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7 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

So essentially you're all over the map in what you want... so why in gods name would you defend Trump? Anti war? Well I dunno that Trump is as antiwar as all that. If he saw a personal benefit to a war he'd start one no questions asked. He has already stepped pretty close to that line with Iran. If you are left leaning on on social issues why Trump? He's full on with the Republicans backwards social agenda. You talk about education for drug crimes with is the complete antithesis to Trumps law and order campaign planks (which what he means is lock em all up in the corporate prison system the US has going) 

Everything you have listed Biden is a better fit than Trump for your opinions IMO with the one exception, your anti-progressive taxation belief. Which is a pretty flimsy thing to use to justify supporting a pretty shitty party and president because every single study shows that trickle down economics don't work and a progressive taxation scheme is vastly superior. It's why everyone in the economics field has said Bidens plan will see a better economic recovery than Trumps. 

 

More and more it appears that you just have this irrational dislike of democrats, likely as a result of shunning legitimate news sources in favour of agenda pushing right wing news sources. That's my take anyway. Why else prefer an out and out criminal fascist over a right leaning Democrat?

 

As for Hunter Biden.... the exact point is that Guiliani has no credibility and pawned off this story hoping it would be damaging to Biden's election chances.

Trump is the first president to talk openly and negatively about the american military industrial complex since Dwight Eisenhower. He somehow found a way to stand up to them and stop the spread of war while still satiating republicans by dropping the odd bomb and talking up how great America is. I don't think he got as close to war with Iran as you would think. America doesn't go to war unless they invade someone. Iran isn't going to be invading the United States anymore than they would China. It's a death wish. My biggest concern here is that if Trump loses you will never again see a Republican who takes the approach that Trump does towards war.  It will end up being business as usual and the neocons who left the party or were flushed out will return and take over the party again. It's going to be really concerning. My hope is that if Trump wins again he will be viewed similar to Regan in having a winning formula of policies including his policies on war. He will be then followed by Republicans who continue some of his policies like standing up for factory workers and fighting economic wars rather then military wars. Someone who is much better spoken and doesn't constantly offend everyone. If Biden wins with guys like Colin Powell at his side how do you think that the Republicans will try and defeat the democrats the next time? Well.. by moving further to the right than Biden is on war.  That's scary as hell. 

In terms of Justice Reform Trump has already made big inroads on the issue passing a historic bill to that effect and removing many of the draconian polices that Biden among others had implemented.  Im not convinced that Biden is the guy that's going to actually get these kinds of reform bills passed. He's not going to be able to work together with enough senators to do so. Not even Obama could get these types of bills passed.

I guess i can tolerate Trump's pandering to evangelicals more because I know he's just pandering. Clearly he hasn't become and Christian and he doesn't care about these issues.  Its much more difficult for me to stomach these types of policies coming from a true believer like Andrew Scheer.I greatly prefer secular conservatives to religious ones. I would consider voting for the conservatives federally next time if my local candidate wasn't Ted Falk. The new leader of the conservative party is secular and pro choice. 

Its not at all irrational to dislike the democrats given the way they have treated Bernie Sanders. I had no problems with the democrats when Obama was president I can assure you of that. 

I don't know what anyone would want to identify with a political party or adopt and defend all the policies of one political party over another.  I take things on an issue  by issue basis.  I won't conform to a specific dogma. 

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26 minutes ago, Colin Unger said:

Trump is the first president to talk openly and negatively about the american military industrial complex since Dwight Eisenhower. He somehow found a way to stand up to them and stop the spread of war while still satiating republicans by dropping the odd bomb and talking up how great America is. I don't think he got as close to war with Iran as you would think. America doesn't go to war unless they invade someone. Iran isn't going to be invading the United States anymore than they would China. It's a death wish. My biggest concern here is that if Trump loses you will never again see a Republican who takes the approach that Trump does towards war.  It will end up being business as usual and the neocons who left the party or were flushed out will return and take over the party again. It's going to be really concerning. My hope is that if Trump wins again he will be viewed similar to Regan in having a winning formula of policies including his policies on war. He will be then followed by Republicans who continue some of his policies like standing up for factory workers and fighting economic wars rather then military wars. Someone who is much better spoken and doesn't constantly offend everyone. If Biden wins with guys like Colin Powell at his side how do you think that the Republicans will try and defeat the democrats the next time? Well.. by moving further to the right than Biden is on war.  That's scary as hell. 

In terms of Justice Reform Trump has already made big inroads on the issue passing a historic bill to that effect and removing many of the draconian polices that Biden among others had implemented.  Im not convinced that Biden is the guy that's going to actually get these kinds of reform bills passed. He's not going to be able to work together with enough senators to do so. Not even Obama could get these types of bills passed.

I guess i can tolerate Trump's pandering to evangelicals more because I know he's just pandering. Clearly he hasn't become and Christian and he doesn't care about these issues.  Its much more difficult for me to stomach these types of policies coming from a true believer like Andrew Scheer.I greatly prefer secular conservatives to religious ones. I would consider voting for the conservatives federally next time if my local candidate wasn't Ted Falk. The new leader of the conservative party is secular and pro choice. 

Its not at all irrational to dislike the democrats given the way they have treated Bernie Sanders. I had no problems with the democrats when Obama was president I can assure you of that. 

I don't know what anyone would want to identify with a political party or adopt and defend all the policies of one political party over another.  I take things on an issue  by issue basis.  I won't conform to a specific dogma. 

How can you honestly believe that Trump is the better law and order choice when he has applauded extra-judicial killings? When he prefers to ignore due process and deal with the fall out later? When he encourages vigilante groups like he does? He is an outright fascist and aspiring dictator... and you believe him to be less draconian? 

And here's the thing, It's not JUST about Trump's pandering. It's also about who he is going to put in place in the administration and there are definitely not a bunch of people pandering in his administration. There are tons of true believers in big roles there. 

Really I am not a believer in party politics, however there is nothing about what the republican party stands for that is appealing. The biggest shame in the US is that there is only one other choice, however it's a no brainer choice because nothing the republicans do benefits the majority of the population and I get angry about it because their **** spills over the border and we get people like Jason Kenney thinking they can do that kind of crap up here. 

Trump is a con man who is only out to benefit himself. Isolationist talk is nonsense in this day and age. The world has moved too far away from it and going back isn't going to improve anyones life. A man who thinks foreign policy is solved by stupid assed trade wars or open threats isn't the guy to navigate the current world. You will never get rid of the military industrial complex. That's the biggest welfare program in America and if you try then you are going to cripple your economy. So really what has Trump done it distance himself from it? No wars? Ok I get that, but really who is the US going to fight that they aren't already fighting? I don't believe that the democrats are the big warhawks you think they are. Let's not forget that Trump has put some big warhawks in his administration too. 

 

Being pissed at the democrats for shunning Bernie Sanders (an outsider to the party except to run for the presidential nomination) doesn't mean Trump is the best answer. 

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10 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

How can you honestly believe that Trump is the better law and order choice when he has applauded extra-judicial killings? When he prefers to ignore due process and deal with the fall out later? When he encourages vigilante groups like he does? He is an outright fascist and aspiring dictator... and you believe him to be less draconian? 

And here's the thing, It's not JUST about Trump's pandering. It's also about who he is going to put in place in the administration and there are definitely not a bunch of people pandering in his administration. There are tons of true believers in big roles there. 

Really I am not a believer in party politics, however there is nothing about what the republican party stands for that is appealing. The biggest shame in the US is that there is only one other choice, however it's a no brainer choice because nothing the republicans do benefits the majority of the population and I get angry about it because their **** spills over the border and we get people like Jason Kenney thinking they can do that kind of crap up here. 

Trump is a con man who is only out to benefit himself. Isolationist talk is nonsense in this day and age. The world has moved too far away from it and going back isn't going to improve anyones life. A man who thinks foreign policy is solved by stupid assed trade wars or open threats isn't the guy to navigate the current world. You will never get rid of the military industrial complex. That's the biggest welfare program in America and if you try then you are going to cripple your economy. So really what has Trump done it distance himself from it? No wars? Ok I get that, but really who is the US going to fight that they aren't already fighting? I don't believe that the democrats are the big warhawks you think they are. Let's not forget that Trump has put some big warhawks in his administration too. 

 

Being pissed at the democrats for shunning Bernie Sanders (an outsider to the party except to run for the presidential nomination) doesn't mean Trump is the best answer. 

See that's where people lose me.  Trump is not a fascist or a dictator.  He's a mild reformer with a bad attitude.   Please expand on extra-judicial killings? Ignoring due process and encouraging vigilante groups so i know what it is I'm reacting to. 

Trump has put in some big warhawks and then he's had to fire them. When he first took over office there was a big attempt from the neo conservative swamp who's loyalty had been purchased by weapons manufacturers to push their kind of people into the administration. Trump has been tough enough to stand up to them and eventually they've quit or been fired. When people like Mattis and Bolton can't work with him you know he's got the right positions on war on he's tough. 

I don't care whether Trump is out to benefit himself or not. I refuse to view any politician as being authentic and caring about people.  What matters is what changes they implement and whether those changes will be long lasting. I view the constant bickering about something Trump said on Twitter or something he said to a reporter as smoke and mirrors to avoid having to talk about real issues.   It just really ticks me off when people like Michael Moore who have so much in common with Trump can't even acknowledge that some of what Trump has done as been for the better. A lot of what Trump got elected on was strait out of Michael Moore's playbook.  First of all is appearance.  Michael Moore a millionaire has a tendency of dressing down and wearing cheap looking hats so that the average Joe can relate to him even though he's rich and they aren't. Queue the MAGA hats. Trump campaigned against the evil Big Business who farmed jobs China. He stood in front of the Ford factory and blasted them for doing this. This was inspired of coarse by Roger and Me. After taking so much inspiration from Moore he has the audacity to say after Trump is elected that we need to oppose everything that Trump does. Just wow.  And now Trump seems to be trying to work in some of the themes from Bowling for Columbine. The point of that movie was that all a lot of the reason for violence and toxicity in America is being Americans live in fear which is instilled in them by the media. Trump removed his mask in front of the white house after surviving a battle with Covid 19 and talked about not living in fear. Man this triggered the media as they've been making a good living for years now by instilling fear into people and they can't stand anyone who F's with that. 

 

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War is peace.

“Since becoming president, Donald Trump has overseen historic increases in defense budgets, fawned over military equipment, installed a number of defense industry insiders in top Pentagon positions and made a major push to sell weapons overseas.

 

Nearly half of senior Defense Department officials are connected to military contractors, according to an analysis by the Project on Government Oversight.

But beyond personnel choices, Trump has made the purchase, public display and foreign sales of military hardware a major priority of his administration.

He has championed two defense budgets that blew past $700 billion, and is preparing to sign a third. The bill that Trump signed in 2018 locked in the largest budget the Pentagon had ever seen, only to top it the following year.

He also approved more than $55.6 billion in foreign weapons sales in fiscal 2018, his first complete fiscal year in office, compared to $33.6 billion in foreign military sales in fiscal 2016, the last year of the Obama administration.”

politico

war in yemen

So, President Trump vetoed legislation last year, bipartisan legislation, that sought to bring U.S. complicity in the war to an end. What do you think Congress should be doing right now?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

The Trump administration on Friday said it would sell $8 billion-worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with getting congressional approval, citing Iran as an urgent threat.

The move has sparked bipartisan outrage on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are promising to block the sales and calling out Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for what they see as an illegal maneuver made in a shady manner.

 

very great man of peace.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited by Mark F
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19 minutes ago, Mark F said:


War is peace.

“Since becoming president, Donald Trump has overseen historic increases in defense budgets, fawned over military equipment, installed a number of defense industry insiders in top Pentagon positions and made a major push to sell weapons overseas.

 

Nearly half of senior Defense Department officials are connected to military contractors, according to an analysis by the Project on Government Oversight.

But beyond personnel choices, Trump has made the purchase, public display and foreign sales of military hardware a major priority of his administration.

He has championed two defense budgets that blew past $700 billion, and is preparing to sign a third. The bill that Trump signed in 2018 locked in the largest budget the Pentagon had ever seen, only to top it the following year.

He also approved more than $55.6 billion in foreign weapons sales in fiscal 2018, his first complete fiscal year in office, compared to $33.6 billion in foreign military sales in fiscal 2016, the last year of the Obama administration.”

politico

war in yemen

So, President Trump vetoed legislation last year, bipartisan legislation, that sought to bring U.S. complicity in the war to an end. What do you think Congress should be doing right now?

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The Trump administration on Friday said it would sell $8 billion-worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with getting congressional approval, citing Iran as an urgent threat.

The move has sparked bipartisan outrage on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are promising to block the sales and calling out Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for what they see as an illegal maneuver made in a shady manner.

 

very great man of peace.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

I never said he was a man of peace.  He doesn't believe in direct american involvement in long occupations.  Selling weapons to other countries is nothing new.  It would be a big improvement over Trump and previous Presidential regimes for a presidential candidate to propose to bring the troops home as well as to stop selling arms to other countries. 

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Peaceful nuclear weapons.

 

Spending by the world’s nine nuclear nations climbed to nearly $73 billion in 2019, nearly half of it by the United States alone. At the same time, the Trump administration has prioritized nuclear weapons in its defense budget while abandoning nuclear treaties, fumbling negotiations and confounding allies. The administration’s lack of coherent goals, strategies or polices have increased nuclear dangers, leaving the U.S. “blundering toward nuclear chaos with potentially disastrous consequences.” Those are the findings of two separate reports published in May that examine nuclear spending and strategy under Trump.

In May, The Washington Post reported that Trump officials are in ongoing discussions about resuming explosive nuclear weapons testing.

 

truth out.
 

“Donald Trump has confirmed the US will leave an arms control treaty with Russia dating from the cold war that has kept nuclear missiles out of Europe for three decades.

“We’ll have to develop those weapons,” the president told reporters in Nevada after a rally. “We’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out.”

 

also withdrew from the small arms Trade control  

Donald Trump has announced that the US will withdraw its support for a United Nations treaty regulating the multibillion-dollar global arms trade.

Addressing the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Indianapolis, the president said he would revoke America’s status as a signatory of the arms trade treaty regulating conventional weapons including small arms, battle tanks, combat aircraft and warships.

Might be a bit Too much wordsmithing going on here at the moment.

the other day Colin Unser was celebrating trum Nobel,peace prize Nomination, and for bringing peace to the Middle East. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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17 minutes ago, Colin Unger said:

See that's where people lose me.  Trump is not a fascist or a dictator.  He's a mild reformer with a bad attitude.   Please expand on extra-judicial killings? Ignoring due process and encouraging vigilante groups so i know what it is I'm reacting to. 

Trump is a wanna-b-dictator/autocrat. there are numerous instances of this. 

Trump praised Philippine President Rodrigo's campaign of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the Philippines,

Quote

Trump had previously touted Reinoehl’s killing as an act of vengeance by the Justice Department, calling the man’s death “retribution.” Trump’s latest comments are an even more blatant celebration of what he himself seems to be characterizing as an extrajudicial killing by law-enforcement and comes uncomfortably close to casting the U.S. Marshal’s service as his death squad. 

 

 

 

25 minutes ago, Colin Unger said:

Trump has put in some big warhawks and then he's had to fire them. When he first took over office there was a big attempt from the neo conservative swamp who's loyalty had been purchased by weapons manufacturers to push their kind of people into the administration. Trump has been tough enough to stand up to them and eventually they've quit or been fired. When people like Mattis and Bolton can't work with him you know he's got the right positions on war on he's tough. 

Baloney- he's not tough on warhawks- he's tough on people that don't tow his line. He wanted all troops out of Syria, right away (because of pressure from Turkey and Russia) and proceeded to withdraw in the most insane way, by literally just pulling anything out and abandoning their allies in the region... that is why Matis resigned, not because he is tough on war, but because he does things in an incompetent way with complete disregard for lives.  

Bolton? Considering he was what... the third NSA, that's more pattern of not working well with people than being a paragon of anti-war. He also did hire Bolton in the first place with full knowledge of what Bolton is. so, yeah- I can't see how you can give trump credit here.

 

39 minutes ago, Colin Unger said:

I don't care whether Trump is out to benefit himself or not. I refuse to view any politician as being authentic and caring about people.  What matters is what changes they implement and whether those changes will be long lasting. I view the constant bickering about something Trump said on Twitter or something he said to a reporter as smoke and mirrors to avoid having to talk about real issues.   

Sure, most politicians are out there for less than ultraistic reasons, but trump takes it to another level. He treats the presidency as his ******* side-hustle. It will eventually come out how much he bilked the tax payers for and how much he benefited from foreign money funneled through his hotels in an epic pay to play scheme.

Changes they implement... true. Lets take a look at the dismantling of the EPA, Education, Energy, DHS and ODNI the intelligence community in general, The CDC (including the program that was designed to detect things like... Covid19 before it became a huge issue).... dpmt of Labour, urban development, HHS and so on... it's like a great ol' wrecking ball for all the protections of most of the population of the states... 

And yeah, smoke and mirrors- agreed.

 

55 minutes ago, Colin Unger said:

A lot of what Trump got elected on was strait out of Michael Moore's playbook.  First of all is appearance.  Michael Moore a millionaire has a tendency of dressing down and wearing cheap looking hats so that the average Joe can relate to him even though he's rich and they aren't. Queue the MAGA hats. Trump campaigned against the evil Big Business who farmed jobs China. He stood in front of the Ford factory and blasted them for doing this. This was inspired of coarse by Roger and Me. After taking so much inspiration from Moore he has the audacity to say after Trump is elected that we need to oppose everything that Trump does. Just wow.  And now Trump seems to be trying to work in some of the themes from Bowling for Columbine.

 

Yeah, the messaging coming from all of trumps actions and vileness is to take on corporate interests. Sorry- you are really reaching with the Michael Moore and trump comparison... 

 

58 minutes ago, Colin Unger said:

The point of that movie was that all a lot of the reason for violence and toxicity in America is being Americans live in fear which is instilled in them by the media. Trump removed his mask in front of the white house after surviving a battle with Covid 19 and talked about not living in fear. Man this triggered the media as they've been making a good living for years now by instilling fear into people and they can't stand anyone who F's with that. 

Sure, the messaging with the removing of the facemask is an appropriate one from the leader of the free world when over a million people world wide died in less than six months.  It's pretty irresponsible. The messaging of don't live in fear is only to open up the economy and change the messaging on the pandemic response  that is hammering him.

 

 

Anyways, thank you for opinion - I really do appreciate it and I do value your view on things.

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3 hours ago, Colin Unger said:

Trump is not a fascist or a dictator.

He certainly is a fascist and an aspiring dictator. The man who self professes to never joke has how many times talked about getting a third term? Or 12 more years? A man who has openly pondered about pardoning himself? A guy who is ignoring the laws of the land and daring anyone to do something about it? You really think he doesn't want to be just like Putin? As for the extra-judicial killings, I am talking about the left winger who was killed by federal marshalls amid all the protests. Trump has bragged about how they solved the problem in minutes. Vigilante groups like the ones who hatched a plot to kidnap a governor he didn't like for being a democrat. You can't hand wave these things away because it doesn't fit your world view. 

We're not talking about stupid **** he says on twitter, we're talking about his real actions. Don't be one of those people who dismisses the dog whistles because it's not explicitly said. Trump has always loved his weasel words. 

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Pastor Tells Trump Pandemic Was ‘Setup’ for Trump to Get ‘Double-Win!’

During a worship service attended by President Donald Trump, Pastor Pasqual Urrabazo told Trump that the coronavirus pandemic “was nothing, it was a setup for the comeback of a double-win!” On Sunday, Trump was among the congregation of the International Church of Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada for a service that featured several bits of encouraging news for the embattled president.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-pastor-tells-trump-pandemic-was-setup-for-trump-to-get-double-win/

International Church of Las Vegas?    Do they have slots? Offer quickie divorces?  Hand out chips at the doors?  Offer drinks at the pews?   
They should.    Because, that would make much more sense, than the contents of this article.....

These evangelistic morons continue to praise Trump to the heavens.......a guy who simply views them as just another set of suckers.   The only Bible Trump has ever laid eyes on....  was the one he was holding upside down for his riot photo op.   

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Wow. Florida shatters its opening day record for in-person early voting, with 350,000+ ballots cast.
That’s in addition to the more than 2.5 million mail-in ballots cast so far— *more than double* the 1.2 million cast during the same timeframe in 2016.
- Brian Tyler Cohen 

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2 hours ago, Mr Dee said:

Always good to see this admin. suffer some sort of defeat.

 

The US Supreme Court is a joke, how four justices dissented from the order is grotesque. How they hide behind 'the rule of law' to push their political ideologies is disgusting. This needs serious overhauling and reform. 

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👁‍🗨 Trump already trying to use ‘pre-existing’ conditions’ to cover his soon-to-be poor performance on Thursday...

“She’s not radical, she’s not a Democrat, she didn’t delete her entire account, she doesn’t scream her questions, and she’s a good journalist and a good person.
Other than that, spot on.”

 

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16 hours ago, Colin Unger said:

What matters is what changes they implement and whether those changes will be long lasting. 

If you can't see the changes Trump has made outside of policy, (Divisiveness mainly) you should really look closer as I think those will likely have far more implications in the coming years then his lack of war mongering.

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