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DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#189326: May 16th 2017 at 12:36:31 PM
Thumped: This post was thumped by the Stick of Off-Topic Thumping. Stay on topic, please.
TacticalFox88 from USA Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Dating the Doctor
IFwanderer use political terms to describe, not insult from Earth Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
use political terms to describe, not insult
#189328: May 16th 2017 at 12:37:08 PM

[up][up][up]Screaming Sieg Heil at the top of their lungs while putting on a Nazi Uniform, probably.

[up]👀

edited 16th May '17 12:38:02 PM by IFwanderer

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV
Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#189329: May 16th 2017 at 12:40:47 PM

So the ban actually had some basis to it?

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#189330: May 16th 2017 at 12:43:56 PM

The laptop ban? Yes. Assuming that the cargo hold is not pressurized, that is, in that case a laptop bomb would be less dangerous down there.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#189331: May 16th 2017 at 12:58:39 PM

[up]Though of course with Trump's talk of Muslims bans and previous bigotry it really doesn't look good, which is entirely on him.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#189332: May 16th 2017 at 1:06:56 PM

Yeah, this is pretty much a Crying Wolf situation. Trump actually had some logic behind what he was doing this time but his previous idiocy makes us inclined to distrust him.

edited 16th May '17 1:07:15 PM by Kostya

TacticalFox88 from USA Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Dating the Doctor
#189333: May 16th 2017 at 1:08:15 PM

John Boehner still probably somewhere cackling and sipping his tea.

New Survey coming this weekend!
Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#189334: May 16th 2017 at 1:10:40 PM

I should point out that what I said above highlights a real danger of his presidency that most people don't talk about. There may come a time when he's actually warning us about a serious threat and nobody will believe him because he's so open to blatant hyperbole and lying.

TacticalFox88 from USA Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Dating the Doctor
#189335: May 16th 2017 at 1:13:33 PM

[up]He'd want us to not believe him. That way, when it happens, he can point and say "Look I was right and you all didn't believe me!" and then further try and consolidate power.

New Survey coming this weekend!
Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#189336: May 16th 2017 at 1:16:44 PM

I doubt he'd get the warning right anyway. The threat could be something along the lines of the exploding samsung phones and he might say that Blackberries are melting. It's in the same extremely general ballpark, but it's completely wrong in the actually relevant details.

ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#189337: May 16th 2017 at 1:39:05 PM

Can we get a citation on the "source of classified intel is dead" claim? I've gotten nothing so far.

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
AmbarSonofDeshar Since: Jan, 2010
#189338: May 16th 2017 at 1:39:20 PM

If Trump actually got an intelligence asset murdered then that's a new low, even for him. I keep wanting to think there isn't that much room left under that particular barrel, but it's never the case. Each time we think he's reached the lowest point he can, he goes and digs himself a new subbasement.

Any news on how the US intelligence community is reacting to this? They didn't like him much to start with, and while things had appeared to be smoothing over, this can't have helped. I also certainly can't blame any of the US' traditional allies who decide that maybe sharing intelligence with America isn't such a great idea after this. Certainly I don't want any of CSIS' agents (all four of them) getting compromised or killed because Trump can't keep his mouth shut.

A lot of them are convinced that people like you and me are a greater threat to our nation than Russia, mostly because Russia isn't shooting at us. We may regard that as profoundly wrong-headed, but the point is that they believe it, so they are being patriotic from their own point of view.

And since we aren't shooting at them either that point of view is objectively insane. The fears expressed throughout the Obama presidency about death panels and FEMA concentration camps, Obama taking their guns and discrimination against white people, none of them were based on anything that was actually happening. Sure, there are legitimate criticisms to make of the Obama administration, but none of those criticisms were coming from the Republicans in power. Last I checked, polls indicated that a fourth of Republicans still thought that Obama was not a citizen. A similar portion thought that he was secretly a Muslim (and of course that this made him a threat to the nation). None of this was based in reality.

This is where the both-siderism argument goes off the rails, by the way. When Democrats or liberals or progressives or whatever we choose to call ourselves, say that the Republicans are threatening people's lives, they talk about the AHCA. They talk about Sessions' enacting policies that target minorities. They talk about Trump signing legislation to roll back protection for LGBT people or other minorities. They talk about the Muslim ban. They talk about gerrymandering and voter ID laws. They talk, in short, about things the Republicans have done, have talked about doing, or have promised to do. They talk about things that are actually happening.

A majority of Democrats and other American leftists deal in some version of reality, or at least something close to it. The current Republican Party does not. It pitches its base a paranoid fantasy, and sells them on fear, not of things that are happening or even things that might happen, but on things that will never happen. To paraphrase an article I posted before, this culture war is being run in bad faith by bad actors and there are going to be a lot of unnecessary casualties.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#189339: May 16th 2017 at 1:41:56 PM

The Canadian and German governments at least already have an unofficial policy of ignoring everything Trump says and only react to what he does. And I'm sure that more nations do the same.

Countries around the world are ignoring the words of the President of the United States because he's too erratic for them to count on anything.

edited 16th May '17 1:45:57 PM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
Destroyer of Worlds
#189340: May 16th 2017 at 1:44:16 PM

Huh, I support the laptop ban now.

@Ambar But we kill babies.

fruitpork Since: Oct, 2010
#189341: May 16th 2017 at 1:44:50 PM

I remember hearing someone say the intelligence community would ensure trump dies in jail. Considering that teflon don appears to be riding out this, I'd say that's an impossibility.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#189342: May 16th 2017 at 1:47:54 PM

Even if he is removed from office (without an election), Trump probably won't go to jail. He'll be offered a deal or it won't be worth going after to him.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Kayeka (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#189343: May 16th 2017 at 1:57:38 PM

Yeah, that's the annoying part about his presidency: he is going to screw up everything for everyone, and once he's out of office, either by removal or his term ending, he's going right back to being a stupidly rich asshole in his golden tower.

Justice is a lie.

EDIT: This is of course the part where someone links to Terry Pratchett's view on the matter of lies.

edited 16th May '17 2:05:41 PM by Kayeka

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#189344: May 16th 2017 at 2:00:07 PM

I've said before, just by being President he's won. Short of Unpersoning him he there will never, going forward, be a time where he was not President of the United States. No matter how disgracefully he falls, he will forever be part of our history. For an egomaniac like him that's the ultimate victory

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#189345: May 16th 2017 at 2:07:02 PM

Yeah, unless Trump manages to bring human civilization to an outright end (a bit of a lofty goal, even for himtongue) as we know it, he'll be remembered. Ideally as a warning and as a disgrace, but his place in history (and hell, if it exists) is secured.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
nightwyrm_zero Since: Apr, 2010
#189346: May 16th 2017 at 2:17:26 PM

We can always hope for a new dark age that wipes out most of our modern records....I'm sure there are some Roman dictators who are only known to dedicated historians.

edited 16th May '17 2:19:13 PM by nightwyrm_zero

Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#189347: May 16th 2017 at 2:22:29 PM

One thing to keep in mind though. He's currently using his position as leverage to get things done in other countries. When he stops being President, all that leverage is gone completely. No one will have any incentive whatsoever to work with him and his name will be garbage the world over. For example, Trump's been handed the trademark to his name in China. Once he leaves the presidency, there is no reason for China not to yank the trademark back, because they've done that before to domestic businessmen who went bankrupt.

Trump thinks that he's going to coast on the presidency until he dies, but that gets increasingly unlikely every single day.

Yeah, it's not the result a lot of people want, but the Trump empire being ruined forever the day after he leaves the presidency would to a lot to help me feel better.

EDIT: As [down] pointed out, I got the Trademark and Copyright flipped around again. It is now fixed.

edited 16th May '17 2:28:26 PM by Zendervai

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#189348: May 16th 2017 at 2:24:44 PM

Trademark. Not copyright.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#189349: May 16th 2017 at 2:29:35 PM

Well if there's one thing Trump knows it's bankruptcy

kkhohoho (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#189350: May 16th 2017 at 2:31:46 PM

Honestly, this is probably Trump's theme song (or one of them anyway):


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