Leaderboard

We can't solve the gang violence problem in any major U.S. city, but sure, let's go try to remake Afghanistan into a functioning country though we don't understand the language, culture, history, who is who, the centuries old feuds, etc. with a population who have an average IQ of 85 and most of whom probably have PTSD from the decades of war, UXOs, child rape, complete lack of safety culture, banditry, etc. FFS.

No we haven’t moved to socialism, yet. That’s what we are trying to prevent. Let’s not pretend the two clowns sitting in the White House don’t have said ambitions (okay one probably doesn’t but he’s too stupid to realize his handlers pushing him that direction until he serves his purpose.) Let’s not pretend that the “Squad” and their wonderful entourage don’t espouse said views with a significant amount of youth popularity. How many young ignorant Bernie supporters were there? So yes, we will continue to call the fringe left out on their BS. This country is too precious for social experimentation with a poli-economic system that has killed thousands of people. They only need to succeed once, there is no saving our country after that.

This is one of the most mind-boggling arguments that I see all the time from the left. Wealth is created. It is not static. Yes, the basis for wealth and the monetary systems we use to support it are fundamentally systems of exchanging labor. But that labor value is not fixed. When you look at the billionaire class, overwhelmingly they are represented by people who created fundamental changes in how labor functions, freeing up incredible amounts of labor to be dedicated into other pursuits. That is the creation of additional labor/wealth. They did not take it from anybody, and to say so is a fundamental misunderstanding of economics. Now, if you want to get into a conversation specifically about wealth transfer in the banking and finance system, I think there is a very strong argument there for criticizing the manipulation of financial instruments to move wealth from one person to another. But that's not where most of the billionaires come from, and it's not the argument being made by the most visible politicians/activists on the left. Jeff Bezos is worth billions because millions of people wanted to exchange their wealth for his services. He didn't trap 100,000 people in a warehouse and collect their labor. You want to know why so many conservatives view the Democratic party as an existential threat? Because anyone who thinks about the economy the way you described clearly would destroy it through sheer incompetence alone.

Very true. If 5 percent of "the pie" today is twice as much as it was 20 years ago because the pie has doubled in size, than I would agree the system is working. Also, the quality of life of a middle class person today is arguably better than the ultra wealthy of 150 years ago. They didn't have TV, AC, the automobile etc.

Two things. First saying “basis” means you admit that the separation of church and state aren’t anywhere in the bill of rights or constitution but that the basis as you claim (others may think different) is in there. It also says that you imply that it it isn’t explicitly in either document means it’s reading is subjective. And that makes it subjective to the reader what the basis is or isn’t. the constitution and bill of rights were painstakingly written so as that there wouldn’t be ambiguity in what was being said. Second. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” This in no way means that church has no place in state or state has no place in church. Just that the state won’t make an official religion or a law respecting such because of the context of how America was founded. Church was very much a part of state but it wasn’t an official or sanctioned part. Where most of the founding fathers roots were found in Europe where there were state laws and sanctioned religions. So to clarify my point. Church and state weren’t ever designed in the bill of rights or constitution to be separate at all costs. But that the free exercise of religion (or lack there of) should be allowed. Not forced any particular religion on individuals. Church and state comes from a letter from Thomas Jefferson in his letter to the Danbury baptists. Which is an interesting read and doesn’t even then necessarily back up the separation of church and state as we know it today.

The basis for those actions is literally the first sentence in the bill of rights. I'm not for the bleaching of religion from public spaces, but the concept of "separation of church and state" is quite clearly in the Bill of Rights, making it a part of the constitution.

An online callsign generator?!? https://afterburner.com.au/callsign/ Where the fuck is the fun in that?!?

I agree. I think Desantis, Crenshaw, etc. can do that, but with the added benefit of not pissing off the middle. Trump’s problem is he alienates a lot of voters who aren’t fairly conservative, but may actually vote GOP if they see a candidate who’s not raging away on Twitter. I think emotional voting is stupid as shit, but I acknowledge there are a lot of people out there who just can’t stand Trump’s personality/approach towards others and will summarily vote for anyone but him. It’d be disingenuous to say he didn’t play his part in creating the “never trumpers.” By the way, I voted for him twice…but also strive to be as balanced, informed, and unemotional as possible. That means I have to acknowledge the other groups/sides, even if I don’t agree with them.

The religious right is the albatross around the neck of the conservative movement in this country. Unfortunately it wields considerable power; Trump had to pretend he was praying at almost every event and he even had to reference God, the bible, etc... in his speeches and I think we all know that man is not religious in any way, shape, or form. Mixing of religion and politics is never a good combo. The Republicans in this country that continually cave to the religious right and choose social issues as their hill to die on are only hurting the party in the long run and it gives infinite and easy fodder to the left.

True, my “hard right” was directed at these old people in the GOP who won’t listen for one sec to somebody who doesn't believe exactly like them (very conservative). Local example: those people are losing their shit that a gay guy is running as a republican. Never mind he has great policy stances and is conservative-minded, but he’s gay, so we not only shouldn’t support him, we should actively oppose him. They literally would rather die on their religious sword and see this guy lose, at the cost of some batshit crazy leftist winning. Not that they want that outcome, but they’re incapable of seeing the forest through the trees. That’s the part of the GOP that needs to “retire;” let the rest of us conservatives who don’t care who you fuck interact with the public.

Do they tho? How many middle classers chose to be cheapos? Example, and this is a true story and if I am lying may the fighter gods banish me from having any shot at a pointy. During the 2016 run-up, I had two coworkers, adamant Trump supporters, Bernie and Hillary are socialists, going to destroy the country blah blah. That's FINE. BOTH of them needed tires for their cars, I was like "buy these Coopers they're made in the USA I got them for my car at a fair price". What do they BOTH do? "Give me the cheapest Shengzin whatever tire from Sears". Where were they made? China. Some people do it to themselves. Some people really don't have a choice and are barely scraping by, and yes those people I empathize for and the system needs to do better for them, but a lot of people do it to themselves. I don't care who you are, Walmart greeter, submarine engineer or a baseops F-35 super hero. If you complain we don't make anything here and manufacturing is in the gutter but than actively select to purchase the cheapest foreign stuff when there exists a domestically produced alternative? F*ck you. Rant off.

Agreed dude, capitalism is the best we've got, no system is ever going to work perfectly, and not everybody gets to come in first, that's life. But look at you're argument "people would just move and find a new job". How many rust belt cities/coal towns keep voting people into office who "promise" to "bring our manufacturing and coal mining jobs back". Why don't they just move to CA and work for Tesla, or NY and build wind turbines in Albany, or service solar panels in Nevada? Is it people don't want to leave, home is home? Not a jab btw, but it seems a lot of times people don't want to move.

Our inheritence taxes were designed with a pretty clear purpose. The founding fathers were terrified of enough familial wealth being accumulated to establish a landed gentry re-subjugating the United States to the whims of an Aristocracy. This is effectively what the Rockefellers did with their oil boom towns. I hate aristocracy. So I will always support some sort of inheritance tax.

The suppression and decline of organized labor in the United States is a discussion/thread all its own.

Devils Advocate: There is a town with 4 competing steel mills. Most all of the town is employed by one of the steel mills with wages that are competitive and fair due to competition. Steel mill A innovates, finds a way to manufacture steel at 25% cheaper rate. The three other mills can't compete, and steel mill A eventually buys them out. Yay, innovation, steel is now made at a cheaper price. The world is better off, right? But now everybody works for steel mill A. Steel mill A has much more influence over the labor rate than it did when it had 3 competing mills. Why not cut the wages by 25%? There are no other jobs, so the people have to take it, or starve. Bezos made his fortune fair and square, I agree with you, and if you over regulate you take away the incentive for innovation. But the idea that people with large fortunes don't end up with large influence over the economy and labor rates doesn't hold water. If Bezos and Walmart put every mom and pop shop out of business, how can you say they don't have influence setting the labor rate? Now, Americans CHOSE to buy from them and therefore gave them that power, so in the end its our own damn fault.

Well, we found the Marxist.

In the end, our problem was how we defined "victory." We never should have been attempting to make Afghanistan a 1st world country with western values. We should have openly stated we would be content with a couple of permanent drone operating bases backed up by a few hundred/thousand personnel to drop Hellfires on them for the next 1000 years. No intention ever stated of "winning" anything. Just being a forever thorn in their side to prevent their state's use as a training base.

I’d much rather just make the damn vaccine mandatory instead of this passive aggressive shit I see a bunch of Commanders doing. Since it’s not mandatory, STFU! I was recently asked why I didn’t want the vaccine and I produced several pages of my vaccine history from all those deployments and asked if they would want another shot for something with the pK of a fly swatter. One man’s opinion.

On the surface I agree with your notion that we need to move past Trump in order to regain credibility as a party let alone defeat whichever lunatic the Dems put up (probably Kamala). While there are many nut jobs on the right, we have to ask “why” said old people cling to Trump. Maybe it’s because he was one of the only politicians that connected with boring, maybe rural, everyday Americans? Many of these hard right folk are decent Americans that just want to be left alone and have someone that will fight for them. Whoever the Republican nominee is, must be able to connect with these everyday normal Americans. They aren’t going away.

No planned changes to the color test per my ACS sources. There is a push to convert all of the testing to a computerized device called an AVT (Automated Vision Test), but that's still only a discussion and there are no solid plans to do so.

Quote: America has moved from a relatively free economy to socialism – which has worked so well NOWHERE in the world. Pretty much everything from here on is complete and utter bullshit. We have moved to socialism? Really? Just what industries has our government seized control of? While I’m waiting for that answer, does this guy (or many of you) actually know what socialism is? FFS arguments like this are so full of hyperbole and bullshit it’s almost funny. This is exactly the reason most Americans won’t take the arguments of the right seriously. It’s constantly chicken little, the sky is falling and it’s utterly ridiculous. There are good arguments for conservatism but the right has thrown them away in favor of pure standup comedy.

I think it's laughable that anyone thinks Trump's positions are "hard right".

Just like all the people who left during anthrax vaccines? Or all the people who left after DADT was repealed? People talk a big game about getting out...but anyone who gets out over the Covid vaccine already had one foot out the door. Not to mention, retention levels are at an all-time high and with the war in Afghanistan winding down, we'll probably be downsizing a bit anyway. Anyone who leaves is one less person that will be forced out via RIF.

Certainly no one would lie about being vaccinated to, say, avoid wearing a mask, right?

Mil could always do that. The issue was after the massive F’up with the force wide mandatory Anthrax Vax nobody wants to touch that. Getting the force vaccinated has nothing to do with protecting us and everything to do with one less hoop to jump through with strategic level issues like “can we rapidly deploy troops through country X on the way to Country Y.” Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Latest straw poll has trump getting 70% of the nomination votes…WTF people, you’re going to fuck us over with another horrendous Dem WH team! On the local level, my wife and I have realized the GOP is primarily old, angry people clinging to Trump. They can’t let go, and they can’t have a conversation with anybody who is not hard right. They’re as bad as the left in that regard. We’re conservative, but we’re a lot closer to the middle than these people…time for the younger generations to stage a coup of the GOP itself and get this shit back on track, starting at the local level. The problem is if we don’t, we’re in the middle with everyone else who hates both sides, but begrudgingly chooses one side at the polls because we despise the other side’s policies more. This choosing the lesser of two evils bullshit has to stop.

Just because Biden is a bad public speaker doesn't make Trump a good one. Two things can be true at the same time. Pooter's right...the GOP will have much better luck with a more sane candidate who is less divisive.

Just finished up watching trump's cpac speech/stream of consciousness stand up routine. After not hearing from him for 6 months I almost forgot how incoherent he is. I doubt even the most seasoned qanon nut could follow the speed and frequency of his tangents. As someone who wants to see the Republican Party put up a serious challenge to the democrats in 2022 and beyond, it is a constant source of frustration that he has been allowed to stay in the picture. Trump is the perfect foil for Democrats because all they have to do to win is point at him and say nothing else. If Republicans were smart they'd pick the most boring, straightedge candidate possible and position themselves opposite the Democrats' insane policies and social justice initiatives. Remember, most of the things Democrats are pushing--CRT, reparations, LGBTQIA$?!: initiatives, packing the court, massive federal spending etc.. aren't actually popular. We have a really good opportunity to pick a Nikki Haley or a Ron Desantis and just shut up and point at the dems' lunacy. But the Republicans aren't smart, and they are even less cohesive in their election strategies. So 2024 will probably just be another referendum on trump when it could be a referendum on the left's batshit ideas.

All we did was create a nation of dependents. I listened on the radio today as Afghanis claimed they have been abandoned. The Taliban want it more, so they will win. This should have happened 15 years ago. We had a reasonable expectation that the Afghans would taste freedom and sustain it with our aid. They let us down, not the other way around. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Random thought experiment to play devils advocate. Try to justify unbridled inheritance under the pretext that all men should be created equal - a decidedly American value. Not so easy, huh? Equality of opportunity, right? Inheritance doesn’t really translate to a meritocracy. Also, good luck trying to convince Americans that public schools, regulations on drinking water, improvement of soil, and abolition of child labor is bad just because a Marxist said it.

Because those things are good is all the other stuff they say good by association? The Germans built an impressive road system in the 1930s that inspired our interstate system here in the US. Does that make the rest of their ideology from the time more acceptable?

No, that argument has no logical continuity. What about being born with smarter parents? What about being born with genes that will make you taller? Should we force "equity" of height and parental intelligence too, since we have scientifically validated evidence that they provide advantages? It's created with equal rights, not equal surroundings. The founders weren't obtuse.