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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#172176: Feb 2nd 2017 at 10:45:59 AM

Trump mad about disorder from Immigration Ban EO, will have Reince Priebus review all EO's before release.

That's definitely a positive; it's the first time Bannon was given a limit from Trump (Who has constantly given him power).

RBluefish Since: Nov, 2013
#172177: Feb 2nd 2017 at 10:46:21 AM

Ooh, McCain is taking decisive action in defending the Ukraine from Russian aggression!

He sent one strongly worded letter.

Now Trump will be like "no" and McCain will just be like "fair enough."

"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#172178: Feb 2nd 2017 at 10:47:30 AM

I'm playing through FFVII right now and yes, it's very much like that except President Shinra seems like the guy who COULD probably put a public facade of composure and amiability to hide his greed and amorality from the public.

Trump cannot.

edited 2nd Feb '17 10:48:58 AM by Draghinazzo

tricksterson Never Trust from Behind you with an icepick Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
Never Trust
#172179: Feb 2nd 2017 at 10:48:51 AM

[up][up][up] Too bad Preibus has a spine of gelatin.

edited 2nd Feb '17 10:50:17 AM by tricksterson

Trump delenda est
tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#172180: Feb 2nd 2017 at 10:48:59 AM

Blizzard president Mike Morhaime sent an internal letter denouncing Trump's Muslim ban and offered legal assistance to anyone affected by it.

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#172181: Feb 2nd 2017 at 10:49:59 AM

My company sent an internal memo reaffirming its stance on equal opportunity in the workplace and offering advice/assistance for any employees affected by the travel ban.

edited 2nd Feb '17 10:50:19 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#172182: Feb 2nd 2017 at 10:50:39 AM

Good on Blizzard. Hope other big companies speak out as well.

TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010
#172183: Feb 2nd 2017 at 10:50:52 AM

Steve Bannon and Prospects of a US-China War in the South China Sea

Earlier this week, I reflected on how U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon had clearly emerged as a locus of control within the new U.S. administration, suggesting that his elevation to the National Security Council’s principals committee meant Asian states should take his role seriously. In the meantime, USA Today has uncovered some new nuggets of Bannon’s former commentary on international affairs, when he was still involved with the ultraconservative Breitbart News. Of interest to readers of The Diplomat, Bannon, a former U.S. Navy officer in the Pacific, can be heard discussing the South China Sea on his radio show in March 2016 — months before he officially was elevated to the top of Trump’s campaign.

Bannon’s remarks on the South China Sea are troubling. He anticipates a major shooting war there with China: “We’re going to war in the South China Sea in five to 10 years, aren’t we?” he can be heard saying. “There’s no doubt about that. They’re taking their sandbars and making basically stationary aircraft carriers and putting missiles on those. They come here to the United States in front of our face — and you understand how important face is — and say it’s an ancient territorial sea.”

Bannon, Trump’s chief ideologue, gets the facts somewhat wrong on the South China Sea. For instance, when he refers to China placing missiles on its artificial islands, he’s most likely conflating China’s deployment HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles to Woody Island in the Paracels last year with Beijing’s ongoing land reclamation and construction work in the Spratlys, where it has constructed seven artificial islands.

I also wrote last week about how the Trump administration doesn’t seem to have its act together on the South China Sea, based on seemingly off-the-cuff remarks delivered by the new White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, that suggested the U.S. would use armed force to “defend international territories from being taken over.” Spicer’s remarks are still the only official commentary we’ve heard out of the Trump administration on the South China Sea since Trump’s inauguration. Comments earlier in January by Rex Tillerson, who was sworn in as Trump’s secretary of state yesterday after being successfully confirmed by the Senate, also suggested a collision course with China.

China chastised Spicer for his remarks, reminding the United States that it wasn’t a claimant state in the South China Sea, and it’s leaders will no doubt have taken note of Bannon’s central role within the new administration. Bannon’s buy-in into the Huntingtonian idea of a brewing clash of civilizations between the “Judeo-Christian West” and the rest of the world’s civilizations partly disposes him to distrust China.

USA Today additionally found a February 2016 interview that underwrites Bannon’s Huntingtonian worldview; he places “an expansionist Islam and … an expansionist China” side-by-side as threats. “They are motivated. They’re arrogant. They’re on the march. And they think the Judeo-Christian West is on the retreat,” he says. Though Bannon’s reasons for being hawkish on China may be more heterodox, he has several fellow travelers within the Trump administration — many of whom are pushing for the United States to test China on trade policy and the One China policy as well.

Bannon’s open expectation of a war with China combined with his proximity to the president of the United States should be concerning. The expectation of war can intensify and expand the United States’ strategic ambitions in the South China Sea. For instance, Bannon may push Trump to implement something like what Spicer or Tillerson have alluded to in the South China Sea, triggering an a kinetic response from China. In short, Bannon’s expectation of a war can make war more likely. (For a more granular look at how intense a U.S. war with China might be and how it might end, I recommend this RAND Corporation report from last year.)

Normally, a Bannon-esque ideologue wouldn’t present too great of a risk, but Trump’s first weeks in office have shown that the former Breitbart executive director’s fingerprints are on every major and unusual initiative, from the controversial and chaotic executive order banning refugees and travelers from Muslim-majority countries to the darkly apocalyptic rhetoric of Trump’s inaugural address (which omitted any mention of the U.S. constitution, incidentally). Given Bannon’s centrality to the actions this administration has taken and his proximity to Trump — a man seemingly inclined to agree with the last person he spoke to — the stakes are too great not to take this seriously.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#172184: Feb 2nd 2017 at 10:52:31 AM

Seeing a headline on CNN "Trump tells Chaplain he can keep job 'the Hell with it'".

No sound on tv, it went to commercial, and a quick search just brings up the prayer breakfast

I'm going to look more but I'm wondering if anyone here knows what that's about

edited 2nd Feb '17 10:53:54 AM by sgamer82

DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#172185: Feb 2nd 2017 at 10:55:39 AM

... What? I don't understand what that actually means...

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#172186: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:02:48 AM

Me either. Is he referring to the Senate Chaplain it a guy named Chaplain?

EDIT: Found it. It was part of his Prayer Breakfast speech and he meant the Senate Chaplain.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/02/donald-trump-gave-a-doozy-of-a-speech-at-the-national-prayer-breakfast/?utm_term=.5fc734468d6e

Thank you as well to Senate Chaplain Barry Black, for his moving words. And I don't know Chaplain whether or not that's an appointed position — is that an appointed position? I don't even know if you're Democrat or if you're Republican, but I'm appointing you for another year, the hell with it.

I'm firmly apatheist, but even I know that there's things you Don't Do at a religious event...

edited 2nd Feb '17 11:07:46 AM by sgamer82

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#172187: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:09:00 AM

Or in any professional setting...

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Pseudopartition Screaming Into The Void from The Cretaeceous Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Screaming Into The Void
#172188: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:09:13 AM

It seems to be from: Trump at National Prayer Breakfast: 'Pray for Arnold' Edit: [nja]

The keynote speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast was Barry Black, the chaplain of the United States Senate.

Moved by Black's remarks, Trump lauded him.

"Thank you as well to senator chaplain Barry Black for his moving words," he said. Trump added: "I don't know, chaplain, whether that's an appointed position? Is that an appointed position? I don't know if you're Democrat or Republican, but I'm appointing you for another year. The hell with it."

Also, apparently every country takes advantage of America and that's not going to happen anymore. Sure. Okay.

Someone asked Spicer about Trump's comments on Frederick Douglass. I don't know what they were expecting.

edited 2nd Feb '17 11:11:20 AM by Pseudopartition

RBluefish Since: Nov, 2013
#172189: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:29:24 AM

Matthew McConaughey says it's time to embrace Trump.

Fuck off, Matt.

"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#172190: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:31:44 AM

Yeah I'm sorry maybe if this was a bargain bin Republican MAYBE there would some remote shred of validity to that statement, but this is infuriating false centrism at its finest.

Trump is a petulant, amoral manbaby who's destroying everything good and decent in this country, egged on by Bannon who is a disgusting creep.

edited 2nd Feb '17 11:33:31 AM by Draghinazzo

RBluefish Since: Nov, 2013
#172191: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:33:55 AM

Look, I know we may disagree with him on policy, but Hitler's our Fuhrer now and it's time to just accept that and embrace him.

People may criticize his tendency to destroy entire civilized worlds, but Palpatine is our Emperor whether we like it or not. It's time to stop squabbling and embrace him.

I have my criticisms of that shark that's biting your legs off, but he's there now, and it's time to just embrace him and see what we can accomplish together.

"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."
NoName999 Since: May, 2011
#172192: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:34:11 AM

The White House turned off the recording for the call between Trump and Putin

Gee Trump, if you're not a Russian puppet, you sure are doing poor job showing it.

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#172193: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:35:59 AM

I don't think Trump feels the need to hide anything and we shouldn't expect him to. He showed no restraint on the campaign, why would he now that he's been validated?

NoName999 Since: May, 2011
#172194: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:39:17 AM

What? He hides shit more than a repressed person with a shady past.

His taxes

Those emails he destroyed during a court case

His cash

edited 2nd Feb '17 11:41:12 AM by NoName999

MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#172195: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:40:36 AM

Has anyone heard anything new from that "Rogue White House staff" Twitter account?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Luigisan98 A wandering user from Venezuelan Muscat Since: Oct, 2013 Relationship Status: I <3 love!
A wandering user
#172196: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:40:37 AM

[up][up][up][up][up] Was that fucking sarcasm?

edited 2nd Feb '17 11:41:32 AM by Luigisan98

The only good fanboy, is a redeemed fanboy.
LinkToTheFuture A real bad hombre from somewhere completely different Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
A real bad hombre
#172197: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:40:52 AM

After Trump mocks Schwarzenegger's run on The Apprentice this morning, Ahnold responds in kind.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#172198: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:41:05 AM

Might've just been normal sarcasm

ViperMagnum357 Since: Mar, 2012
#172199: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:42:28 AM

[up][up]I posted that a couple a pages back. Poor Arnold, joined the Republicans because he hated the Soviet Regime.

edited 2nd Feb '17 11:42:48 AM by ViperMagnum357

unknowing from somewhere.. Since: Mar, 2014
#172200: Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:43:34 AM

[up][up][up][up][up][up]what he means is that trump feel entitled to do what he wants and not expect anything for anyone, that is why is fan treat him with that double standar.

edited 2nd Feb '17 11:44:11 AM by unknowing

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"

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