Now That Trump's President... (not any more!)

[ambermonk]

“Worldly“. I don’t know how we compare to other nations but I’ve met plenty of people who never leave their own neighborhood who are educated and wealthy enough to take a trip once in a while but never do. The idea that there’s a world out there that thinks differently than them in any way is unfathomable or something. And of course there’s plenty of people who just don’t aspire to engage the world except from their living room via tv it internet. Lots of people think the American way, in whatever context, is the right way.

 

But there’s plenty of worldly Americans. I don’t think many of them voted for trump though. I’m sure there’s statistics on all this stuff somewhere.

 

So I don’t know about worldly Americans.

 

 

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I honestly couldn't begin to imagine what kind of life that would be, never to leave the neighborhood or town you grew up in, were born in. But then again this is coming from a spoiled military brat and former exchange student.

[ignatius]

i think many americans often think america is the center of the world.. the shining city on a hill or whatever.. center of all that is good and exemplary and a lot of what we're seeing, combined with some weird white fear of being a minority, is a reaction to not being able to admit it to themselves that capitalism and american foreign policy/society are pretty much shitty 90% of the time or something. its obviously reflected in our current president.

 

“Worldly“. I don’t know how we compare to other nations but I’ve met plenty of people who never leave their own neighborhood who are educated and wealthy enough to take a trip once in a while but never do. The idea that there’s a world out there that thinks differently than them in any way is unfathomable or something. And of course there’s plenty of people who just don’t aspire to engage the world except from their living room via tv it internet. Lots of people think the American way, in whatever context, is the right way.

But there’s plenty of worldly Americans. I don’t think many of them voted for trump though. I’m sure there’s statistics on all this stuff somewhere.

So I don’t know about worldly Americans.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I honestly couldn't begin to imagine what kind of life that would be, never to leave the neighborhood or town you grew up in, were born in. But then again this is coming from a spoiled military brat and former exchange student.

 

 

 

and it's often not about going to a foreign country but even visiting other states in the USA.  "why would i leave southern california? it's the best place" is pretty much what one person said to me. 

[Candiru]

I never realized what a scam it is to live in America until I went somewhere else for a bit. And too many uninformed people are totally okay with that scam and will continue to vote to make it worse.

[usagi]

I never realized what a scam it is to live in America until I went somewhere else for a bit. And too many uninformed people are totally okay with that scam and will continue to vote to make it worse.

imagine how it looks to people who have lived their whole lives outside of the Blessed Union.

[ambermonk]

Shit. If these state-level voter purges ultimately succeed in maintaining Republican control of Congress after the midterms, I am seriously considering going expat.

[Brisbot]

Hey man, of course there are worldly Americans, I'm not talking about them. 

Look, I live in the deep south, where MOST people think that immigrants are this massive issue plaguing society. The reason I use the word 'worldly' is because if these people who believe this could spend a single day with a family of people who immigrated over here they would see they are PEOPLE trying to get by and provide for their family doing whatever they can. 

 

There is a reason Trump became president, where he GOT AWAY with suggesting major swathes of people are rapists. This reflects very REAL irrational fears in real people (most of my "unworldly" family).

Hell I don't consider myself worldly and I don't understand this fear tho I have it verbalized to me quite often in some fashion.

That's what I mean by propaganda. They don't view immigrants as people, they are this dangerous statistic that will take your jobs and your families livelihood and by the way vote republican because that means we can hide the immigrants behind a wall. I didn't want to use the word 'xenophobic' but there you go.
 

 

 

I never realized what a scam it is to live in America until I went somewhere else for a bit. And too many uninformed people are totally okay with that scam and will continue to vote to make it worse. 

This is EXACTLY true. That's what I mean by 'worldly' in my other post. All it would take is a small amount of seeing a different system to see how much better it is in some other places. Instead in America, you are born into this system and are TOLD how amazing it is and how America is number 1 when it simply isn't true. I've had a health issue where I've been confined to my room for the past 2 years and there is literally no option for me to fix the issue here without becoming a debt slave. I either need a wealthy family who can spare 100k or need a very good job. Thankfully I just landed a good job that should help fix this issue over the next few years

There are worse places than America sure, but it's not the point I'm trying to make.

Edited October 20, 2018 by Brisbot

[ignatius]

^^ not disagreeing w/any of that..

 

congrats on the job. glad that worked out. i know what it's like to be confined and limited because of health issues. 

[Candiru]

 

I never realized what a scam it is to live in America until I went somewhere else for a bit. And too many uninformed people are totally okay with that scam and will continue to vote to make it worse.

imagine how it looks to people who have lived their whole lives outside of the Blessed Union.

I bet it looks supremely fucktarded. Conservautism is a disease.

[Brisbot]

^^ not disagreeing w/any of that..

 

congrats on the job. glad that worked out. i know what it's like to be confined and limited because of health issues. 

Thanks. Sorry I thought you were half disagreeing and I jumped at clarifying.

 

 

 

 

Conservautism is a disease. 

What an understatement. People (such as myself) who live with people with the disease can see just how ingrained it is. Conservatives are born into conservatism.  When I was younger I was an idiot who held some of these beliefs founded on irrationality.  I was... what's the word...somewhat racist/sexist.

 

Thing is, most conservatives are only minor racist/sexist by kind of definition of being a conservative. I mean, you pretty much MUST hold certain views that have a by product of being those things which hold on certain beliefs.

 

It's rare to meet a fiscal conservative who is genuinely fiscally conservative and aren't corrupted by the republican party.

 

I'd say that the republican party is dying but trust me it's stronger than ever.

 

 

Edited October 20, 2018 by Brisbot

[Candiru]

A former coworker of mine is cartoonishly conservative. I think it’s a weird reaction to his dad being gay. He says he prefers not to work with women and that the GOP’s stance on social security/Medicare is to weed out the weak. The irony is that he got fired from our job two months before the site closed and lost out on collecting about $25,000, so he actually is one of the weak losers in life.

 

He used to smoke crack with crack whores in Lowell but was shocked that I smoked a spliff on a work night where I start work at 12:30 pm the next day. He thinks marijuana is “poison”. He is staunchly “pro life” but doesn’t realize that repealing Roe vs Wade will result in more poor drug dealing people. He also recommended JBP’s talks about Christianity and thought I was overreacting about Trump not condemning Nazis at the Charlottesville rally.

[zlemflolia]

All this anti-Americanism is pretty funny considering Brexit

[Brisbot]

 

 

A former coworker of mine is cartoonishly conservative. I think it’s a weird reaction to his dad being gay. He says he prefers not to work with women and that the GOP’s stance on social security/Medicare is to weed out the weak. The irony is that he got fired from our job two months before the site closed and lost out on collecting about $25,000, so he actually is one of the weak losers in life.

 

He used to smoke crack with crack whores in Lowell but was shocked that I smoked a spliff on a work night where I start work at 12:30 pm the next day. He thinks marijuana is “poison”. He is staunchly “pro life” but doesn’t realize that repealing Roe vs Wade will result in more poor drug dealing people. He also recommended JBP’s talks about Christianity and thought I was overreacting about Trump not condemning Nazis at the Charlottesville rally. 

That's sad. I feel like half of the staunch conservatives I know are cartoonishly conservative simply from the kinds of beliefs they hold, so much of which is based on fear and irrationality.

 

I don't understand people who are anti-women. I just don't get it. 

 

What a dangerous attitude. Why can't people see this is what lead TO the Nazism. It's the EXACT same kinds of xenophobic beliefs. Good thing we have mechanisms in place to stop people like Trump from becoming a Putin (where he's president for decades and can assassinate political opponents).

 

Though I worry what would happen if Republicans had 80-90% of government. Because you just KNOW this potential is within the republican movement. It's the same kind of people afraid of other kinds of other races, poor people, and honestly the other sex that were apart of similar fascist movements in the past. EXACTLY the same. And most don't have the.. um... I guess reflection to see that. There are conservatives who denounce the republican party, but... I don't know any...

 

 

 

 

All this anti-Americanism is pretty funny considering Brexit

man it's not anti-americanism... it's more like disappointed-I-Know-America-Is-Better-Than-This-Americanism.

Edited October 20, 2018 by Brisbot

[zlemflolia]

 

Though I worry what would happen if Republicans had 80-90% of government. Because you just KNOW this potential is within the republican movement. It's the same kind of people afraid of other kinds of other races, poor people, and honestly the other sex that were apart of similar fascist movements in the past. EXACTLY the same. And most don't have the.. um... I guess reflection to see that. There are conservatives who denounce the republican party, but... I don't know any..

 

 

Is a benevolent liberal dictatorship the only answer?

[goDel]

All this anti-Americanism is pretty funny considering Brexit

Can't help but think about the Cambridge Analytica stuff: Bannon and his buddies creating a business model to make money off populist politics. With a little help from Facebook and it's non-existent notion of privacy. That sleazeball is still roaming around the EU to support populist initiatives (Italy, France, Hungary, Austria,...). Or rather, to develop his business.

 

Admittedly, this has little to do with anti-americanism. But the thing is, if you consider the Brexit debacle as a test-case for the Trump election, I don't see the "fun" in "anti-americanism considering Brexit". (Fwiw: Im not a brit btw)

 

Apart from that, I understand that post I made earlier came off pretty ignorant and probably triggered the whole "another ignoramus with the good old anti-american bullshit".

 

That post wasn't aimed at the us necessarily. Although admittedly poorly worded. It was aimed at the notion that it is a matter of fact that maintaining a status quo needs military force and all that. And I believe it was implied that if the US stopped wasting their money, the EU needed to step up considerably. As the links to a couple of nato/germany increasing military budget stuff seemed to support. (Lots of potential discussion here, btw. But nevermind). To me it seems obvious that if you think away all those us dollars, you'll never see an cumulative budget in the Eu which would come even close in size. Part of it is ideological, imo. And another part is that wars are moving to the digital space. So the idea of military forces being important need to be redefined to begin with. Why waste money on an army when a couple of hackers could destroy a foreign infrastructure with a few hacks. Or nowadays, why waste time on hacking an infrastructure when you can destort a democracy by pushing bullshit through the hearts and minds of its people.

 

So, yes. This is full circle.

 

And yes, I still think "probably from the US" whenever I see someone arguing: status quo needs military force. Even if I know some kind of military force can be required. It's just not *that* important. If the US would close its base in Japan, you wont see Europeans moving in.

 

And if European countries like to keep their Us bases, it might be more an economic issue than a safety issue. Even if their public statements indicate otherwise. If the US wants to close their bases, or take their missiles, (during the obama administration!) you could assume there shouldnt be a safety issue in the first place. The fact that the safety argument is still being used by the countries/communities who don't want to see them go, says something about the economic argument: you simply cant use it publically - it's unconvincing because it would imply that safety indeed wasnt an issue to begin with. So, if you really want to keep those us bases in your communities for economic reasons, you're basically forced to overstate the safety argument and understate/ignore the economic argument. This is more about economic 'status quos', than safety 'status quos'.

 

So yeah, its complete BS for the US to have a military force settled in Germany. And the 40pct increase in military spending in germany says a number of things:

- they didnt spend much to begin with ( perfectly reasonable seeing WW2 btw. They werent allowed to. So compared to other underspending eu countries, they might have spended even less, relatively speaking)

- probably has more to do with (foreign) political pressure than "safety"

 

Long post. Prolly waste of time. Shouldnt post, but this "dumb and dumber" shitstorm might be enjoyable anyways. In some sadomasochistic way.

 

Drukqs 2/10 bae! ;)

[ignatius]

[ambermonk]

Sounds about right

[Rubin Farr]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45928212?SThisFB

[may be rude]

Fight fire with fire, brothers! Priests team up to battle witches looking to further condemn fugly ol'Kavanaugh's soul to hell:

 

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/412114-catholics-and-exorcists-pray-for-kavanaugh-to-counteract

 

"It's not a witch hunt. It's not a witch hunt, folks." -DJT

 

here's a recent video of michael cohen saying "Listen, here's my recomendation. Grab your family, grab your friends, grab your neighbors, get to the poll. Because if not, you're going to have another 2 or another 6 years of this craziness."

 

 

He's saying it's going down. This is consistent with reports that Mueller is poised to make some moves as soon as the election is over. At this point, it's not unreasonable to anticipate endgame moves.

Edited October 21, 2018 by very honest

[ambermonk]

The man famous for "sessu?" two years ago doing a 180...interesting times

[ambermonk]

Also thinking about this whole NPC meme being circulated lately by the alt-right/MAGA cult/Proud Boys/whatever...I've come up with a counter-label. Whether or not it will gain any currency I cannot say, but I think I'm gonna start referring to them as

amygdaloids

So named after the area in the brain that appears to be the primary governor of everything they say or do.

Edited October 21, 2018 by ambermonk

[caze]

Didn’t say we set up Wahhabism just to consider it as part of the weirdness in USA Saudi relations because it’s counter to all the USA “goals” in the region.

 

Not really, US goals in the region are mostly now, and historically (post Shah), to do with preventing Iran from running the show. The neo-conservative 'spreading democracy' thing didn't last very long.

 

That guy is not a conspiracy theorist. He is actually the guy who went into countries and set them up with USA interests. He wrote a book about it later in life to expose it all. If you take a minute to google him and his book you’ll understand he’s not some wacko talking about gay frogs but someone who was once in the inner circle of USA international affairs working with large companies like bechtel and Halliburton etc.

 

I know who he is, and yes, he is a conspiracy theorist, and a fantasist. Most of the claims in his book can not be corroborated, he likely made most of it up or embellished what actually went on. Check out some of the other books he's written too, lol, on Shamanistic Shape Shifting and Time Travel:

 

Many indigenous cultures practice shapeshifting. Native American hunters take on the spirit of their prey to ensure a successful hunt; Asian medicine men “ingest” a sickness to heal the one afflicted; Amazon warriors become jaguars to soundlessly travel the jungle. Those who shapeshift understand that all of life is energy and that by focusing your intent you can change energetic patterns, rendering a new form. Shapeshifting can occur on three levels: cellular--transforming from human to plant or animal; personal--becoming a new self or leaving an addiction behind; and institutional--creating a new business or cultural identity.

 

 

Also he wasn’t talking about Sadam wanting to nationalize the oil but the leader before saddam. Did you even listen?

 

Sorry it was Qassim he was talking about (who wasn't the leader before Saddam btw, there were two or three other guys in between), he was talking about Saddam before that and I didn't notice him mention Qassim, but that doesn't change my point, as he was a military dictator also. Saddam did nationalise the Iraqi oil industry during the 70s Oil crisis btw, dictators claiming to act for the benefit of the common man is a pretty common trope.

 

When I say “set up” I’m talking about modernization. Big money contracts for us companies to build all kinds of infrastructure as part of a larger deal for better or worse.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

[zlemflolia]

Also thinking about this whole NPC meme being circulated lately by the alt-right/MAGA cult/Proud Boys/whatever...I've come up with a counter-label. Whether or not it will gain any currency I cannot say, but I think I'm gonna start referring to them as

 

 

 

amygdaloids

 

 

 

So named after the area in the brain that appears to be the primary governor of everything they say or do.

 

I like amygdaloids a lot.  And it's ironic because the NPC meme basically perfectly applies to Trump voters who never want to engage in a real discussion about why they support his actions, because they're incapable, but for some reason they've applied it to people who don't support Trump.  Ridiculous.

[ignatius]

 

Didn’t say we set up Wahhabism just to consider it as part of the weirdness in USA Saudi relations because it’s counter to all the USA “goals” in the region.

 

Not really, US goals in the region are mostly now, and historically (post Shah), to do with preventing Iran from running the show. The neo-conservative 'spreading democracy' thing didn't last very long.

 

That guy is not a conspiracy theorist. He is actually the guy who went into countries and set them up with USA interests. He wrote a book about it later in life to expose it all. If you take a minute to google him and his book you’ll understand he’s not some wacko talking about gay frogs but someone who was once in the inner circle of USA international affairs working with large companies like bechtel and Halliburton etc.

 

I know who he is, and yes, he is a conspiracy theorist, and a fantasist. Most of the claims in his book can not be corroborated, he likely made most of it up or embellished what actually went on. Check out some of the other books he's written too, lol, on Shamanistic Shape Shifting and Time Travel:

 

Many indigenous cultures practice shapeshifting. Native American hunters take on the spirit of their prey to ensure a successful hunt; Asian medicine men “ingest” a sickness to heal the one afflicted; Amazon warriors become jaguars to soundlessly travel the jungle. Those who shapeshift understand that all of life is energy and that by focusing your intent you can change energetic patterns, rendering a new form. Shapeshifting can occur on three levels: cellular--transforming from human to plant or animal; personal--becoming a new self or leaving an addiction behind; and institutional--creating a new business or cultural identity.

 

 

Also he wasn’t talking about Sadam wanting to nationalize the oil but the leader before saddam. Did you even listen?

 

Sorry it was Qassim he was talking about (who wasn't the leader before Saddam btw, there were two or three other guys in between), he was talking about Saddam before that and I didn't notice him mention Qassim, but that doesn't change my point, as he was a military dictator also. Saddam did nationalise the Iraqi oil industry during the 70s Oil crisis btw, dictators claiming to act for the benefit of the common man is a pretty common trope.

 

When I say “set up” I’m talking about modernization. Big money contracts for us companies to build all kinds of infrastructure as part of a larger deal for better or worse.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

 

 

 

USA meddling via giant firms often backfires or works out to a country going again its own best interests and often provides for a corporation to have a grip on the local politics.  there's lot's of examples of this kind of thing throughout USA foreign policy history.

 

a for perkins - i wasn't aware of his other books but reading some of the reviews it seems the shapeshifting thing is more about "the evil western culture" vs "primitive people's are awesome" stories of a personal nature but not actually abotu shapeshifting shamans. 

 

the confessions of an economic hitman was a bestseller for quite a while. seems he'd have been called out a fraud long ago?  i'll have to look more into his history and see what's confirmed. 

 

when i mentioned wahhabism i'm talking about the fundamentalism and the schools they fund/use indoctrinate the arab world. they export those beliefs which according to all we've been told since 9-11 and before are the exact things the USA is fighting against in the region which of course is bullshit because i don't think anyone knows wtf they're doing anymore as far as a larger strategic policy goes. 

 

so, i think the goals, whatever they are, are obscured from USA citizens under the cover of a war and blanket public statements of long term goals. 

 

Re iran.. we totally screwed the pooch on iran when we outed mossadegh in favor of the shah. so it goes. the "spreading democracy thing" was never gonna work. meddling rarely does. seems if we'dhave done nothing over there other than satisfy american need for revenge for 9-11 and then leave we'd be way better off. 

[usagi]

the NPC meme is the most banal, softball insult they could possibly have come up with given the massive reserves of angst and vitriol they have to draw from.

[Brisbot]

 

 

the NPC meme is the most banal, softball insult they could possibly have come up with given the massive reserves of angst and vitriol they have to draw from.

 I don't know why I just recently realized this, but right wingers kinda suck at comedy. IT all comes off as mean spirited at the underlying message they're trying to convey, like an insult instead of exaggerating reality like normal humor. It probably doesn't help that it often doesn't reflect reality but...

 

I can think of left-wing humor I don't entirely agree with that is funny and in good spirits but not really right wing stuff.

 

Anyone have any good examples of successful right-wing humor? Genuinely curious. I'm into trying new things.

 

 

Though I worry what would happen if Republicans had 80-90% of government. Because you just KNOW this potential is within the republican movement. It's the same kind of people afraid of other kinds of other races, poor people, and honestly the other sex that were apart of similar fascist movements in the past. EXACTLY the same. And most don't have the.. um... I guess reflection to see that. There are conservatives who denounce the republican party, but... I don't know any..

 

 

Is a benevolent liberal dictatorship the only answer?

 

All 3 of those words are contradictory. lol.

Edited October 22, 2018 by Brisbot