The General US Politics Thread

The only scenario were I could imagine Mc Connell doing it would be if he was almost literally backed into a corner and felt like he was going to lose his job. Then he might be desperate enough to repeal it.

It'd be the equivalent of Chiaotzu's self-destruct against Nappa. Maybe with a little more collateral damage.

I didn't say it was likely

Oh, McConnell is neither stupid nor short-sighted. Do not confuse the Senator with Trump (or Ryan). He knows exactly whom he is trying to screw over, and what his own stakeholders want to see. This series of moves is baffling (perhaps desperation), but this is also the same Senator who led his party into a constitutional crisis and emerged on the other side with all three branches of gov't, plus the court seats that he wanted. Not to mention holding fast to Kentucky.

Gotta agree. McConnell (and Ryan for that matter) are corrupt and evil, but not stupid. Right now, I think that McConnell knows that he has no good options, and his best possible move is to simply fire off the bill knowing that it's DOA, accept the humiliation, and then quietly pretend that he never cared about Obamacare anyway.

@Fighteer: Personally, I am more open to the idea of attacking North Korea - in that it should have been done long before now, it's a cancer on regional politics as well as an ongoing crime against its own people - but Trump doesn't have the brains to review the strategic or operational realities of doing so, to calculate and try to minimize the likely costs of North Korea going kamikaze, or to, y'know, take a look at China and try to work out a damn deal with them, or even care about whether China is likely to defend North Korea if push comes to shove.

So, just so everyone can see what the people who are against the protests during the anthem are like, I will present these choice comments I have found in response to a cheerleader taking a knee:

On a more positive, hopeful note, here is a 97 year old WWII vet, John Middlemas, taking a knee in support of the players who are doing so.

I honestly don't know how I should feel about the North Korea situation. I'm afraid of nukes as a possibility and I'm afraid of my country putting soldiers on the ground because we never seem to pull out of or actually win wars anymore. Do we really need another protracted conflict? Should we really "liberate" another country considering how well it went over in the Middle East?

But then there is the point that Ramidel brought up, that North Korea's dictatorship is a crime against its own people.

Another thing is that I'm afraid of is that a war against North Korea will create more racist sentiment against Asians and racist propaganda against them.

Not really sure what was the point of posting those comments. You think any of us are somehow surprised or unaware?

Basically. Trump is like a broken calculator. All he can do is divide.

Thanks, I needed that.

The chance of the US starting the war is in my view very unlikely, so if it happens it'll probably be because North Korea attacks one of our allies. Which means that we wouldn't have much choice, abandoning our allies is not an option.

I heard that Shep Smith stood up for the players and what they're protesting about, but I kind of worry if he's going to get fired. :/

Yes.

edited 25th Sep '17 6:51:34 PM by BearyScary

I think there's a lot of risks involved in a war with North Korea, however I think we could actually win and pull-out against a war with them. North Korea is the right size for an enemy: too small to be a threat, but big enough to be knocked down.

And no, I don't see this creating racism against Asian people in general. For starters, the US's most important ally in that war would be Asian nations such as South Korea. Indeed, South Korea is actually America's ace in the hole with North Korea: we have a working democracy that can take over once the Kims are dealt with. Also, there's no real threat of a worse regime popping up, because North Korea is bad.

Mind you, North Korea's fall would create a refugee crisis. That would be bad.

edited 25th Sep '17 6:55:33 PM by Protagonist506

Also, it's not really starting a war against North Korea, it's resuming one.

That's a good point, would South Korea take over the North if we went to war against them?

Could we do that, though? I'm not talking about the morality of a war with North Korea, I'm asking if the US Military is actually capable of fighting and not losing. The article is about head of Strategic Command General Hyten's assessment of our logistics, and he is not confident at all. Which is yet another reason I despise Trump and the current Republican party- they're not just assholes, they're stupid assholes. They can't run a military, and yet they're pushing for a fight with Iran and North Korea and alienating as many people as possible. It's just like how Bush killed all of our goodwill after 9/11.

The odds of North Korea starting a war with the United States (and by extension South Korea) intentionally are close to zero, in fact I'd say they're for all intents and purposes zero. The odds of the United States attacking North Korea are low but decidedly nonzero, and the odds of either party unintentionally sparking a war is alarmingly high.

North Korea is already an acceptable target and been so forever so I don't really see this changing the status quo in the US. It's one of those Right for the Wrong Reasons cases. What I do worry about is what's going to happen to South Korean and Japan, those of us in the US are safe but I'd rather they not get hit with Kim's bullshit as collateral damage because of Trump's sloppiness.

If it was someone else in command, I'd be "concerned, but not panicky." But Trump is a stupid asshole whose idea of negotiating is to bully the other side into submission, and has no grasp of foreign affairs. Normally, North Korea makes a lot of noise, and we throw them a bone. Trump's just not capable of doing that.

It does highlight how many of Trump's supporters dig their heels in rather than give the protestors the time of day. Trump tells his base the flag and anthem, and by extension them, are being attacked, accuses the protesters of lacking patriotism and hating America, and the whipped up crowd will do his bidding.

And we can look forward to more of that once more details of Kushner's private emails come to light.

To me, those comment prove the idea that it really is just flat out racism motivating the outrage. Which is not surprising, but proving the stated hypothesis still has value.

edited 25th Sep '17 7:23:33 PM by Gilphon