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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Yeah, I'm not doing their work for them. I'm just throwing some flares into places people have yet to go to point out it COULD go bad, and while having your faith in humankind be vindicated is the goal, I'm NOT going to let us repeat the press's mistake of assuming things can't go badly. The press did their work for them by naturally assuming there was no way in Hell Clinton could lose to Trump, and now we have this nightmare. A saboteur wouldn't necessarily claim everything's going to Hell. They could win by making everyone think victory is nigh, then when they pull off another atrocity, everyone's morale is shattered and they don't know who to trust anymore.
@Journeyman: Things COULD go completely to hell. But in the words of Rogue One, "rebellions are built on hope". If we assume it's already lost than it is because there would be no point in fighting. The darkest timeline can only be averted through the effort of people who are willing to put up the fight like they have over this weekend.
And I don't expect anyone to ASSUME it's already lost. I expect them to have one eye on the possibility that this is going to be a fight our grandkids are going to have to win as the world goes through an even bigger Hell during Global Warming. And that it's bigger than Trump and Pence and Bannon and all of them, because we, the People, put them in the hot seat. The Allies won WW 2 and then decided not to pursue a second war with Russia that could have short circuited the Cold War and saved us all from the last half of the 20th Century. We won the Cold War and defunded our intelligence services for ten years, leading to the rise of Al Qaeda. And then, when we beat them back in Iraq and took out Saddam, we left the door open for ISIS.
This is a much bigger war than most talk about. WHEN we've beaten the GOP back, we're going to be facing some serious issues. One of them is probably going to be an increase in domestic terrorism once the Evangelists realize they've lost. This on top of Global Warming and rebuilding the government. While we have to take it a step at a time, let's PLEASE learn from the mistakes of the past and engage a full-blown scorched earth war that sees those edgelord pieces of shit so out of their minds with grief that they actually consider ragequitting the world and never coming back.
Los Angeles has approximately 500,000 undocumented residents. Beck said in his experience, criminalizing these residents only makes for a more dangerous community.
“When you create a shadow population … that fears any interaction (with police),” Beck said, “then you create a whole population of victims, because they become prey for human predators who extort them or abuse them because they know they won’t contact the police.”
During Beck’s tenure as LA police chief, he has championed providing provisional driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, arguing that the roads will be more secure if all drivers were regulated. He estimates that his force is approx. 47% Latino. Other city leaders have also pledged to risk their federal funding to defy Trump’s immigration plans in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York.
Beck said that a more effective way to curb immigration would involve being a better ally to Mexico and its struggling economy.
“We have a very rich country with a lot of opportunity that is immediately adjacent to a poorer country with less opportunity,” Beck said.
Despite all his practical reasons for resisting Trump’s orders, Beck cited his moral code as the core reason for his willingness to potentially lose millions in federal funding on behalf of undocumented immigrants.
“I’d risk losing my beliefs,” by complying, Beck said. “There’s not a price for me to do this differently.”
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I mean, the U.S. had Nukes first, so.
I feel like nuclear deterrence isn't a fear when you're the only game in town?
Like, not even justifying the possibility morally or ethically just. Cold, hard expediency.
Pretty sure Russia didn't actually have nukes till 49.
That's like. A 4 year gap. In which time it's technically possible to wipe them off the map.
edited 29th Jan '17 8:15:55 PM by unnoun
Nukes aren't an instant "I win" button. You need the capability to deliver them to relevant locations and manufacture them in bulk. The United States had neither of those at the end of the war in regards to the core regions of the USSR; ICBMs and SLBMs didn't exist.
edited 29th Jan '17 8:18:54 PM by CaptainCapsase
Especially because the allies, had they somehow been able to win, would've ended up coming into conflict among each other over the spoils anyway; the Cold War happened because of realpolitik, the ideological backdrop was merely a rationalization for what was a fairly typical Great Power rivalry.
edited 29th Jan '17 8:21:57 PM by CaptainCapsase
I would guess it was also unthinkable because Europe was throughly and completely wrecked. It's hard for me to imagine what nervousness there might have been about leaving another big totalitarian leader in charge but the problems of feeding and housing millions of your own people and re-securing the ex-Axis might have been a bit more pressing. As it was, Brittan was still on (very meagre) rationing until the early 50s, to give one example.
...but this is off-topic.
Yes it is, but that sort of delusional hawkishness is the very same attitude that is leading us into a confrontation with China. The same logic that demanded the allies carry on World War 2 until both communism and fascism were destroyed suggests that the United States should go to war with China now; their nuclear deterrent is irrelevant because of the mismatch in the arsenals; Chinese casualties from an American second strike would vastly exceed American casualties, hence China's no-first-strike posture.
edited 29th Jan '17 8:26:09 PM by CaptainCapsase
The Soviets had the best army in human history at their disposal in 1945, and while they were exhausted they could have overrun Western Europe (sans the UK, they didn't have the navy for that) in decent order. And wiped out the Allied Forces. But neither side wanted to shed any more blood.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.In more Koch news, they're opposing the border tax as well, no surprise there.
Now we get to see who Ryan really answers to, and how Bannon will maneuver around them.
No surprise there: The Koch Brothers are really Libertarians that jumped on board the Republican ship in the 90's (Heck, one of them ran as a Libertarian Vice Presidential Candidate in '84 or '88). But they're responsible for the rise of the Tea Party and, eventually, Trump, so they get what they deserve and then some.
Trump is now complaining that his order is being called a “Muslim ban”
In a statement that I cannot believe Trump wrote or dictated:
To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting. note This is not about religion — this is about terror and keeping our country safe. There are over 40 different countries worldwide that are majority Muslim that are not affected by this order. We will again be issuing visas to all countries once we are sure we have reviewed and implemented the most secure policies over the next 90 days. I have tremendous feeling for the people involved in this horrific humanitarian crisis in Syria. My first priority will always be to protect and serve our country, but as President I will find ways to help all those who are suffering.
I can't tell whether he'll alienate his actual supporters who want the full ban and don't realize he's lying or if Trumpgretters may actually believe that statement wasn't BS and that he's suddenly becoming presidential. But then I also don't know whether to laugh or cry at the mix of walking back, budding authoritarianism, and lying in that statement after he essentially ran on being blunt and plainspoken.
edited 29th Jan '17 8:50:14 PM by CenturyEye
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our livesI hate Ryan. He's got no more conscience than any of his colleagues, despite his reputation as the intellectual pretty-boy of the Republican Party. Never count on him to do the right thing—only to serve his own self-interest and further his almost bizarrely immoral agenda.
"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."![]()
Giuliani, on the other hand, didn't get the memo.
Despite Giuliani’s claim that the order has no “religious basis,” that isn’t quite true considering that Trump’s measure specifically states that once the refugee program resumes, it will “prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual’s country of nationality.”

... Well, that's uhhhh... That's not good at all.
I wonder if that means we'll only have 8 Supreme Court Justices for 4 years?
edited 29th Jan '17 7:04:36 PM by DingoWalley1