Politics

[Tom Servo]

Oh, c'mon, Mo. Mass shootings are so common in the US now that we don't even bother posting to the mass shooting thread. That ship sailed with Bernie on it, did a couple of rounds of the Atlantic, was retired as a ship, turned into a museum, and now is somewhere where you can get a good corndog.

[mk]

Anytime there is a mass shooting, remember, Bernie FUCKING Sanders is the reason why we can't hold gun manufacturers accountable.

Remember also that every time a thick blue wall can change things.
Though seems that for now a new whip is closer.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Anytime there is a mass shooting, remember, Bernie FUCKING Sanders is the reason why we can't hold gun manufacturers accountable.

How about let’s try to remember the good things Biden/Harris has done for the past 4 years? What are their signature moves that made our nation so much better? Why we absolutely need them for the next 4 years?

With regard to gun control, I do believe Vance was pretty lame to say that we ought to just accept school shootings as realities of life. Sure, for us average Americans, what else can we do except to just accept this reality? It's all Bernie Sander's fault, right? If only that old old man kicks the bucket, surely we won't have any gun problems..., but still, as someone in leadership position, that's the best you can do? Allow American kids to just accept that? That for sure made me want to vote for Kamala more.

[Crazed_Insanity]

More relevant to our current election cycle... had some political chat with some new friends we've met at the PNW area... and this guy was retired from the army recently. He's not overtly a Trump supporter like my next door neighbor, but after some digging, he's clearly also a Trump supporter. He sounded pretty much like Tulsi Gabbard. He had been deployed to the various battlefields... and was saying that in 'forever wars', they had no clear objective. Required very lengthy timeframe to get whatever authorization to act. Clearly their objective wasn't to win a war. Enemies in Iraq always have time to get re-supplies or re-enforcements from Iran... or in Afganistan, they always had Pakistani support. The difference with Trump was that they were allowed to actually win! That's how they're able to defeat ISIS.

Anyway, not sure if he holds the majority view in the military? However, my suspicion is that most military are conservatives... and most likely more incline to support Trump rather than the Republican establishment. I think he just thinks that our government is now too corrupt and he's glad that he's outta there considering how unstable it is around the world now...

Lastly, I didn't ask him what he'd do if Trump becomes a dictator, but my guess would be that people like him and Tulsi for sure won't actually support a dictator. They just think our current government is corrupt and hopeful of Trump cleaning things up... I doubt they'd support Trump to be a dictator.

Anyway, I still really don't have a personal preference yet... I just pray and hope whoever won will really help lead America to a better place. The coming debate should be interesting. Trump is getting old and rambling more... Kamala also has a tendency to ramble on with her word salad whenever going off script... so the upcoming debate should be fun to watch.

[FaultyMario]

Oh, yeah! I remember!

Bernie is the sole reason why Obama's supermajority was only able to pass a lukewarm healthcare reform. When the people were rioting for new regulatory frameworks for immigration, finance and labor, it was Sanders who brought it all down.

[Crazed_Insanity]

What a bad bad man! Rigged the 2020 primary too! Nearly eliminated Biden and Kamala! Good thing voters are smarter than Bernie’s scheme and we now have the proper candidates in the WH! Whew!

I’d think Neanderthal would be happy about the final outcome, but somehow he’s still bitter about that loser old man ruining the country… it’s okay now dude! Your enemy should be Trump, not Bernie! Threat to our democracy should be the orange old man, right?

Fortunately I don’t see Biden blaming Sanders about mass shootings. That really makes no sense.

[Tom Servo]

Earlier, one of our esteemed friends was pondering why it would be that people like Elon Musk have gravitated towards Trump. The supposition was that it must be something bad about the democrats that drove him away.

He just spent most of today claiming that Haitian immigrants will eat your pets. A racist trope that's at *least* a century old and has been applied to many different non-white groups, including people from Asia.

It's simple. Apartheid boy is super happy that he gets to talk shit about black people and the MAGA folks applaud him for it instead of telling him to go fuck himself. It's not that the democrats drove him away, it's that MAGA welcomed his most base racist reflexes with open arms. End of story.

[dodint]

What rock did you find Andy Richter underneath?

[Tom Servo]

I've followed him for a while now on bluesky/twitter.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Elno is definitely not perfect, but I think if we were to compare his more established companies against GM and Boeing… then I think we can see the differences between companies cozy with the ‘establishment’ and his companies?

I wouldn’t call his companies more conservative nor to the right…, but I do believe GM and Boeing are getting too big and too inefficient.

Do you think our government is being run more like Boeing or SpaceX? Would it be horrible if our government is reformed to run more like SpaceX?

I personally would prefer Elon stays in the private sector building stuffs rather the politics… plus, considering most who had worked for Trump soured on their relationships, Elon would be dumb to be part of Trump admin…

But to answer your question, I tend to think Elon was pushed! Yeah, his big politically incorrect mouth/tweets are probably what started the push? But seriously, I think the left has moved more to the left or to some weird place too. Boeing, at least, has over the years moved out of Seattle and was inching closer and closer to Sauron! New CEO has pledge to move senior management back to Seattle, hopefully Boeing will finally be heading in the right direction.

Besides worrying about Elon, is the Democratic party really moving in the right direction? Maybe if we could try to avoid party talks then we'll be able to see with better clarity? So you think our government in general is heading toward the right direction?

[MR2 Fan]

Oh shit it's over. Taylor Swift endorsed Harris officially

[neanderthal]

Missed the debate because I was at rugby practice. Good news about Taylor Swift though.

[Leon]

So who had:
Immigrants eating pets
and
Post birth abortions

On their "Billi's buddy" list?

[sandydandy]

A lot of Kamala’s talking points were similar to Biden in the first debate, except he lacked the energy to verbalize it the way he wanted to because of his frailty. No such problem here.

She had Trump on the ropes in the healthcare part of the debate to the point where he was retreating.

Overall Kamala was stronger and Trump didn’t really say anything of substance outside of twatish comments for shock and entertainment value.


So who had:
Immigrants eating pets
and
Post birth abortions

On their "Billi's buddy" list? Immigrants eating pets is a new one. Reminds me of what the far-right is doing in Canada with Indians shitting on beaches. There’s a word for post birth abortion - it’s called murder, which I am certain is illegal in 100% of the country.

He’s a fucking joke.

[Tom Servo]

I'd heard a lot of people saying that all Trump really had to do was control himself and remain composed and he'd do fine.

I think he made it maybe 10 minutes before that was all out the window. One thing that's interesting is I think most of the world is like Leon. People like me who are terminally online and keep an eye on the weirdest fringe parts of the ultra-right already knew about the claims of pet eating and post-birth abortions, that second one they've been repeating for years now. But most of the world isn't like that, and they saw his performance last night and probably are wondering what the fuck is wrong with him. I really think retreating to Truth Social and his echo chamber has just caused him to fall further and further into the fringe because over there, the more bonkers he goes the more they love him.

Also, speaking of the fringe, as much as Billi likes to say he's a liberal he's a pretty reliable source as to what the fringe is claiming. He'll often repeat their claims here as facts (like the recent Tulsi Gabbard thing). I'm guessing partially because the town he's moved to is a lot like where my mother-in-law lives and that sort of fringe Trump supporter is pretty commonplace, so those things become part of normal conversation there. Much like vaccines being deadly or the earth being flat.

And yeah, that thing about Haitians supposedly eating your pets came out a couple of days ago. JD Vance claims that he's gotten reports of this, though the police there say they have zero reports. It feels a little strange that you'd complain to your state senator but not to the cops, but hey, Trump saw people on TV so it must be true. Elon Musk has had a huge part in spreading that racist trope as well. It's a trope that's well over one hundred years old and gets applied to pretty much every non-white immigrant population at some point. Vance seems to be positioning spreading the rumor as returning the couch-fucking favor, only he doesn't get the difference between making fun of a public figure and potentially inciting violence against an entire group of people.

That "we're not racist" mask was never fully on, but it's completely off now.

[Rare White Ape]

Trump has always shown his cards. And if people thought he'd be able to act 'decently' then they were deluded.

But it won't affect his chances at all. He could say some of the most heinously racist or misogynistic shit about Harris and he will still get the same amount of votes.

Meanwhile, Democrat voters will be sent into a frenzy of condemnation about his decorum and not move the goalposts one bit.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Trump as a New Yorker, do you think he was originally a what?

Musk started out in CA, do you really think he has conservative leanings?

I think it should be clear that for one reason or another, whether pushed or out of their own free will, they both moved from a blue state to another red state.

Also, to me, racism would be about being treated badly simply by the color of your skin. Whether that's during a traffic stop or trying to gain employment, but don't you guys think "everything" is now beginning to look a lot like racism lately as long as it's politically convenient?

Chinese people eating wild animals and buy them from wet markets... if that caused a world wide pandemic, it's not racist to believe that. However, if it's a lab leaked virus... now all of a sudden it becomes racist? Can you really explain why?

These are all political BS IMHO.

Anyway, I think Kamala performed better than I thought during the debate. Trump is just being his usual self... except he really looks older now... and tend to ramble on like old people. On TV, that certainly doesn't look good. He could easily beat Biden on looks, but no anymore...

On a personal level, the debate also didn't quite move the needle for me. I'm still not really more inclined to vote for either. If Kamala wins, of course it'll be continuation of status quo. If Trump wins, I tend to believe he'll actually make the world safer and more peaceful. I think other dictators/terrorists for sure are more afraid of crazy Trump than Kamala/Biden. However, at home, things will likely be more messed up. We'll probably see a lot of angry Kyles shooting up lots of white guys who supports BLM.

White people really need to figure this out amongst themselves.

All I can tell you is that my white MAGA neighbor doesn't not mistreat me in any way... knowing that I'm not white and I'm from LA.

People really need to stop being so angry. Pretty sure it won't be the end of the world if either one is elected. I'm 'okay' with either candidates as president, but I really have no motivation to vote for either. Both kinda suck in their own way.

The weakest Trump part during to debate for me was his defense about getting rid of Obamacare..., but he has no freaking better alternative. Now that's lame. However, both sides are playing the similar game. Just blame the other side for all our problems, but who has the better solution?

I think I just don't trust both candidates. Considering most who's worked closely for Trump typically split up very badly... also considering Kamala's policies could often change depending on whichever way the wind blows... I seriously don't understand why Americans are trying to kill each other over these two...

[neanderthal]

Kamala should've started every response with "I guess he's not going to answer, because he doesn't have any idea of what to do about (subject.) Well, here is what I intend to do (elaborates.)"

[JoeW]

Honestly if we can just get past this ReTrumpican era things will get back to normal. This election will be the last time we have to deal with him. Then we can get back to somewhat respectable humans on both sides who can talk about their platform, policies, plans etc. Like in the old pre Trump days.

[FaultyMario]

Cough-cough.



An interesting wrinkle with the scenario of Biden stepping down is if the Democrats can prop up a good enough candidate to beat Trump this fall, they won't be subject to term limits in 2028 and would be the incumbent firmly in place to prevent a 2028 MAGA candidate.If that is the case, and now that the GOP internal structure has been firmly replaced by MAGAs and, say, that sanity is somewhat restored and reforms like those mentioned by Tom are passed, how do the institutional Republicans get their party back?

I've said elsewhere on this thread, but there are signs that elements in the U.S. electoral system are useless now, so it'll be interesting to see if they can be reformed or if something else comes along and takes its place.

[Crazed_Insanity]

If Trump loses again and survives another assassination attempt, there’s probably a good chance he will try to MAGAgain! So in a way I kinda wish he could win to get it over with…

GOP has been forever screwed thanks to Trump. As long as Trump can run again, I don’t foresee anyone who could beat Trump during the primaries…

Personally I like Trump more than W because at least Trump never started a bogus war. Do you guys really would prefer W over Trump?

[FaultyMario]

"Trump never started a war", is like, the worst. joke. ever.

[Crazed_Insanity]

No forever wars at least during his 4 years.

Biden didn’t start anything either, however, he involved America actively in 2 forever wars.

Not saying we absolutely should have no wars, but if we are involved, we need to have winning as an objective. If we can’t win, then we need to know when we should cut our loss… America has been involved in way too many forever wars…

[Tom Servo]

*cough* Afghanistan *cough*.

You are aware that that lasted through all of Trump's presidency and despite claiming he was going to end it, he didn't actually do that, right? That was a 20 year conflict.

And he bombed Syria. That's a 12 year conflict.

Oh, and Yemen. That's a 20 year conflict.

And intervention in the Somali civil war. Another 20 year conflict.

And Niger. Hey, that was only a 12 year conflict.

And ISIS/Iraq. Also a 12 year conflict.

Of those, Trump didn't actually stop any of them. I think it's fair to say he didn't start any wars, but depending on your definition of a forever war (and those are basically all the ones that we are still involved in, so that pretty much covers the gamut), he didn't actually end any of them either. It's arguably pretty janky, we're talking about supporting a bunch of shipping companies, but at the same time, it's not like it was unilateral.

FWIW, One conflict has started under Joe Biden, Operation Prosperity Guardian, a joint effort between the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Bahrain, Singapore, and Sri Lanka to defend cargo vessels in the Red Sea from the Houthi movement in Yemen.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Ukraine and Gaza wars for sure were not started by Biden, but Biden is either unable to or u willing to help win those wars, yet he kept supplying weapons to sustain unwinnable wars. That’s essentially forever wars. If Trump were in office, I don’t believe those wars would happen.

Dude was in office for 4 years and gets credit for a 20 yr conflict?!?!?

If we can chart a number of American bullets and bombs set off around the world, I’d bet Trump used up the least during his 4 years.

That is the ONLY thing I like about Trump. Initially, I liked nothing about him and was also scared that he might destroyed the world… but in retrospect, I do believe he is the most peaceful US president. Instead of meddling abroad, he just meddles around at home. So if he wins the election, it should be good for the rest of the world. :p

[Tom Servo]

Lol, Trump is good because he didn't start new wars, Biden is bad because he didn't start new wars. Got it.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Forever wars. If you want to deliberately play dumb, I suppose you have the right to play that. Yeah, you might as well blame the guy in office for 4 years with a conflict that preceded him for 15 years!

Forever wars are bad! They drag on for no reason other than allowing arms dealer to profit more… hopefully the money we make can help pay for our deficit at least…

[Tom Servo]

I didn't blame him for the forever wars, but he didn't *stop any of them.* Biden didn't *start* any of them, unless you blame him for Russia's and Hamas' actions, which last time I checked, he wasn't in charge of.

You, of all people, should not accuse anyone of playing dumb.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Putin invaded when Obama was in charge… and again when Biden is in charge. Why didn’t he invade while the Russian asset was in charge?

I suppose nobody knows the real reason, but that is fact. Maybe Trump was just lucky. Maybe Putin was happy Trump threatened to dismantle NATO?

We also didn’t see Trump Jr. in Ukraine planning casinos and golf courses… but Hunter was there! We shouldn’t be flirting with Ukraine like that. Either let them join NATO and be ready to defend them… or not! Why mess with Putin like that?

Like I said, Biden is either unwilling or unable to negotiate peace/win a war… I think Trump could do a better job, at least based on his 4 years record.

Of course even if he wins another 4 years and gave us relative peace during that time, surely President Newsom will return us to forever war mode again…

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yesterday there was a round table meeting with a fairly senior level manager just chatting with folks in our group... one unavoidable topic was our company's dire financial situation. The analogy is like this: imagine at your household that you've maxed out all of our creditcards... so you really couldn't borrow anymore money. Yet, you are on the verge of credit rating downgrade due to various reasons... that means your currently paying 18.99% interest on all of your debt will suddenly become paying 39.99%...

Of course there are also brighter sides... such as repair business! Commercial planes are getting old! We can make big bucks fixing them... not only that, if there's a military conflict in the Pacific Rim region, we'll have to be able to repair our military planes faster because China simply has more planes I guess?

Anyway, so moral of the story is that my current employer is obviously part of the 'establishment'. As establishment candidates win, I suppose that's better job security for me. However, I really also wish my employer can be more like SpaceX though.

I really think Trump's only positive is to give us a relatively safer world. Of course clearly you guys disagree, but whatever. We should be used to having different realities in this day and age. I also like the fact that Trump destroyed the Republican establishment. However, it's kinda like he wishes to destroy Obamacare... believing that it sucks... Okay, so it sucks... let's get rid of it. Now that it's gone, then what? Do you really have a plan? Considering that most who've worked closely with you don't want to work with you ever again and would often even testify against you... Trump for sure doesn't inspire confidence.

So in a way I'm fine with status quo too. It's good for my employer... and good for my own bottomline. I think it sucks, but I don't know what else to do either. Only thing I can do is to look after my own bottomline. I can only do my job the best I can and hope the new CEO and future new president can turn things around? Otherwise America will likely never ever be great again... what’s happening to my employer is happening to America. We have to do something, but unless Trump truly becomes born again, I just don’t think we can expect much from this election cycle…, regardless who won.

[MR2 Fan]

Jesus F-ing $DEITY the whole city!?!?! :lol:

https://gtxforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=4334&d=1726181040

4334

[Kchrpm]

The Rams left and won a Super Bowl and they lost their damn minds.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I never paid much attention to Eric Weinstein because I had always just associated him to his relative Harvey... :p

What do you guys think about Eric? Supposedly he's also a lifetime democrat, never voted Republican... and I find myself agreeing with a lot of what he's saying...


https://youtu.be/Trrp-tgKvR0?si=_FeDEYmi5Wmq8Lna

What I called the 'establishment', I think he calls it the 'international order'. He predicted Biden would be replaced back in February, he's now also saying Trump won't be allowed to be president again... I suppose that's why the assassination attempt. All that is because this 'international order' wants to protect itself... it can't have a crazy president that comes in place to disrupt treaties and financial markets and stuff like that. So it pre-selects pre-approve presidential candidates.

I guess Trump has been an anomaly that hacked their system back in 2016. They'll determine to not let that happen again. Now, replacing the puppet Biden is much easier feat. However, they will try very hard to make sure Trump won't be the next president.

Eric isn't sure what he'll do come November. There are 4 options for all voters... besides picking one of the 2... we could just abstain or vote for an irrelevant 3rd party candidate. None of those options will be great... at least from my perpective...

However, back to that crazy Christian prophet who predicted Trump assassination, I'm beginning to think his prophecy might be true. Trump will win... and he'll likely break the 'international order' and cause a huge recession!

As bad as that's gonna be, it'll be like a huge forest fire... hopefully a new and better world will eventually emerge...

Or we can maintain status quo. I'll roll with the punches...

I think I'll abstain from voting this time. You guys can decide your own fate. I'll do my best take care of my family and make this world a better place either way...

May God bless America! :)

And may the Gospel continue on going in the westward direction and be spread to China eventually too! I'm praying for you and your children's children brother YW! :p

Sorry for involving religion again..., but at least that Eric guy is an atheist. Regardless of whether if Jesus exists, I do want the best for America... and China!

[FaultyMario]

I've read that A.I. is a waste of the planet's energy.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXZWBr8XoAAnLBQ.png

And it's OK.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I listened to more of some Eric Weinstein commentary and learned something interesting… which is the emergence of ‘anti-interesting’ stuffs!

Subjects that are ‘anti-interesting’ are not the same as uninteresting, it’s just that for whatever reasons, they’re discouraged to be talked about further for one reason or another. Jeff Epstein is one example. We know he’s a failed financier, but nobody really has a clue how he made his money! No investigative reporters are able to dig up anything either. Covid origins probably also something similar. No way to find the real truth because we just can’t dig any deeper. Any attempts to try to dig deeper will result in you being called a crazy conspiracy theorist or racist or worse cases would be prosecution like Assange or exile like Snowden?

People like Trump, Musk, Joe Rogan are obviously flawed people, but these folks pose a significant threat… because they’re not the type who’d shut up about ‘anti-interesting topics’ and they are some what difficult to get rid off easily… so the battle continues…

I really think it’s no longer right vs left… seriously, how leftist are most of you guys really? Most of you are not willing to go as far left with Bernie, right? On the ‘right’ as well, how far right are Trump and Musk really? If the divide between left and right is really that great, there’s no way Cheney would endorse Kamala!

So anyway, this ‘battle’ will likely end with folks like Trump and Musk eventually locked away or destroyed for good… or this ‘international Tower of Babel’ will come crashing down…

[Yw-slayer]

Today I learnt that Billi's Best Bros are seeking to pass a End Chinese Dominance of Electric Vehicles in America Act. Lolllllllllllllllllllllllll

[FaultyMario]

You have been warned.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXfZuzjWIAA-oIH.jpg

[Crazed_Insanity]

Eric Weinstein has warned about this too… they’ll likely keep trying before the November election until they succeed in getting rid of Trump. Assassination definitely can be a big blow not only to him, but also to the nation…

It is rather amazing all the character and physical assassinations still don’t quite seem to work yet. Looks like ‘they’ are not very good… ;)

[edit] 1st assassin kid seemed to be a MAGA type... now the 2nd assassin is upset with what happened at Ukraine..., yet somehow decided to take it out on Trump who was not a president at the time... and still isn't a president... what good would it be to kill him? His death would somehow end the war in Ukraine? Also, why now? Why not earlier so that GOP can have their primary? Anyway, at least the guy is alive and we can question him further... unless he ends up killing himself in prison like Epstein... What kind of weird world are we living in where nothing makes sense...

There's definitely a threat to our democracy... and it's not just coming from Trump.

[Tom Servo]

Ugh, Milo.

The really tough part is apparently Loomer is threatening to sue Bill Maher for defamation after he joked about her having an affair with Trump and I honestly don't know who I want to lose more.

[FaultyMario]

I am here for all the couch jokes however. 😂

Ben Folds recently did a cover of Killing in the name of

(https://x.com/i/status/1835821930886402403)

[MR2 Fan]

I have a stupid question. Why do conservatives hate IVF?

[Crazed_Insanity]

Extreme ideology is likely the answer. IVF could require multiple embryos from the couple... and of course once the mother is successfully impregnated, what are we to do with the rest of the embryos? Pro-life conservative extremists couldn't bear the idea of murdering these babies, yet, they're okay with murdering of Sandy Hook babies... there's nothing we could do about Sandy Hook, but there's something we could do about not killing embryos! Let's just ban that! Yeah! Hopefully with reduced population, we'll have less kids to be shot at at Sandy Hook too? Win win for both sides?

We really should tie abortion rights along with gun rights. If you wish to ban abortion rights, let's go ahead and ban all guns too. Pro-life, right?

Or, if you insist on allowing gun rights, then please let women keep their right to choose too? Pro-choice, right?

We need to be more consistent... more common sense too. I think it's clear no americans are pro-baby killing or pro-government taking away your choice. It's unbelievable we are still at each other's throats about these issues and still making no progress at all...

[Rare White Ape]

I have a stupid question. Why do conservatives hate IVF?

Because clerico-fascists think the only way we should get someone preggerz is to do the dirty.

But clerico-fascists even hate the act of doing the dirty. So, I dunno...