i know what you're saying, but in some cases it's hard to just not read it. maybe it's an OCD thing, but i've always used the ignore feature to censor MY reading, only mine. i seem to be unable to just skip it if i can see it.

Politicians like this make christians look bad, good christians need to speak out more against them.

(https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/55937445_2603808886303038_3212073382023528448_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=cea65c759189c56b6ec025260daf9acc&oe=5D047EF9)

Sven you should read some bart ehrman. he has a liberal take on the historical Jesus

BUT

he would also caution against people taking their own experiences and interpreting his gospel that way. in Bill Oreilly's book Jesus hates taxes and comes off as a republican. in Reza aslan he is fighting Roman occupation and colloboraters as somewhat of a proto Muslim. no surprise the guys are a republican and Muslim respectively.

Almost no one understands what the guy was really about. In general my own interpretation is he felt the Jewish authorities had replaced actual spirituality with rituals and rules. and ...wouldn't you know it, I have suffered from OCD and can't stand rituals!

Politics and Religion are the same f**king thing. Everyone knows this, right?

I reckon if there's a hell below- I'm gonna go!  :drink:

(https://i.imgur.com/1vsErjc.jpg) (https://lunapic.com)

I simply believe that Jesus was the Son of God.  No more, no less.

i'll be hanging out with you ronny, since i agree. no offense, indy, YOU are truly a good christian in my eyes.

People are free to choose to believe what they want to,  i'm free to say I don't want peolle with certain beliefs to be in positions to make deciscions that affect me.

To be a christian you have to believe that everyone who is not "saved",  which means utter submission to christian views, deserves to suffer eternal torture in agony and fire.

I am not a christian and cannot accept christian views.  I cannot,  do not  and will not now or ever believe that peolle who are not saved deserve the same punishment as Adolf hitler,  Joseph Stalin,  Mao tse tung or the guy who invented internet popups. Yes I'm familiar with christian dogma and I find it utterly impossible to accept.

I do not want peolle who believe I deserve to suffer a fate as the above mentioned being able to make deciscions that affect me.

I have friends and relatives who are not straight.  I do not want peolle who believe they should be murdered to be in positions of power in my society.

I care abut people who are women.  I do  not want peolle who believe women exist to serve and obey men to be in positions of power in a society I life in.

I do not want people who believe that human actions donct matter because some God determines everything in positions of power.

There are plenty of countries  in the world  where religions dominates law and society. I don't want america to become another nation like Saudi Arabia,  Iran, Brunai, Afghanistan, etc.

That's a political view I have.

You claim to be familiar with Christian dogma, but you sure do manage to distort it on a regular basis.

I've read most chick tracts, most of them are the same thing: Non saved person gets tossed into a lake of fire.

Jack Chick is considered pretty fringe, TBH.

The fact is, while hell is eternal separation from God, there's pretty solid Biblical evidence that there are a variety of punishments there.  Hence Jesus' words to the people of Capernaum: "It will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom than it will be for you."

the best chick tract is the one with the band "we're gonna rock rock rock with the rock!" got handed that one on newbury street in Boston in the 90's

as usual, you are completely clueless, not to mention incredibly insulting.

There are people in government who have openly stated their desire to turn america into a nation ruled by christian laws.  Mike Huckabee was one,  Betsy DeVos is another.

Within the bounds of the  Constitution - a document, I might add, largely written by Christians.

Correct me if I'm wrong but was America known as The Melting Pot at some point?

Ben franklin and Thomas Jefferson were not Christians.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Thomas_Jefferson (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Thomas_Jefferson)

https://www.quora.com/What-were-Ben-Franklins-views-on-religion-and-Christianity-in-particular (https://www.quora.com/What-were-Ben-Franklins-views-on-religion-and-Christianity-in-particular)

The founders also never mentioned any god in the consitituion.

I have colluded with Russia as I keep getting Russian mail-order bride ads here  :wink:

Thomas Jefferson played NO part in the Constitutional Convention, but you are right, he was NOT a Christian - a Deist, and one who had a tremendous regard for Jesus as the "greatest natural philosopher who ever lived."

Franklin is a bit more complicated.  He was a Deist in his youth who drifted back towards more traditional views in his old age - hence his words at the Convention: "I have lived a long time, and the longer I live, the more sure I am of this - that God governs in the affairs of men."

The Founders created a government that was religiously neutral on purpose, but if you read the Federalist Papers - written by three men who helped create the Constitution and were its staunchest defenders - they quoted one work above all others in defending the Constitution. It wasn't Locke, it wasn't Montesquieu, and it wasn't Rousseau.  It was the King James Bible.  Regardless of their individual beliefs, they were the products of an overwhelmingly Protestant Christian society, and their worldview was shaped by that.

I can do this all day.

Yep, and they specifically forbade ANY religious test or qualification for government office.

Franklin 'drifted' back towards his earlier beliefs in his declining days as many do.

Oh, believe me, I remind way too many of my online friends about the "religious test" clause regularly.
Some of them would like to see Muslims barred from voting or holding office in America.

Yeah, ever tell them there are people who feel the same way about them for the same reasons?

I do regard christianity as the lesser of two evils in religious terms, if that comforts you. Not because of differences in the religions themselves, but as i said in a post some time ago, western civillization decided religion had to be subordinate to law and government. In the mid east laws and govrnments are subservient to religion.

Interestingly enough israel in a country where one religion is the majority, but also does not allow a religion to dominate the culture. BTW I support israel wholeheartedly, not because of the religion itself, but as a bastion of civilization and liberty in a sea of theocracies.

Here's a little pic I made once to express my views.

(https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/1898762_834632029886515_1247823572_o.jpg?_nc_cat=102&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=96665989aca5ae16e0e57a240ec6fb3b&oe=5D0C2A4B)

I'll stand alongside most christians against any effort to impose islamic culture on america, you can bet on that.

(https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/55939826_2105378392851416_2983801483763384320_n.png.jpg?_nc_cat=108&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=5b6408fefd5a51b681acbea0ed73abb5&oe=5D46C719)

The map on the right would be more convincing if it actually LOOKED like the USA instead of a Rorschach blotch.

It removes the massive areas of very sparsely populated areas and just has populations in proportion to actual figures.

yes israel allows women to enjoy stealing land and putting the entire western world in danger from angry terrorist repraisals. thats true equality

and of course all muslim women live in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia where they dress like that

Tell you what, Lester - give your land back to the Indians and then you can whine about Israel!

The fact is, the Jewish presence in Palestine - or Judea, to give it its proper and much older name - goes back 3200 years, VERIFIED by archeology.
There is ONE historical homeland for the Jewish people in the whole world, and that is ISRAEL.
Not only that, Palestinians living in Israel have more civil and legal rights than Palestinians living in Saudi Arabia or any of the region's other corrupt dictatorships and theocracies.  Palestinians work throughout Israel; they serve in the Knesset (Israeli parliament), and they can vote and freely practice their faith.  Israel is the ONLY country in the Middle East that extends unconditional freedom of worship to Jews, Muslims, and Christians - and tolerates atheists as well.  The Jews have taken that desert land and made it blossom like the rose, while the Palestinians lived there for almost a millennia and did little to nothing to improve or develop it.

indiana- it was majority arab for 18 centuries before zionism.  http://aldeilis.net/english/the-founding-of-jerusalem/ (http://aldeilis.net/english/the-founding-of-jerusalem/)

many peoples have lived there. in the bible the Jews come from Mesopotamia and meet King melchizedek the King of the canaanites who were there first. Even when it was Judea and Samaria there were other peoples living there who were never defeated and who didn't become one with the Jews.

"  Israel is the ONLY country in the Middle East that extends unconditional freedom of worship to Jews, Muslims, and Christians - and tolerates atheists as well.  The Jews have taken that desert land and made it blossom like the rose," therefore its okay for them to steal peoples land? If i make a wonderful pluralistic society can I take over poland?

the analogy with the Indians is apt. We fought the Indians for the land and won. if they wanted to fight us again we'd have to fight them again. no one begrudges them for wanting to hold on to what was theirs.

 at any rate, its an ancient blood feud on the other side of the world that shouldn't concern us.

Kill 'em all! Let Godzilla sort 'em out!
(https://i.imgur.com/6YVzlBz.jpg) (https://lunapic.com)

Damn, Indy. For once we agree completely!

As to the palistinians, pardon me while I take a few warm up swings with my anti islam bat.....


Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!


Any wealthy well to do muslim state could solve the problem of the palistinians by offer them sanctuary and hospitality in it, but the fact is no muslim country wants the palistinians or will offer them refuge despite the Koran's clear and unaltered mandate that it is the holy obligation and duty of muslims to offer aid and sanctuary to their fellow muslims.

The fact is prosperous islamofascist countries (I'm glaring at you, saudi arabia.) refuse to take in palistinians despite what the koran says. Sure, jihad, oppression, treating women like slaves, torture, beheadings, etc, are all ok because good ol' allah says so, but showing hospitality and aid to their fellow muslims, the palistinians, NOPE!

The fact is prosperous muslims don't really want poor refugees around, and the more cynical and calculating ones (the saudis) want them to suffer in Palestine to incite hate against israel, who the fear and hate both because of "jews" and bcause it is a democratic open civilized state in a sea of islamofascism.

Also, as modern america proves, give people someone to hate and you can treat them as bad as you want, they'll stay focused on who you're pointed them at to hate.

the Arab presence in the region dates to well before Islam. Its not Islam its nationalism.

The Christians in Palestine ( formerly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philistia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philistia))

http://youtu.be/8knx4zpgwhQ (http://youtu.be/8knx4zpgwhQ) tend to feel similarly

whats a more interminable debate abortion or Israel/ Palestine. maybe agreeing to disagree is the right approach on such things

Honestly, that's never a bad option  . . . it's just not as much fun!!   :twirl: :twirl: :twirl:

I'm so fed up with politics.
I didn't give a f**k about it before the 1990's- I'm getting to the point it's gotten to be too much.
I think I'll just regress into childhood. (like I ain't been doing that for years... :lookingup:)

"Let's talk church and politics!"

(https://i.imgur.com/OjQ1Tti.gif) (https://lunapic.com)

(https://i.imgur.com/Dv9lvff.gif) (https://lunapic.com)

didn't take this guy long to go back to trolling all my posts.

You could just ignore them.

Good advice.

or he could just not do that. why should i sit here and be insulted? ugh nevermind

A movie and political crossover image.


(https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/57083463_2678416388918065_4728584904986591232_n.jpg?_nc_cat=1&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_eui2=AeH8LvaA0f4-ZJZ6cdiZDuoEFVndjc9JTn_sj7ZWZuT83xKmnki1lsI0q00tK0OVIxC5YCI_iSSqOe5gpYXIilS8F9kxtRQqDoG-0nwKPd35vQ&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=af42f3b724ebeeeb741063be50034dc4&oe=5D349EC9)

You're cool Lester.  



This is cool too. 

one the weirdest things to happen last year was when they tried to make Saudi Arabia part of civilized society.

They're Wahabi muslims. Jews are banned from traveling in their country. They fund all the insane mosques that terrorists get their inspiration from but... they go along with our foreign policy mainly because they absolutely hate Shia muslims. and pump more oil when we tell them too

There's been a convenient "they don't REALLY think that way they just want to stay in power...they are reforming" vibe for decades now.it's an attempt to try and provide cover for our humiliation at being associated with such utter savages.

the Khashoggi murder seems to have Ko'd all that. They've gone back to being a relatively anonymous funding source for the civilization they revile

allhallows - likewise

I'm not trolling your posts. I'm just fed up with politics in general.
Believe it or not it has nothing to do with you.
Whenever I post something- you think I'm attacking you.
If I was attacking you, you would know it.
I agree with you on the Saudi's- they're scumbags we only hang out with for $$$.
They take money from us and laugh behind our backs. But we got greedy f**kers like Trump in office, who doesn't care-he's for the bottom dollar in his wallet. He don't care about you. He cares about getting the most before he dies.
Because he's empty. He tries to fill his soul with money. Won't work.He's a bottomless pit of greed.
He's a sociopath.
Most folks use an ideology just to advance themselves- the ideology itself can go to to the curb or be twisted to advance your own agenda. And that's the way it seems to go, I reckon.
When I post a Bugs Bunny gif I ain't making fun of you- it reflects how I feel about this s**t.
I have better things to do then argue with you about madness I don't f**king even understand.
(https://i.imgur.com/VEZyHQI.gif) (https://lunapic.com)

 :question:

Yeah. Well, he shouldn't be talking s**t about my  girl- so f**k him.
I'm no angel- don't be saying s**t about my family.
I ain't no politician-and neither is he .I don't say s**t about his girl.
I can be evil and nasty. We all can be.
For example-
All I want to say to you, Lester, is If I really thought you were worth the time I would REALLY f**k with you-
but your such a narrow minded moron going with any flavor of the day it's senseless to argue any point. And when you run out of logical arguements you comment on my height (which you have done before) or personal life. f**k you man.
Your an a***ole.
And I'm not gonna roll over because you whine about being attacked for being an a***ole- so f**k you.
Now you got something to whine about!

Hey Ron, I think the comment about your lady was a while ago, and it did reference something you had shared with the board, though I think that was an even longer time ago.  I had forgotten that one.  It's apparently personal.  Everyone is entitled to their opinions.  You know how opinions are like bungholes?  Everybody's got one and they all stink. 

RC, you just surrendered the high ground.

This feud is really stupid. If you guys want to continue it why not use PMs? Or better, just forget about it altogether. Attack each others' ideas and positions all you want, just leave the personal stuff out. (And "he started it!" isn't a valid reason to retaliate.)

No,  they just fundrhe far right element of our society.

Actually tho the right pretends to hate Islam the two are like peas in a pod.  Both believe in religious tyranny imposed by force.  Both believe in the oppression of women,  the violent suppression of all other religions,  persecute atheists,  want non heteros murdered and have zero tolerance for "others".
 

Yeah- I know.  :bluesad:

I'm sorry to Lester, and to the board.
But I didn't feel I wasn't attacking Lester with the Daffy Duck gifs.
I was trying to make light of politics in general. It's all s**t.

One of two things must be true then, Sven:

Either you think I am just like that.
Or else you don't understand the right as well as you think you do.

I didn't think you were attacking him with the .gifs either. It's weird how these things escalate.

I like you both and I like everyone here, even when we disagree.

It pains me to see us fighting among ourselves when we should all be banding together to fight "Dr. Who" fans.

okay everyone has saved face and put their face in the freezer or whatever it is.  :drink:


Sven- I think you're hobby horsing a bit there. There are some pretty lousy people on the right but none on the level of the Saudi royals, who are like ISIS if they had yachts and palaces instead of 5 streets in Syria.

The fealty paid to these gross characters is bi partisan and totally undignified.

not everything is about the dastardly republicans

two things embarass me: our ridiculous healthcare system where we pay and pay and it still sucks and our friendship with the saudis, who are like all the people we call our enemies put together on steroids

I said "far right". The trump right.  You  have said you  are not a trumP supporter to your credit.

I don't like Trump. I never liked Hillary either.

What I really don't like is going to the hospital with meningitis, being sent home, having the hillbilly girl down the street tell me-"Man, you got meningitis'!
And she describes my symptoms. I'm in real pain. My head feels like it's about to explode. I tell the docs-"I want a spinal tap!"
They gave me one.
I had severe spinal meningitis.
That ain't the part that p**ses me off. What p**ses me off is they charged me lots of money for my first visit. It's like paying a house painter for throwing his wet brush at your house and saying-
"I'm done. Pay me!" I got f**ked out of a lot of money.

well put, Ron Burgundy our healthcare system is the weak link in our society

There's lotsa rusty links in any system.
I know it will never be fixed to anyone's satisfaction.
But it it sure p**ses me off.  :hatred:

I'm at the point that I don't give a f**k anymore.
It's dead, Jim.

(https://i.imgur.com/EHjX7lO.gif) (https://lunapic.com)

Our current private-insurance-based health care system combines the worst qualities of a free-market system with the worst qualities of socialized medicine.

IMO the Affordable Health Care Act (AKA "Obamacare") was far from perfect, but it was the best compromise we're likely to get without a radical restructuring that will never happen.

(https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/57070908_10219076320083801_271950367040733184_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_eui2=AeHTlPGB3rr4P0Wxh06XqDZUuxJ8TJ4qvvPem8GtaX-FkSmdJbxlhlYBQbO2OrbtOtRP7aVqMU3H2aCDLyAv1Z2mJ1pIH8DrOs1HTfCoY36V8g&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=e5b040e94dc354b36727bf370ed33fc1&oe=5D39FFAA)

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's "Some people did something" comment made me seriously angry: nearly 3000 innocent Americans being murdered in cold blood on my birthday is not just "something"  :hatred:

as an American who nearly lost members of his family that day I'm not offended at all. She was making a point about civil rights.

I wasn't either. She could have worded it more carefully but her underlying point was inoffensive.

absolutely not offended, since i ignored the headlines and watched the actual statement being made. bad phrasing, maybe, but her point is valid. and now she's getting death threats. friggin ridiculous.

shes also raising tons of $

My apologies, Lester and to anyone else if I misspoke: I remember you saying that you had family members at the WTC.

no no I mean its shocking at first to refer to 9/11 as "some people did something". as if it was no big deal but i thought she meant that because people who we have no relation to did an act we would never dream of we are getting s**t from the govt

What worries me most about 911 is we have a generation of young a Erica s who:e never known a pre 911 world, an america full of sursurveillance, the a negation of the constitution thru the patriot act,  visa courts, no fly lists, etc. We have kids who think all this is just how america is.  Some of us remember an america before all that was slid bien out throats in the holy name of "national security"...

been thinking abuot this tweet https://twitter.com/brandonmcg/status/1101279234864173057

"The three-legged stool, but it’s Bernie’s economic policy, Ron Paul’s foreign policy, and Rick Santorum’s social policy. That’s a majority that would last a generation."

not too many people would fit into all three categories but interesting concept for a party. the "three legged stool" refers to what used to comprise the GOP evangelicals, free market guys and...some other one

We're gonna be ok.
I really believe that. This country has been in worse situations.
No matter who's in the White House-we're still gonna survive.

In case anyone wants to know why more people in my age group is leaning heavily on socialist ideas is because a lot of people in my age group feels like that student loan debt is racketeering, and that more and more companies are becoming racketeers.

That and the fact that a company like amazon makes nearly qw billion in profit in 2018 a d lays no taxes plus gets money from the government too.

I get everlastingly sick of the Trumpsters on my FB feed talking about the "Nazi sympathizer" George Soros.
Some even say he was an SS officer during World War II.

First of all, Soros is JEWISH. He barely survived the Holocaust.  Secondly, he was 14 when the war ended.
Third, he's politically far left, not far right, which is the opposite of Nazism.
A ten second Google search is all it takes to show how false that story is.  But no one bothers to fact check anything.
EVER.

Don't you know Google is owned by George Soros and he directs them to put out fake news about him? All it takes is a check of the Trumpsters on your FB feed to figure that out.

Is Gigablast? http://gigablast.com/search?c=main&qlangcountry=en-us&q=george+soros (http://gigablast.com/search?c=main&qlangcountry=en-us&q=george+soros)

Just in case you're being serious... that was a joke. Indy's far-right followers believe all media is owned and manipulated by "globalists" who lie (not just spin the truth, but create elaborate falsehoods), so you can't go to Google or Wikipedia or Snopes or whatever educate them with facts. How he attracts these people, I can't say.

Yes, it was a joke. Tho I did want to point out Google isn't the only search engine.

I guess I should be worried that Indy added me on FB then.

I thought the mueller report was gonna show that trump worked with russia to win the election and then paid them back in secrets and clandestine cooperation afterwards?

instead I'm supposed to be mad that he wanted to obstruct the investigation into all that but, following the advice of his staff, did not.

the russia thing was a bigger headache than Mitt Romneys two failed presidential campaigns. hey, yelp ads I'm not going to a clam joint in the next state over we have a billion of them here

No,  Indy may have some views I can't agree with but hecs not one of these hypocritical scum who makes me practically spit out the word "christian" be cause they attack Clinton and Obama for not being christian enough but praise trump who is a walking monument to  the "7 deadly sins" and is the kind of person biblical Jesus would have driven out of the temple with a whip.

I believe he does have enough real respect for his views to despise trump and reject him,  unlike the horde of evangelical hypocritical scum who attack democrats on biblical hounds and support a thing like trump who is a walking antithesis of most  biblical values.

Indy isn't the kind of hypocrite that makes me disgusted whenever he talks about his "faith".  He walks the walk more than anyone who cals himself christian and supports trump.

While I appreciate the kind thoughts, I must say that many people, my mother among them, supported Trump because they saw him as the lesser of two evils.  I might think they are wrong, but I am not going to call them "scum" because frankly I know them and they are not.

Then there are some whom that label fits perfectly.  The fact is, good people can be misled by bad people, and bad people can occasionally do good things.

Life is rarely black and white.

I have been seeing shades of gray more and more; rarely do I see black and white. 

What's fascinating about stories like this, a number of times stories like these are transformed anti-semitism.  For example, I've seen people spread stories about the Rothschild's (who are the center of numerous anti-semitic conspiracy theories) that calls them Nazis, when they literally had their children ransomed by the Nazis and fled Austria after losing much of their fortune to them. 

But, anti-semitic conspiracies don't work on a lot of people for obvious reasons, so the originators of the conspiracies change aspects of their BS around to make people who don't hold anti-semitic views accidentally support them and spread it further - then people read between the lines, and it spreads anti-semitism.  It's twisted, but works.

Well, indy, when I saw a trump supporter in texas call for the extermination of people like me and the crowd cheered, then saw a distinct lack of reaction condemning this from the right my opinion of trump supporters hit a record low.

https://youtu.be/IrRA4pDXd7s


I know the prerecorded response from the right will be "just a few nuts!"

Well, whenever anyone on the left says anything extreme, the right immediately claims that that is the view of the whole left any anyone who isn't a rock ribbed republican has that view, so I'm rejecting the claim "it's just a few nuts!"

Also, where was the outrage from the right over this? Where were the condemnations from sean hannity, ruch lmbaugh, michael savage? Apparently the right didn't consider calling for the murder of 605 million americans worthy of condemnation, unlike, say, the cries of horror and fury over raising taxes on the rich.

And do you think it doesn't work exactly the same way in the other direction?

I think partisanship is an intellectual disease.

But the difference is... WE'RE RIGHT AND THEY'RE WRONG...!   :teddyr:

No,  the difference between the right and the left is that when someone on the left says so ethjngextreme people on the left come down on them for it, peolle like bill maher, Steve Colbert,  Rachel maddow,  john Stewart,  etc.

When someone on the right say something horrible, invites violence,  etc, no one on the right condemns them. Not  rush goebbles, not heil hannity,  not Glenn dick,  etc. If anything the right praises those on the right who go to extremes.

indy, you know i love you like a brother. please don't put me on your friend list, i wouldn't want to embarrass you, and that WOULD happen. i have a foul mouth, a vicious temper and i don't tolerate idiots well at all outside this place, lol!
  i'm also the sweetest woman on earth when i want to be, but when it comes to politics, that's as rare as me cutting myself, you know? so don't do it! :)

I quit watching the news. I just quit.
I'm done with it. :thumbdown:
I ain't gonna spend what's left of my life worrying about this s**t that does nothing for me except p**s me off.

For my Babe: 
The United States Of America - Cloud Song (1969) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yqr4UK41GM#) 

For those on the U.S. who wanna move to Canada: https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/tor/5868054196.html (https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/tor/5868054196.html)

With Georgia's new abortion law coming into effect let's talk about how f**ked up it is. Putting the elephant in the room aside the law can make a lady who miscarriages into jail. Pretty sure that the men who made the law has absolutely zero education on the human body and has probably never been with a woman

Religious oposition to abortion explained.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PPIixsI6Pes/TrLO8c0hjNI/AAAAAAAAktM/vpM1lRpVVHY/s1600/Jesus_and_Mo_abortion.jpg)

No; if it was merely about keeping women in check other women wouldn't be pro-life.

It might be about controlling daughters & ensuring you have grankids, but it could not be about controlling women in general.

oh yes women would,pac. women are control freaks just like men are. and the majority of anti-choice women are controlled by the men in their lives, including the men who run their church.
both of you please read this article, because you both need to know the actual facts, not the hype, and not the spin either, okay?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/05/11/could-miscarriages-land-women-jail-lets-clarify-these-georgia-alabama-abortion-bills/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.330a6b6cda71 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/05/11/could-miscarriages-land-women-jail-lets-clarify-these-georgia-alabama-abortion-bills/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.330a6b6cda71)

That's the problem I have with the argument; it amounts to a stereotype of pro-life women.

Read the article; thank you. Just an attempt to challenge Roe V. Wade while the courts might have a right lean.

yes, it is, but the problem is the amount of states where the same  kind of law is being blocked. i keep getting told that federal law trumps state law, when it comes to pot, well it better do the same with abortion then. NO ONE should have the right to take control of a woman's body by forcing her into childbearing. not men, not other women, not parents, boyfriends, husbands, etc. NO ONE.

That's the other problem I have with it; it assumes the fetus isn't a person.

I believe that conservative politicians who bring up and sign anti abortion laws should be forced to pay the state's legal expenses when a court strikes them down. Why should pewople who support abortion rights have to foot the bill for overturning these laws? Let the people who create them pay for it.

it isn't . even the bible talks about" the breath of life" to designate a CHILD.

if paccie left because of me and my strong opinions, let me know. i'll walk away. my friends here know how to find me, and i don't want to be the reason someone leaves.

When someone leaves it's their own decision. If I'm not mistaken think Pac did this once before, and came back. The solution to people leaving is not for other people to leave.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alabama-state-senate-passes-near-total-abortion-ban-direct-challenge-n1005556?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alabama-state-senate-passes-near-total-abortion-ban-direct-challenge-n1005556?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma)
ARE YOU F*CKING KIDDING ME? Rape victims can't get help. WHAT THE F*CK ALABAMA?!?!

thanks rev. you're right, i shouldn't guilt out.  :cheers:
misfit, the governor is supposed to be reviewing the law today, we'll see what happeens. frankly, the state of alabama can't afford the court costs.

I do not believe any entity should dictate opinions regarding body sovereignty as law. 
I might agree with such opinion subjectively, but objectively never. 

I think the right needs a good solid crushing in america, they're just out of control and need to be beaten, not reasoned with. This is intolerable.

Also they cannot penalize someone for an action they commit in another state.

This is becoming an increasing feature of modern life. People doing something legal in one country are being arrested for it in an entirely different one should they later visit it.

It's called "extradition" and it's really nothing new. The U.S.'s first extradition treaty was signed with Britain in 1794.

Not sure what Svenghoulie's referring to, though.

No wonder someone called the cops on me when I arrived at Frankfurt Airport in 2003  :buggedout: :wink:

Actually what I am talking about isn’t extradition at all. One recent example is a woman in the UK wrote something on Facebook about her ex husbands new wife. Some time later (I think it was a year on), she went on holiday and was arrested for the comment she made.

So this is an idea thar popped into my head: these people that are making these controversial laws, do they have the idea that they are the last of their kind and can't accept it?

Ah, I see. Defamation is a crime in the country where the "victim" resides (Dubai) and the ex-wife visited it. They may want to rethink those strict laws, they're going to hurt tourism.

Theoretically if you commit a crime in one jurisdiction while you're in another jurisdiction, you can be arrested if you voluntarily visit the place where the crime was committed. This really wasn't much of a practical issue before the Internet.

I've seen a few other cases over the years. Hacking I can understand, but others have involved international trading (where those involved have been prosecuted by a third country not involved in the transaction), banking (although I have little sympathy for bankers), selling things on ebay from one country that are banned in another (even if no one from the second country bought the item).

I do wonder how far this will go.

I don't know about svenghoulie but I was referring to the alabama Handmaiden's mandatory birth law that says if a woman leave that inbred moron state to get an abortion in another state she can be sentenced t 10 years in prison in alabama for it.

This doesn't explain how the U.S. can arrest Julliane assange for things he did in another country and have him forced over here.

What next? An american criticizes islam in america and has some guy names achmed show u on his door demanding he come with him to saudi arabia for trial and execution for it? Since saudi aragbia has delcared atheisists terrorists can american atheists be shipped off to that sandheap for trial and execution now?

I'd have to study the Alabama law to see if that's what it says and what their rationale is. Good chance it's simply unconstitutional and they expect it to be overturned.

Assange is accused of committing a crime in the USA (by aiding Chelsea Manning in hacking government computers.) The US won't be prosecuting him for the rape charges or whatever has no jurisdictional locus here.

The US won't extradite citizens to Saudi Arabia for blasphemy, but if a famous blasphemer travelled to that country they better take along their checkbook for a lawyer.

As far as a lawyer-

More than that- they better be packin'. Look at what happened to that journalist- he's dead.

As far as abortion goes. I don't like the idea, myself. But that's just me. If a woman want's to have an abortion-that's her choice. Who am I to tell her "No! You can't do that!"
That's awful.
Better than having kids and letting them live like animals just because some drug addicted woman wants more welfare (I.E.- my first wife).

Heres something you probably didn't know or expect: abortion is illegal in socialist (but also Catholic) venezuela.

Unfortunately that doesn't stop them from happening, in no small part because birth control is unaffordable to most people there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Venezuela

I think there are only a few justifiable reasons for an abortion, but I don't make the mistake of judging women who have had one. I tend to be more passionate about people who do have kids but don't look after them properly. It does p**s me off that a lot of anti-abortionists do not appear to care any for the babies once they are born though.

that's part of the whole chitstorm going on in america right now, the same people trying to force women to have babies are also kicking living children off medicaid, food stamps and rent subsidies in droves. and they whine CONSTANTLY about" my tax dollars shouldn't be supporting"deadbeats"". those"deadbeats" are single moms, the working poor, CHILDREN and disabled people, along with the elderly.

You have to love how Jews have a radical protest and counter rally. Truly the world should learn from Israel....


https://forward.com/fast-forward/424627/eurovision-jerusalem-ultra-orthodox-protest/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Main&fbclid=IwAR1umcGY2xkz-PCgEmmFLpjXyerQ3tX8QDCfxgomObFfwWm_iruP7p1BCME

I think all religion and politics is madness. I Can't do it no mo'!

After watching the News, I feel like I was on a 3 day drunk.

(https://i.imgur.com/rRAvrC0.gif) (https://lunapic.com)

That's me trying to wake up on a Monday morning  :wink:

I watch CNBC. "how is the cement industry, here we have the ceo of some cement company" the straightforwardness of it appeals to me.

This guy is vowing to impose christian rule on america no matter what others want.  What makes him different than ISIS or the taliban?

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/rick-wiles-we-are-going-to-impose-christian-rule-in-this-country/ (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/rick-wiles-we-are-going-to-impose-christian-rule-in-this-country/)

Also if religion is going to get involved in politics why should it be tax free?
 

I'm guessing that these lawmakers on restricting abortions have no idea what a female has to go through. Personally speaking but my elder sister had to get one due to being illegally evicted from her apartment where she was living at the time. You think that she'll get over it after a while. NOPE. My god, hearing her cry about it and lashing out at the bf  is stressful. That's one part of it since my dad was trying to help her and threatened both her and my mom that she would not be welcomed back home, and seeing my mom cry about it tore me up from the inside. Damn near committed suicide because of it, since I couldn't do anything about since it would be like throwing napalm on a fire.
I don't care if you are pro-life; abortion is a gray, complex subject and trying to give a black/white simple answer is f**king bulls**t.

That is exactly why abortion is the only subject in the world I don't have an opinion on.

http://youtu.be/llzoItQgLOQ (http://youtu.be/llzoItQgLOQ) 

South Africa's President is being inaugurated tomorrow.  :smile:

I've been unplugged from the news for the past week and it's been very pleasant.  :thumbup:

King Of Irony Donald Trump Tweets About 'Low IQ' Joe 'Bidan,' Twitter Wits Can't Even

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/donald-trump-joe-biden-bidan-north-korea-043515523.html (https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/donald-trump-joe-biden-bidan-north-korea-043515523.html) 

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7cshaIXkAA8tyi.jpg:large)

Some choice responses to the tweet: 

Joe Bidan for presidant! Tramp is terrafied he'll win the 2020 elaction. 

Now I know why the stable genius couldn’t find Obama’s birth certificate. He did an online search for “Barrack Omaha” and got suspicious when it came back with no results. 

I'm guessing Joe Bidan is the dark lord of Covfefe.

Breaking: "Joe Bidan" has entered the 2020 race alongside Joe Biden, and now they're both polling ahead of Donald Trump.

"Low IQ and Joe Bidan” in the same sentence

It’s incredibly chilling for the President of the United States to excuse the belligerent actions of a North Korean dictator who murdered American citizens while applauding attacks on Democratic opponents like “Joe Bidan” just before playing golf in Japan on Memorial Day weekend.

That's why I just quit watching the news. I'ts surreal .
It's like a Dali painting mixed with an Ed Wood movie. Only worse. It's like an old Ormand Brothers movie.-Only worse! I can't do it anymore. It's too much s**t.
Too much money with people with NO brains at all. But they got money!
And I mean everybody. Left, right,middle, Korea, Russia, crazy f**kers in the US and the Mideast- f**k em all.

(https://i.imgur.com/NwSgqT8.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/9L3cU4l.jpg)

Just had a discussion in work about Anarchy Vs True Democracy and Ideal Communism (as in Marx's writings) Vs the practical reality (Soviet Union, China etc).

Thanks, all you trump voters.


http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/study-trump-tax-cuts-failed-growth-investment.html (http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/study-trump-tax-cuts-failed-growth-investment.html)

One of the contenders for the leadership of the tory party announced he would not allow Scotland to hold a second independence referendum. The entire country now seems to be mocking him under the hashtag 'permissionfromSajid'. National institutions, other politicians and newspapers are all getting in on this (one newspaper had its headline that you'd have to ask permission for Sajid to go buy the paper). Other people are asking him if they can have permission to have an early night or go to the toilet.
 
My favourite however is "And God said let there be light, and there was light.

But only because he got #permissionfromSajid."

Having an English based party telling people in Scotland wither or not they can have a vote is going down like a lead balloon, even amongst people who would vote to remain. I would imagine though it is a more popular move down south. Given how little that party is represented north of the border and how much Thatcher killed their popularity I don't see them ever really making a comeback. What does surprise me is just how much Labour's vote share has plummeted. Growing up, you could colour an election map of Scotland in red for Labour. In the European elections they didn't get a single representative (SNP will be sending 3, The Brexit Party 1, Liberal Democrats 1 and the Tories 1) and only took 9% of the vote.

When you are doing worse than the Tories in Scotland then you have done something very badly wrong indeed.

I don't really have a horse in the race, but it would amuse me to see Scotland vote for independence from the UK and then join the EU.

We did vote by a big majority to remain in the EU. Certainly a much higher percentage than voted to remain in the UK (if I remember the figures correctly I think it was 52% or 55% to stay in the UK compared to 67% voted to remain in the EU. What I take from that is we'd rather remain in both, but if forced to chose, we'd stick with the EU.

Ok speaking an as american here I have to ask if Scotland can leave the UK? I mean we had some states trying to leave america a while back and things got bloody. (We should have let them go it turned out)

Can scotland vote to leave? Woulds england go to war with them if they tried? Just an american trying to understand things here.

Shamina Begum's family are now blaming the UK government for failing to stop her going to Syria and for not warning them that she was at risk of being radicalised.

Kind of think her strict muslim upbringing might have been the thing that put her in that position. She has been insisting that she knew what she was doing, that she did the right thing going there and cutting the heads off people is fine.

Still not having any sympathy with her being stuck out there. Its just a shame it was her children who paid the price. Them I do pity.

The info coming out about the Rev Dr Martin Luther King is scary!

I could not agree more with this.

trevor - I would wait till the smoke clears on that stuff. it is very well known that j edgar hoover had it in for MLK

I watched the news for about half an hour yesterday.
Then I went back to not watching the news.

Christ on a cross, man.  :bluesad:

Yeah. Sounds like bulls**t.
I don't believe anything I hear and half of what I see.
MLK has been dead for over 50 years. And-all of a sudden-this is coming out now? By what real proof?
Hoover, if he had evidence of that, would have taken him down.
Nonsense. King may have been a horn dog, don't make him a party to gang rape and such just because some guy says it's so.
And if the FBI was beaming in to this-why didn't they stop it? They let this girl get raped?
This is nonsense.
They would have busted his ass in a heart beat. This is bulls**t.

rc- thats what doesn't make sense. the idea that people whose goal was to take him down would for some reason not release that stuff

but who knows

It seems to be horse s**t in the same vein as the Amityville house and Chupacabra.
s**t like this pops up just like the old story of the kid who walked out in the snowstorm to a well and got snatched out of thin air. Never happened. That's a story by Ambrose Bierce. (Who did disppear in Mexico!)

That fascist f-ck hooover tried tio get king to kill himself, and it';s been documented.


https://www.rt.com/usa/205323-mlk-letter-uncensored-suicide/ (https://www.rt.com/usa/205323-mlk-letter-uncensored-suicide/)

It's a pity hoover was born in america, he'd have fit much better into nazi germany.

Hoover was a blob of bitter vileness filled with hate, and a lot of his hate was directed at himself. He was part black at a time when thet was effectively a crime in americam and he was "As queer as a 3 dollar bill" to use a phrase of his day. If you look at hoover he made a habit of attacking blacks and gays out of self hatred and as a way of making people believe he couldn't be either one. He backed an insane scheme to identify and "round up" every gay in america called "operation babydoll".

Killdozer happened 15 years ago today in a small town in Colorado. Many people vilified the guy behind it, Marvin Heemeyer; however others have said that he was in the right, me included.

this is the only news I can watch these days

http://youtu.be/vaNSCTUQhVI (http://youtu.be/vaNSCTUQhVI)

Since trump didn't manage to see any of the protests I thought I'd post this up for anyone who wants to see them.


http://www.sadanduseless.com/donald-meets-england-funny/?fbclid=IwAR22vTNo5t9Y_lnEV7W0V3lAIearSHSoNGsErURzDEB_JEA4zGwoBKb-ymQ (http://www.sadanduseless.com/donald-meets-england-funny/?fbclid=IwAR22vTNo5t9Y_lnEV7W0V3lAIearSHSoNGsErURzDEB_JEA4zGwoBKb-ymQ)

my bestie has many customers/friends who work at the airbus facility who had a ball watching the protests, he says. so did my aussie pals, lol!

That bit proved that trump is a delusional narcissistic egomaniac. He literally cannot perceive or accept any reality that goes against his wishes. He sees himself as the center and master of reality. Anything that goes against his view of reality doesn't exist, is fake news, is a conspiracy, etc.

BTW are they done fumigating europe yet?

Also, his handlers may have been careful to avoid him seeing anything that might trigger him, only driving him past designated safe spaces and distracting him when protests were on TV. Kind of like they made sure he didn't see the USS John McCain in Japan.

I went to a pride parade last night and two churches helped sponsor the parade. Apparently one church is very tolerant with the lgbt group, and the other church is going to split into two.
Edit: the peaceful church is the Episcopal Church, and the church that is splitting into two is the Methodist Church, because apparently loving thy neighbor is as thy self isn't what a lot of people subscribe to.

It's not that simple.
The New Testament clearly describes homosexual behavior as sinful.
It also tells us that we are to love sinners, as Christ did.  But loving sinners and encouraging them to take pride in their sin are two different things.
I mean, would people be all up in arms if the church refused to take part in a pro-adultery rally?

Bottom line, loving people doesn't necessarily mean loving all the things they do.

So gay folks are sinners because an old book said so?
I don't get that part. They ain't hurting anyone. They actually LOVE each other.
Ain't that what the Bible is supposed to be all about?   :question:
I don't get what there is to forgive.
I don't like GAME OF THRONES or liver and onions- that don't mean folks who do are sinners.
If you wanna kill or rob someone-yeah- I think we can all agree on that!
But who you choose to love is a given, I would reckon.

Folks not too long ago would say my loving a black woman was " not right".
f**k THEM.  :hatred:

I agree, Ronny.

My very special sister and her husband adopted a little black girl whose dips**t mother had abandoned her: this lovely young lady now has a family who loves her, a younger brother, a second chance in life - the same chance I got - and of course, some Uncle who claims to be a zombie.  :smile:

Those kids saved my life: if they hadn't come along in 2008 and 2009, I would be long dead.

Sorry, indy, but when a book tells me slavery is OK I cease to have any regard for what it says is right and wrong.

Hey, I don't ask anybody else to live by my code unless they choose to embrace my faith.
It's like a Jew keeping kosher; I don't really expect the world outside my faith to choose my standards.

A huge part of the problem today is folks confuse tolerance and approval. Tolerance means you do your thing, I do mine, and I don't ask you to be my cheerleader and vice versa.

Too many people today - on both sides, but especially on the left - think that unless you give full-throated, fist-pumping, jumping up and down and screaming "Huzzah!!!" approval to every single thing a person does, you must hate them.

I don't hate anybody, and I don't treat anybody different because they are gay or straight.

I think people in the bible days just didn't know what a gay person was.

I'm not sure of the story here, but I'm sure it will blow over.

Soooo,  I take it a politician in engkand got busted with cocaine?

Speaking of british politics how's that brexit going?

Sort of. He was forced into admitting (he owned up before a journalist revealed it) he had taken cocaine 20 years ago. Normally I'd say that was a non-event, but at the same time he was campaigning against drugs. Since he is one of the candidates to be the new PM it is calling his (double) standards into account and that any 'normal' person would face prosectution. I've long felt that politicians should be subject to random drug testing and the results made public.

As for brexit... ask me again when the new PM is elected.

Well if i'm  still around.

Say, about britt PMs, how do they go?  Do they get elected by the public?  Do they serve fixed terms or stay in until they get too unpopular or what?

doesn't everyone in England snort cocaine?

Being Scottish I can't answer for the entire population of England.

PM's are indirectly elected based on the number of MP's chosen to represent their party in parliament. There is no fixed term for them. As long as people vote for someone they can remain in power. Currently parliament has a fixed length, although that hasn't stopped elections being called early. In my lifetime the careers of the PM's have ended thusly: Thatcher - Resigned (Poll Tax riots and leadership challenge), Major Defeated by Blair (General Election), Blair - Resigned (own choice, but pressured by Brown to quit), Brown - Failed to win an election (but interestingly wasn't outright defeated despite being the most unpopular PM for 100 years, Cameron - Resigned (over Brexit), May - Resigned (over Brexit).

In South Africa, the leader of the party which wins out at the polls becomes the State President. I believe there has been a President here since the advent of democracy - thankfully - in 1994.

Prior to that, there was a Prime Minister and the largely ceremonial position of State President.

Thatcher pulled a poll tax? You mean charging peolle to vote? Gotta look tbat up...

"Poll tax" does not mean charging a fee to vote. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poll_tax_(Great_Britain)

Not in the technical sense,  true.  But in parts of america it was used to keep "undesireables" from voting by charging a fee to. In america it generally refers to a way to keep certain peolle (you know what I mean) from voting.

https://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/white-only-1.html

Yes, America is the only country that uses that meaning for "poll tax."

Ok so my use of the term was not wrong given my upbringing,  I saw that thatcher's poll tax was different and she started riots by shifting the financial burden from the rich to the poor. No wonder  her and Reagan got along...

Takes me back to my first ever political protest. Glad to say I played my part, however small in her downfall.

I understand for the cost of her funeral they could have bought a shovel for everyone in Scotland and they would have happily dug a hole deep enough to  deposit her body directly into satan's hands. That's according to someone named Frankie boyle.

Also there we're claims she used part of Scotland as a testing ground for some particularly crual and callous ci servative economic experiments that caused great pain and suffering.

The poll tax was included there.

Btw alex,  I heard that Scotland was considering seceding from the UK to remain in the EU. Anything about  that true?

Yes, the governing in party in Scotland is trying to go down that route.

Would the UK allow Scotland to pull a "scexit" or go to war to stop them?

Are they calling it scexit yet?

Nope, and I doubt it will ever be called that. The term being used is Indy Ref 2.

the EU has to figure out how to let these nations be individual nations while being a part of the EU.

Ex-Republican Who Doctored Presidential Seal Is Happy Trump Stood In Front Of It 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-republican-who-doctored-presidential-seal-is-happy-trump-stood-in-front-of-it-141812905.html (https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-republican-who-doctored-presidential-seal-is-happy-trump-stood-in-front-of-it-141812905.html)   

(https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/190725130212-trump-tusa-summit-exlarge-169.jpg)

I loved this.

so the whole russia thing was nothing. what a waste of time

I would say it was something. It proved that there was Russian interferance with our elections- something this president ignores. He welcomes it.

And his buddy Moscow Mitchell won't allow a single bill protecting a! eerican elections to be heard.

No one ever doubted that before. its likes being outraged that people drive faster than 55 on the highway

Trump does. Or doesn't care. That's a problem.
I can understand me or you not caring. But our PRESIDENT- that's his job. Not playing golf , or 'tweeting' stupid nonsense.

Amen brother RC!

Since I can't karma you have a pic of bela Lugosi instead.

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bg956_1qZm4/TapnkkEkCmI/AAAAAAAAGxY/Rk9LjXi22ss/s640/bela.jpg)

Pal o' pal o' mine.  


Ronald Reagan Makes Racist Comment To Richard Nixon In Newly Released Audio

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/ronald-reagan-racist-audio-nixon-110547900.html   (https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/ronald-reagan-racist-audio-nixon-110547900.html)

An ugly comment made in a moment of anger nearly 50 years ago.
Let's be honest; standards were a bit different then.
Reagan's legacy was much larger than that one moment of nastiness.

Yeah, he started the trend of union busting which has helped corporate america drive down wages to the point the middle class is almost extinct.

He shifted american policy away from human rights in foreign countries and towards what makes american corporations more money thru cheap labor.

He cut taxes on the rich and covered it by creating the first tax on social security

He started a war on drugs that he exploded our  prison population.

He provoked the Russians and nearly started a war with the soviets,  and might have if Mikhail gorbachev wasn't more reasonable.

Since reagan's years the american working and middle classes have lost ground while the 1% now control more wealth that the rest of  america.


That's  the Reagan legacy.  One 40 hour work week used to support a family.  Now two people have to work 3-4 jobs and have a few "side hustles" just to survive.

A relative of mine has lost her good paying  job and is now going o have to work a couple worse ones and sell her blood to get by.  thankfully  she has a rare type.

the entire thing made no sense. Why would i care if if trump was beholden to russia? what would that mean for americans? nothing.

Where to start with such a crock?
OK, first of all, Reagan had no problem with unions per se - after all, he was a former Union President.  However, Unions had gained so much power that they could hold public safety hostage, and had become rife with corruption and criminal influences.

AWAY from human rights in foreign countries?  How about freeing Eastern Europe from Soviet domination?  How about casting the Soviet Union on the ash heap of history as the evil, corrupt, and despotic monstrosity that it was?  Reagan had a clearer moral vision as to the true nature of the Soviet Union than any American politician since Harry Truman.

And yes, he cut taxes.  Across the board.  For ALL Americans.  Seriously, do you think it is just for ANY man to have 75% and more of his annual earnings stripped from him by the government just because he is successful?  That is predatory and wicked, not fair and progressive.  What entitles the government to take 3/4 of ANY man's income?

As far as the war on drugs goes, how about this:  If you don't want to go to jail for using drugs, DON'T USE DRUGS.  Problem solved.

Yes, he challenged the Soviet Union.  They needed to be challenged.  The disastrous policy of détente had led to Communist advances all over the world.  Look around you now.  The Berlin Wall is smashed for souvenirs; the Soviet Union no longer exists.    Free markets and free people where once there were gulags and KGB thugs.  Eastern Europe free and democratic.  Love of country fashionable again.  An end to the awful "malaise days" of the Carter administration.

THAT IS THE LEGACY OF RONALD REAGAN.

Nice way to sidestep my points.


Reagan's supply side  economics never worked for anyone but the rich. The "theory' thastmgiveng more money to time rich helps everyone has Been exploded time and time again,  it only makes the rich richer.  Just like trump's recent trillion dollar tax cut for billionaires,  it made the rich richer and exploded the deficit,  which they now want to address by robbing the poor.

Again,  I pointed out thst in the days Before Reagan a working man coiuld support a family andmwhiome working 40 hours a week.  Try that now!

Also Reagan deregulaged and reregulatedx deliberately driving a bulldozer over FDR's new deal controls meant to stop another great depression thru unregulated stock markets and business.  Right after Reagan left office we had the S&L crisis and guess what happened? The rich plundered the economy without regulations to stop them,  and the American public was then robbed a second time to pay for it and we're still repaying the s&l bailout that   Reagan created.

Since then we've had an economic disaster every decade,  and in each case the rich  get richer and everyone else loses.

reagan also ushered in the dawn of downsizing, which started on his watch. Good jobs began disappearing from america and low paying jobs began appearing in other countries,  again the rich gitmrisher and working peoplecs incomes shrank.

As to the fall of the soviet union,  so what?  I'd rather have the soviet union around and be able to have a good life on a 40 hour A week  job with some security that have what we have after Reagan!

As to the drug issue, it's  none of the government's business if I do marijuana and I'll damn well do it if I want to,  which I happen not to.  I don't do grass but itcs because I choose not to,  and if I wanted to I damn well would.  People donct
Deserve to be in orison for it and have criminal records for it!

As for not breaking the law if you don't  want the consequences it's  funny how many conservatives have that 'tude until people are arrested for blocking access to an abortion clinic then cry about how "persecuted" they are.

Reagan was a disaster for the majority of americans,  his policies helped destroy the american dream for most people and sadly at least as third of  america never learned from it.

Wasn't the Soviet union's economy failing when Regan took office?

The fall of  the soviet union took everyone by surprise. The CIA didn't see it coming.

I'm grateful that the last leaders of the soviet union were  mature enough not to decide to go out with a bang.

Why are you blaming Ronald Reagan for all this, Sven, when you've posted multiple times he was a witless old man and his wife Nancy was the real president? Changed your mind about who ran things, have you? Well good, because as usual you were wrong about that.

Why am I not surprised you're  a Reagan fan?

I am?
Just reminding you of your statements about Reagan being a figurehead for his wife's power.

I'm also a Reagan fan but have to admit i never got, in general, the whole cold war mentality. communism was a dumb system and eventually collapsed of its own inner contradictions.

Why goad people we consider an "evil empire" into building thousands of nukes pointed at all our major cities? or look at Cuba. what did having a embargo accomplish? We should have flooded them with superior American products like a massive typhoon of capitalism

Yeah,  coz,  ghawd forged we let people choose their own systems.

I think polarization is endemic in our culture; it's yes or no it's right or wrong it's black or white.  Those with complex opinions are vilified. 

You are either an alt-right, Neo-Nazi, fascist or you're a leftist, SJW, snowflake, cuck.

In the world of politics nuance is the new N-Word.

I would say to let them air out, but I don't know if there's a limit to their own ideas that they can't contain.

Agreed, but it does illustrate more clearly there was no doubt that REAGAN was inclined toward racism.  It's not ONE ugly comment.  "They're still uncomfortable wearing shoes".  It's worth noting that NIXON does not encourage or do much more than listen. 

I've read some of the transcripts from Nixon's personal tapes . . . he could use some pretty racist language.
But then again, he and Reagan both grew up in the 1930's and 40's.  Those words were acceptable then by a vast majority of white America.
I think one of the cardinal mistakes we make is when we judge people of a different era by the standards of our time.
We live in a different age.

No; you miss my point.  You're the historian.  NIXON's racism is well noted in other venues.  I think NIXON, ever the savvy politician, was working REAGAN. 

Going into nixon's racism, he devised the "southern strategy" that his ilk used to essentially turn the south red.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy

While it was a despicable strategy that revealed Nixon's party was as devoid of decency as he was, I have to blame the majority of southerner voters for falling for it. These people are so consumed by their racism that they turned away from the democrat party and embraced a party that has seen poverty and economic devastation explode in the south by transporting policies that ovel benefit the rich at the expense of everyone else.

The south is far poorer on the whole than the rest of ameruica and are hit hardest by the pro rich policies of the party they have embraced, yet are so driven by hate and fear of minororites and "so'schlism" and "commyoonizm" that they will not vote for a party that doesn't share their fear and hate of "others" and any form of change or progress.

Personally the more I look into Reagan the more polarizing he becomes. As noted I wasn't alive during his time and honestly I wonder if I'm perfect to be critical of him since I don't have any memories or nostalgia for him.

Well, don't take this the wrong way but one thing I find very frightening is the fact so many people are like you today. Now that's nothing against you eo keep reading and see what I mean.

People before reagan can remember when americans had strong unions that kept their wages and benefits good, they can remember when wallstreet was regulated under laws gong back to the new deal, when insurance companies and banks were regulated. When if you got sick you didn't get told "Sorry, pre existing condition, buhbye!" People before reagan can remember having a department of labor that cracked down on corporate abuses of workers and when government still blocked mergers in the interest of the public.

Young people today have grown up in an age of unregulated corporate greed, abuse, exploitation and hostile indifference to the rights and even lives of americans. They just don;t get that it wasn't always like these, we used to have rights and protections. Before reagan. They were taken away from us slowly, quietly, just a bit at a time. One busted union here, a court ruling against workers rights there, a deregulation passed quietly in the background while the public was distracted by some news circus.

You kinds today just don't remember that it wasn't always like this, it was made like this. By people, greedy selfish, soulless people in suits and ties.


El misfit please understand i'm not dumping on your and yout generation, you do worry me a but not thru your fault you have grown up in a world where you've been conditioned to believe thst raw,  naked,  unbridled greed and arrogance from corporate overlords is "just the way it is". You donct remember a time when someone could tell his boss "tnat's none of your business" on a personal  matter or what he did off the job. You don't  remember when banks couldn't just take your money and then tell you "Aaaaand it's gone. " When an insurance ce comlanhy couldn't just refuse to lay a claim and hope you died before you could very a court verdict against them. You've been just conditioned to accept a corporate overlord oligarchy that dictates to workers on every issue and courts rule in their favor 99% of the time.  I mean I worry you kids just donct know things were  better once send could be again. If ooeple fought hard enough for it.

So I hope you understand I'm not downing youmwhen I say your  generation kind of worries and scares me a little.

sven - I don't agree with the idea that CUba or the USSR "chose" marxism. whether they liked it or not they had no choice. the walls in east germany weren't there to keep people out

Sven, I was born in 1963.  I grew up during the Carter years and saw America sinking into a morass of hopelessness and defeatism, with an economy that was beyond stagnant and a well-meaning but incompetent President whose every action seemed to make things worse.

And I watched Reagan come along and change that.  I know none of this will penetrate the thick fog of political bigotry that fills your skull, but this country was better off after just four years of this man, and better off still when he left office.  He restored our faith in America on a fundamental level, got out economy humming again, and presided over an era of remarkable economic growth which saw incomes go up across the board, at every level (that's according to official IRS records, BTW).  He radiated decency, good humor, and courage.  He was not a perfect man; no politician is.  He made mistakes.

But he is far more than the loathsome boogeyman you make him out to be.  That is one reason why historians consistently rate him in the top 25% of America's presidents.

So kindly  explain to me how in the bad old days of carter a working man could support a family and home on a 40 hour a week job while today one to hour a week job can barely keep a man in an cheap apartmernt.

Kindly explain how the american public has nit advanced,  and even backslid,  in terms of their share of the american economy while the 1% has taken most of americans wealth.

Why are people working fast longer hours for no more or even pass lag adjusted for inflation and have less savings, less property,  less economic cesurity and mire debt then they did in carter's days.

we've had democrat presidents during that decline as well.

I would personally trace it to going off the gold standard. inflation used to be, and is supposed to be, a rare phenomena.

It's  not just inflation,  les, it's  the fact that wages for most people have stagnated or declined in the last 30 years while the rich take more and more of americans wealth. The elimination of regulation that SOB Reagan started had let the rich plunder the economy with one carefully engineered economic disaster after another while the public is stuck repaying it,
has  happened in the S&L crisis, traceable directly to reagan's wave of deregulation.

Sven, if ever you have the courage to go outside your narrow comfort zone, you might try reading the thoughts of the economist Milton Friedman, who could answer some of your questions.

Also, again, your typing makes it hard to take you seriously since it makes you look lazy, sloppy, dull, but here goes my stab at an answer to some points you raised.

I'll leave out the effects of the late 20th century decline in domestic manufacturing and the allure of cheap overseas goods recessing the American homefront, and I'll not get into the fact that in the distributist model of America before corporate big box stores, people shopped locally amid main streets owned by friends and neighbors, which.....well, I'll skip going there.

Let me talk about this...

In part wages went farther in past generations because people were willing to make due with less in comparison with today.

Houses, if you notice, were smaller then. Children shared bedrooms, siblings handed down clothing, meals were home cooked and often less elaborate than today, eating out was a luxury, not a way of life. Most families had a single TV set, a single car, a small yard, no backyard pool. Few took two week vacations. There were no computers, there was a single family phone used communally. There was no Netflix, no cable or satellite TV, no internet subscriptions. No one paid six bucks for a cup of coffee. Clothes were commonly homemade, there was no keeping up with the latest fashions. The streets were lined with locally-owned businesses, not strip malls. People did not buy on credit to the scale they do now, strangled by interest. In general there were fewer demands on wallets, and expectations were lower.

There are still people today willing to live humbler, less materialistic lives and do make due with a single breadwinner in the family.

To lay the blame for a tsunami of social changes on one man or one party is unbalanced thinking.

And if repuvwbocans could get out of their narrow comfort zone they cold see that trickle down economics only works for the rich and hurts everyone else.  I'm not eating for hast to happen either.

And I refuse to spend an hour correcting a  minutes worth of typing  anymore.

You complain but you can't refute.

And funny, other people's posts don't look retarded and I doubt they take an hour to correct them.

I do believe it only takes you a minute to come up with what you write though. It shows.

I don't know why I got pulled into replying to you, Sven. You're not worth the effort. You're silly.

It is worth mentioning that the America you talk about was post-Watergate, which shamed this country in the eyes of the world.  NIXON was the culmination of everything bad in "the establishment".  The world Sven alludes to was a post-counter-culture world too.  REAGAN was undoubtedly a reach for stability by the American people. 

 
It is interesting how the pocketbook is important to everyone; money of course being a man-made invention.  There were competencies in REAGAN's administration that CARTER's lacked.  I am a huge fan of JIMMY CARTER (it is hard to look at a politician and not see dirt) and I have always disliked REAGAN.  I tend to look askance at so-called "presidential legacies" of my own lifetime.  Plus, being a poor man in America, I am unimpressed by wealth.  Yet, a healthy economy is essential, which I expect had a lot to do with BUSH's election in 1988. 

Well,  AHD, in america the pocketbook equals life. In most civilized countries the people have guaranteed healthcare. If you need medical aid to survive you get it. In 'murca if you get sick you get asked what coverage you have.  No coverage,  me treatment, you die.

I agree were  too materialistic and I'm guilty of it too. But in 'murca you die if you don't have money.  In civilized countries peolel have healthcare guaranteed. They can afford to be less   obsessed with the pocketbook.

The wisdom of The Simpsons, on socialized medicine. (From the episode with the Boston hatecation.)

"And because of our state's super-socialized health care, no matter how much your husband abuses his body, someone else will pay for it.
"

Um, yeah, let's review that again. Who will pay for it?

Read more at: https://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org/viewtopic.php?f=431&t=28971

I see your point of "Who is going to pay for it", but my issue is that Big Pharma jacks up their prices for medicine, and people suffer. If paying more in taxes to bring down the medicine prices is a con then I'm for it.

China is having its Khashoggi moment. for all the talk of opening up and the olympics and so forth... they are showing everyone who they really are with the HK extradition bill / crackdown

Response to the Amber Guyger verdict offers painful glimpse into white supremacy's widespread impact 

Shock. That’s the feeling that so many black Americans felt last September as details emerged about Botham Jean’s murder at the hands of Amber Guyger, a Dallas police officer who was eventually fired. Public outrage was widespread, of course, but the sheer audacity of Guyger’s claim that her crime was justified created a special kind of horror. Essentially, the ex-cop was claiming that her fear rendered her deadly error irrelevant. After all, tiny white woman vs. big black guy is an all-too-familiar racist trope... 


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/1/1889299/-Response-to-the-Amber-Guyger-verdict-offers-painful-glimpse-into-white-supremacy-s-widespread-impact?detail=emaildkre (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/1/1889299/-Response-to-the-Amber-Guyger-verdict-offers-painful-glimpse-into-white-supremacy-s-widespread-impact?detail=emaildkre)

I admired the brother giving the perpetrator a hug. 

She got 10 years in prison which may be reduced on appeal.

Meanwhile in a city one of my relatives lives in a black man refused to submit to a false and unjust arrest in a case he was innocent in and recieved 6 years n prison for it refusing to submit and defending himself when the cop went for a gun buy grappling  the cop and keeping him from getting his gun out.

The cop who wrongly decided he was the suspect and tried to grab his gun when he refused to be handcuffed for exactly no punishment whatsoever.

So apparently an innocent black man who finally refuses to be taken in form the nth time because he "matched a description " deserves 60% of the punishment a white cop who murdered a black man in his own home.

When we tell people that's cop can come into their home and gun them down then only face charge s of manslaugter or negligence  but people  who defend  police abuse face summary execution or felony charges and imprisonment if they agency killed on the sppt  you're sending a message to people that  their lives don't  matter.

good, honest video on what is going on in China

http://youtu.be/ed4ryYokLzU (http://youtu.be/ed4ryYokLzU)

It's hard for me to watch the news anymore. It just gets more insane by the second. I don't even bother anymore. I've become immune. I can't do it no more. I just wanna shoot straight whiskey into my brain when I turn on the news.  :bluesad: Which is not a bad thing- compared to the madness I see on TV ...I reckon I ain't hurting no one!
I swear- the TV is on in my head sometimes after I see the news, and I don't like it. I'm about done with it. I've watched Vietnam and Nixon and Manson as a child- and I came out the normal guy I am today! But I can't do this s**t no mo! I'm done! Stick a fork in my ass.
Before I even watched a video on you tube, there was an ad hyping Donald Trump's WWF cartoon ass! Weird propaganda s**t. It's a chasm of spasms! It's a madhouse!

(https://i.imgur.com/hPFADnh.gif) (https://lunapic.com)

Well,  after nearly 50 years a cop in texas was convicted of murder for murdering someone in their own home.

The police in texas have apparently responded by murdering a star witness in the case.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/06/witness-in-amber-guyger-case-found-shot-dead-in-dallas (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/06/witness-in-amber-guyger-case-found-shot-dead-in-dallas)

The man who filmed the murder of Eric garner in new york was harassed by police and eventually imprisoned  on questionable charges.  I guess he was lucky the cop wasn't convicted of the murder he committed. If he had maybe he would have been murdered instead of just harassed and imprisoned in relaiaition for his testimony against a murderer.

Who should investigate  the possibility that police retaliate against  and even murder witnesses who testify against them?  Who watches the watchmen?

I still watch The Watchmen. It's a good movie.

A while ago I posted here about china's violent oppression of Islam and Christianity .  yes I spoke against the persecution of Christians in china. And they're really being persecuted there,  not like in america  where Christians from feel not being allowed to persecute others is being persecuted.

No one replied. But I was opposed to what China is doing. Still am.

China is regressing a bit. in the stock market its called a fibonacci retracement https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fibonacciretracement.asp (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fibonacciretracement.asp)

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/08/768150426/u-s-blacklists-chinese-tech-firms-over-treatment-of-uighurs (https://www.npr.org/2019/10/08/768150426/u-s-blacklists-chinese-tech-firms-over-treatment-of-uighurs)

I really wish I could believe thst this was done out of a genuine regard form human rights and a sincere opposition to oppression and tyranny. As is i'm  sure it's just a cynical excuse to justify messing with china.

And again, where is the outrage over the persecution Muslims and Christians and falon gong.

I think there's a lot of outrage over China's treatment of minorities. But it's literally happening on the other side of the world from us, doesn't effect people's lives here directly, and there's nothing we can do about it. Most people in America don't have much idea what's going on in this country, much less in China.

Outrage minus constructive action is largely useless. Are you wedding your well-informed sense of outrage to some constructive action, Sven? If so, please share and inspire us to imitation.  :thumbup:

Share with you? Talk about pearls before swine.

You no longer need CNN, FOX, talk radio, or the office water cooler, Thee McLaughlin Group has returned to the air!

All is right again in the universe. Namaste.

http://www.mclaughlin.com/ (http://www.mclaughlin.com/)

I loved that show. Pat Buchanan is one of my heroes

Well the House voted to Impeach Trump. How much longer are we going to witness this s**t show continue to unfold?

I don't get it. I don't even understand what hes accused of. not giving money to the ukraine? impeach all of them for giving our tax dollars to the ukraine in the first place

Bwaahahahahahahahaha...

My FB post from tonight:

It is a sad day for our country.
Only three times in all of history has the House voted to impeach a President, and not once has a President been convicted in the Senate. This one won't, either. That is no reflection on his innocence or guilt. It's very clear (to me, at least) that Andrew Johnson WAS guilty of violating the Tenure of Office Act and obstructing Congress, but he was acquitted. Bill Clinton was clearly guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice, but he was acquitted. Donald Trump is clearly guilty of violating Federal election laws and abusing his power by asking Ukraine to dig up dirt on his political opponent - but he won't be convicted either.

But, like all his predecessors, he will stand before the bar of history. When all the "fire and fury", to borrow a phrase, of the current political climate has faded, and the deeds of this President and the policies of his administration have played out and borne their fruit, a verdict will be reached.

I wish I could step a hundred years into the future and see what it is.