The Next President is...

[HeloDude]

Here’s what it comes down to and there is no refuting this:  If you work in the federal government and take legitimate action while carrying out the duties of your job, if the optics and/or politics of what you did is politically bad for the administration, you will be blamed/not protected, especially if it can help the administration save some face.

Let me know if you need an example.

 

[arg]

4 hours ago, HeloDude said:

Here’s what it comes down to and there is no refuting this:  If you work in the federal government and take legitimate action while carrying out the duties of your job, if the optics and/or politics of what you did is politically bad for the administration, you will be blamed/not protected, especially if it can help the administration save some face.

Let me know if you need an example.

 

Well, we just had one example.

I remember a discussion on here about reputable news. We just got another example of that too. Which news agencies reported a "whipping" and which ones did not?

[HeloDude]

35 minutes ago, arg said:

Well, we just had one example.

I remember a discussion on here about reputable news. We just got another example of that too. Which news agencies reported a "whipping" and which ones did not?

Exactly.  I laugh when someone tells me that ABC, Wash Post, etc are “balanced/non-partisan”.  Progressives  are clearly against enforcing border security and immigration laws, so if they have the opportunity to paint the false story that border patrol law enforcement officers were using scary horses and whipping a poor/defenseless black man who wasn’t doing anything wrong, then they’re going to do it…especially when they can tie it to slavery and “systemic racism” in law enforcement.  The people who run these “news” outlets want this story to be true (along with the majority of their readers/viewers), so they’re going to report that way, facts be damned.

By the way, MSNBC has been doing this for years…see the link below if you forgot/never caught this one:

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2011/08/17/original-msnbc-host-paints-rick-perry-as-racist-n662043

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, HeloDude said:

Exactly.  I laugh when someone tells me that ABC, Wash Post, etc are “balanced/non-partisan”.  Progressives  are clearly against enforcing border security and immigration laws, so if they have the opportunity to paint the false story that border patrol law enforcement officers were using scary horses and whipping a poor/defenseless black man who wasn’t doing anything wrong, then they’re going to do it…especially when they can tie it to slavery and “systemic racism” in law enforcement.  The people who run these “news” outlets want this story to be true (along with the majority of their readers/viewers), so they’re going to report that way, facts be damned.

By the way, MSNBC has been doing this for years…see the link below if you forgot/never caught this one:

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2011/08/17/original-msnbc-host-paints-rick-perry-as-racist-n662043

Imagine thinking that enforcing our nation's sovereign borders is a bad thing lol 🤣. Crystallizing Public Opinion by Edward Bernays is a wonderful book to understanding the industry of manipulating masses and how old such an industry is (in our modern world). I applaud the Border Patrol cowboys.

[WAG]

Biden promises the Border Patrol agents “will pay” and “there will be consequences” for the alleged whipping that even the photographer said was “misconstrued.”  
 

Meanwhile a drone strike kills 10 civilians including 7 children and it’s a “tragic mistake.”  
 

Good times. Glad the adults are back in charge. 
 

Edited September 25, 2021 by WAG

[M2]

[Guest]

10 hours ago, M2 said:

A lawbreaker? You're saying that because he's brown. Also, that's a future (blue) voter you bigot! - DNC

[VMFA187]

Question for anyone who voted for the current administration - Are you happy with the current state of our nation? If so, what makes you feel that way?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, VMFA187 said:

Question for anyone who voted for the current administration - Are you happy with the current state of our nation? If so, what makes you feel that way?

The current administration inherited Trump’s mess, clearly! It’s not Biden’s fault!!! Biden is Building Back Better!™️ You WILL eat the bugs. You WILL live in a pod. You WILL NOT own private property. You WILL NOT have privacy. However you WILL be happy. You WILL worship The Great Reset ™️.

>t. World Economic Forum

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/05/europe-insect-based-food-meat/

 

[GrndPndr]

7 hours ago, dogfish78 said:

The current administration inherited Trump’s mess, clearly! It’s not Biden’s fault!!! Biden is Building Back Better!™️ You WILL eat the bugs. You WILL live in a pod. You WILL NOT own private property. You WILL NOT have privacy. However you WILL be happy. You WILL worship The Great Reset ™️.

>t. World Economic Forum

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/05/europe-insect-based-food-meat/

 

"And you will give up your guns!"

[dream big]

1 hour ago, GrndPndr said:

"And you will give up your guns!"

Let’s not pretend that that’s not a desired end state for many powerful democrats sitting in congress right now.  Marxism 101, take the guns first. 
 

Will it happen? No, thankfully thanks to checks and balances but it’s very concerning when you look at the strategy of some of these folks and the line between that and historical Marxism is very blurred. 

[GrndPndr]

Apologies for just throwing this up here, but it does refer to some interesting things.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, GrndPndr said:

"And you will give up your guns!"

Of course how could I have forgotten that! Guns are violent and violence is bad and that is why only the State should have guns because the State is good.

Yes I took my 15th Pfizer booster because General Shekelburg told me to, how could you tell?

[Alpharatz]

1 hour ago, dogfish78 said:

Of course how could I have forgotten that! Guns are violent and violence is bad and that is why only the State should have guns because the State is good.

Yes I took my 15th Pfizer booster because General Shekelburg told me to, how could you tell?

I sometimes wonder how many gun toting types have ever been in a situation to realize how little comfort carrying a gun gives you (or at least me)..That's why I have stopped recommending Horse dewormer and suggested using Pig tranquilizer..it works just as well for the bug (not at all)  AND cools off any idea of invading the Capitol..or shooting someone..

[kaputt]

15 hours ago, VMFA187 said:

Question for anyone who voted for the current administration - Are you happy with the current state of our nation? If so, what makes you feel that way?

I think you’ll be waiting awhile for an answer to this. 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, dream big said:

Let’s not pretend that that’s not a desired end state for many powerful democrats sitting in congress right now.  Marxism 101, take the guns first. 
 

Will it happen? No, thankfully thanks to checks and balances but it’s very concerning when you look at the strategy of some of these folks and the line between that and historical Marxism is very blurred. 

It gets even more blurry for many people when you tell them that most Republicans are diet-Democrats and equally want to take the citizenry's firearms too. 

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, Alpharatz said:

I sometimes wonder how many gun toting types have ever been in a situation to realize how little comfort carrying a gun gives you (or at least me)

No disrespect to you, but I, and millions of other citizens feel immense comfort carrying a firearm wherever I go. If you've ever been in a fight, you'll know there are no rules and no one is going to fight fair. This isn't a referreed martial arts match. It's life or death/serious physical injury.

Ever wonder what the police's response time is in the city/suburban area? Sometimes a few minutes if there's a unit available a few blocks away and they can locate you easily IF you're a priority call IF you can even make the 911 call. But many times, they're blacked out and no one is coming to save you until those units are clear from other priority calls. So what do you do? Be victimized?

Every wonder what the police's response time is in a rural area? Average in my area is probably 15 minutes minimum. Sometimes the unit is completely across the other side of the 700+ square mile county and an emergency response is 45 minutes, because there's only one or two units working. Again what do you do, be victimized?

All this is predicated on the scenario that your potential assailant doesn't just gut your intestines out from you/blast your brains out in seconds because they want your vehicle or because they think you're a space lizard. Even if police could always respond anywhere in the nation in under 30 seconds, it still won't save you from an assailant who wants to hurt or kill your NOW.

Maybe you've never been a victim or witness to a violent crime. I have, and many others have too. That might be the wake up call to you if you don't learn from the wisdom of those who carry to protect themselves and others. I suggest you watch some videos online of how quick everyday encounters can turn deadly. Remember, not everyone out there is a sane good meaning person. There are legitimate psychos out there and also many that are drunk, drugged, or deranged and every single day you share society with them.

[Lowspeedhidrag]

On 9/27/2021 at 8:12 PM, VMFA187 said:

Question for anyone who voted for the current administration - Are you happy with the current state of our nation? If so, what makes you feel that way?

At least there are no mean tweets! 

Trump was an immoral option! 

Diversity is our strength....

#sarcasm.....

 

Edited September 29, 2021 by Lowspeedhidrag
Auto correct

[lloyd christmas]

On 9/28/2021 at 7:20 AM, dream big said:

Let’s not pretend that that’s not a desired end state for many powerful democrats sitting in congress right now.  Marxism 101, take the guns first. 
 

Will it happen? No, thankfully thanks to checks and balances but it’s very concerning when you look at the strategy of some of these folks and the line between that and historical Marxism is very blurred. 

I can remember a time when I held a very firm belief that our government wouldn’t actually make a run on our right to own guns.  This was largely due to the fact that I didn’t think there were enough members of our military or police force that would salute smartly and do the work necessary to remove guns from law abiding citizens.  I’m clearly wrong.  Hell, I’m convinced that there are folks on these very threads that would gladly get behind gun confiscation efforts.   

[GrndPndr]

6 minutes ago, lloyd christmas said:

I can remember a time when I held a very firm belief that our government wouldn’t actually make a run on our right to own guns.  This was largely due to the fact that I didn’t think there were enough members of our military or police force that would salute smartly and do the work necessary to remove guns from law abiding citizens.  I’m clearly wrong.  Hell, I’m convinced that there are folks on these very threads that would gladly get behind gun confiscation efforts.   

You may well be right.

Can you imagine the logistics involved in removing all of the legal firearms in the US (Illegal firearms won't be removed)?  I mean going door to door, and searching every nook and cranny in every house apartment and business in the nation - wow.  I think they'll use more insidious methods to start out with, however, including bribes, extortion and the IRS.  

Apologies for slipping into conspiracy land for a moment, but that would be a huge effort, eh?

 

[Negatory]

On 9/27/2021 at 6:12 PM, VMFA187 said:

 

Question for anyone who voted for the current administration - Are you happy with the current state of our nation? If so, what makes you feel that way?

 

I know that this is intentional bait, but I’ll respond.

Almost everyone on this forum didn’t vote for Biden, per say. They voted against Trump. I bet many would do it again. I think that’s the crux of the issue.

In almost no ways do I think we’d be in a better spot as a nation with Trump at the reigns. I agree with your assessment of many of this admin’s errors. It sucks. But do I think it’d be better with Trump? Fuck no. The Trump admin did more to dismantle the credibility of our democracy and give credence to blatant conspiracy theorists and bigots than anyone in recent history. I can think of very few Trump policies domestically, internationally, economically, or militarily that I really wish Biden would implement.

Is the economy worse now? No, but it’s not better. We’re fucked and have been ever since Obama era Fed reserves pumped $4T into the stock market. Trumps economic policies pumped $3T in in 12 months. Turns out blue and red are both idiots here who will play fiscal conservative when it’s convenient but still do the same thing.

Is the military worse now? It’s good we actually left Afghanistan. How we did it was stupid, but it took some balls to just pull the cord and leave. Withdrawals are messy. But we are going to benefit from that, I think. I have no idea if Trump would have followed through. Are we going to modernize to be relevant on the world stage? No, doubt it. Probably would do better with Trump here, but we could have an argument on whether or not it’s even possible. Tell me if you think a war in the Taiwan straits is actually winnable from not just a military perspective, but a geopolitical one.

Are we doing better with COVID? Maybe. Current admin definitely has a more coherent messaging schema and plan. I do believe that vaccines were created and pushed more under Biden than they would have been under Trump, which contributed to higher rates. Delta would have hit regardless, and I’m sure Trump would have been peddling pseudo science, still. Sucks the vaccine doesn’t work nearly as well as we hoped, not really a clear path forward here.

From an economic inequality perspective, I have an admin that isn’t literally run by a sociopathic billionaire. The fact that they are talking about finding ways to close loopholes that allow the mega rich to have a lower effective tax rate than a teacher is the right answer. If that involves taxing unrealized gains above a certain threshold, then do it. I wholly believe that Reagan era economic principles of just giving rich people all the money, which is what Trump selfishly pushed, are part of the moral decline of our country that basically started right after the Reagan admin.

Are we socially better off? This is the big win. But it’s all only temporary. Putting hateful folks in their place by showing them more than half the country disagree has been nice. I know you guys largely don’t fall into that group, but the idiots that were empowered during the Trump admin to say racist, authoritarian bullshit really helped the unraveling of America.

Our our allegiances across the world in a better spot? Yeah, I think so. Public perception of America has shifted an order of magnitude in our favor. And I believe we will not be a superpower by our own choosing, as we were between 1990-2020, anymore. We live and die based on our alliances and diplomacy as China expands.

Is the future brighter? I mean, maybe more so than the Trump admin, but the future is pretty god damn dim. Global warming, climate refugees, and water wars are actually going to be catastrophic events in the next century. The Trump admin chose to actively dismantle any efforts to think about that, so that we could compete with China. Not an effective strategy. I appreciate having a 10-20 year plan on how to tackle a problem, as opposed to the Trump admins easy button of “well deal with that later, we have to use coal to beat China,” when we’ll never actually “beat” China.

Moral of the story is from a I-voted-against-Trump standpoint I’m happy he’s not there in basically all areas other than military modernization. I would not say I’m happy I got Biden. But it’s the lesser of two evils in this dumbass iteration of a democratic republic that is really just a nicely wrapped 2 party system. Implement ranked choice voting and expand past the biggest issue with our country: 2 party politics. I don’t want Biden. I don’t want Trump. I don’t think anyone is “happy.”

[guineapigfury]

I would take any major party candidate from any election that I can remember over any of the three candidates we've had to pick from the last two cycles.  For reference, I'm old enough to remember Dukakis in the tank.

[VMFA187]

4 hours ago, lloyd christmas said:

I can remember a time when I held a very firm belief that our government wouldn’t actually make a run on our right to own guns.  This was largely due to the fact that I didn’t think there were enough members of our military or police force that would salute smartly and do the work necessary to remove guns from law abiding citizens.  I’m clearly wrong.  Hell, I’m convinced that there are folks on these very threads that would gladly get behind gun confiscation efforts.   

Does his/her/its name rhyme with lawnman?

[lloyd christmas]

7 hours ago, Negatory said:

I know that this is intentional bait, but I’ll respond.

against Trump

with Trump at the reigns, with Trump, The Trump admin, Trump policies 

Trumps economic policies

if Trump would, with Trump here 

under Trump, I’m sure Trump

run by a sociopathic billionaire, mega rich, Trump selfishly

empowered during the Trump admin to say racist, authoritarian bullshit

the Trump admin, The Trump admin, Trump admins easy button

I-voted-against-Trump, I don’t want Trump 

This shit has gotten really really old.  He’s not the president anymore.  

[pawnman]

4 hours ago, VMFA187 said:

Does his/her/its name rhyme with lawnman?

Go ahead and find a part where I advocate for more gun control. 

Just because I disagree with you about military vaccination mandates doesn't mean I'm diametrically opposed to every opinion you have.