If Trump is 239 pounds, I have a 12 inch button.
If Trump is 239 pounds, I have a 12 inch button.
There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford
My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.
"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
Two things to note:
Given the overwhelming barrage of lies from all levels of the administration, it's hard to take adulatory health assessments from underlings seriously. I suspect that Trump is in poor overall health even for his age, but not (inasmuch as can be assessed) in immediate danger of dropping dead. The president's work schedule in this administration is not overly burdensome, and the content of his efforts uncongenial to me, so this is fine.
A proper assessment of mental and cognitive health would require a long period of observation, and sustained cooperation from Trump; it's not going to happen. I've felt this question doesn't actually matter beyond giving Republicans some pretense to remove the President (and there's no shortage there). A clinical diagnosis would make Trump's conduct neither more nor less acceptable, therefore it's superfluous. Maybe he's senile, maybe he's congenitally... alow-grade imbecile"fucking moron"... Knowing the case wouldn't and shouldn't change our perceptions of him, or calculations as to his removal. (I.e., he should be removed.)
Vitiate Man.
History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies, the same defeats
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Also: ain't nothing wrong with McD and a Diet Coke. I think they've actually improved the flavor and quality over the past two decades. It's Trump's fear of contamination (clinical or otherwise) leading to a restricted diet that seems off-putting and unhealthy.
Vitiate Man.
History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies, the same defeats
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
"Genetics"? This is the same garbage argument that incels use to describe why they can't get anywhere in life. If your body is capable of processing junk in such a manner, it's genetics in that you are simply not human.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ8EAwRauoM&t=511s
Requesting suggestions for new sig.
-><- GOGOGO GOGOGO WINLAND WINLAND ALL HAIL TECHNOVIKING!SCHUMACHER!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
LOL. I always wondered why it bothered candidate Trump so much that Obama went golfing a fair bit. Since he opposed virtually EVERY Obama initiative, wouldn't you WANT him taking as many days off as possible? It's like the old borscht-belt joke about the two women complaining about a lunch café. The first says "the food was horrible." The second says, "I agree, and the portions were small."
"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
The "bloody nose" option in N. Korea.
This has been touted as a demonstration of American will to engage with N. Korea! Leaving no doubt...blah blah blah!
Chances are it would end badly, for all concerned:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/st...ategist-216306
Quick fact, N.Korea is so small that if it believes war has been declared, it has no option but to go (without delay) to an illustration of cost.
The article suggests a limited strike at Hawaii, Guam, Japan and S. Korean assets as a first round; this could easily end up in an all out exchange.
Yes, N. Korea would likely cease to exist, and S. Korea and a random selection of US cities. Yay?
Just a bluff you say?
A bluff needs to be credible; this is not a credible action.
Ja-mata TosaInu
Trump has had a very cushy life, and continues to do so. Not smoking / drinking has helped. If he's kept his blood pressure under control, small vessel dementia is not likely and other forms are more genetic.
So, his diet and indolence probably mean he's at risk of macrovascular disease (and for the good of the world may he have a stroke / heart attack sharpish) but what he does is if anything Psychological pathology which is always a grey area - when does a lazy self-obsessed liar, braggart and cheat become mentally ill?
An enemy that wishes to die for their country is the best sort to face - you both have the same aim in mind.
Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings.
"If you can't trust the local kleptocrat whom you installed by force and prop up with billions of annual dollars, who can you trust?" Lemur
If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter. Winston Churchill
The fascination with the stock market is the worst combination of horse race coverage and statistics. Does nothing for the majority of working folk but they are tricked into believing it is a real measure of the economy.
There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford
My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/o...ol-left-region
Tangentially related, but people see what they want to see I guess.
There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford
My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.
(Emphasis mine)Donald Trump has succeeded where Barack Obama failed. The economy is up, foreign tyrants are afraid, ISIS has lost most of its territory, our embassy will be moved to Jerusalem and tax reform is accomplished. More than that, Mr. Trump is learning, adapting and getting savvier every day. Entitlement reform is next! Lastly, the entrenched interests in Washington, which have done nothing but glad-hand one another, and both political parties are angry and afraid.
Who knew that all it would take to make progress was vision, chutzpah and some testosterone?
STEVEN SANABRIA
OAKDALE, CALIF.
That's top-down class warfare at its finest!
"Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu
A huge chunk of folks are invested in the market, though most are using funds of one sort or another (safer, since picking single stocks IS as tough as handicapping horses).
At best, the market's value at a given time represents what significant portion of professional investors feel will be the value/health of the economy 3-6 month from now. And that guestimate of the future is just that -- an educated guess. If I were to attempt to publish a study that used that reliability level of data to suggest conclusions, I MIGHT be told to redo the measurement and statistical treatments and try again. More likely it would just be rejected.
Stock markets are not a roulette table, but there is a good deal of randomness in them nevertheless.
"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
Last edited by CrossLOPER; 01-19-2018 at 01:59.
Requesting suggestions for new sig.
-><- GOGOGO GOGOGO WINLAND WINLAND ALL HAIL TECHNOVIKING!SCHUMACHER!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Well to his credit Trump thankfully didn't change our engagement in Iraq which continued Obama's slow defeat of ISIS via providing SOF and enablers to the Iraqi Army and the Kurdish Peshmerga. I'm definitely in the camp of people unhappy with the slow Obama approach to ISIS and personally feel more sooner would have been much more appropriate but so long as they are defeated in the end I'm content. The moment Mosul fell we should have been there in a big way to steady the Iraqi government and defeat ISIS instead of letting it drag out for nearly half a decade.
Upon his election I was worried that he'd pull us out of there and Afghanistan as part of his isolationist stance.
Same for the stock market I guess. It's really just a continuation of Obama's policies. The recent tax bill is the only thing that may have an effect that's been done that wasn't just a continuation of present policy. The norm for all Presidents is to claim everything that happens as their personal doing such as his taking personal ownership for the USS Gerald Ford as part of his strengthening the US Military when it was all planned and built under the previous president.
"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
-Abraham Lincoln
Four stage strategy from Yes, Minister:
Stage one we say nothing is going to happen.
Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
Stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.
Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.
Again, Trump IS affecting it because the stock market is (if anything) a leading indicator, unlike economic growth reports, which lag. The Street is happy with Trump because they see an era where very little regulation will be added or changed and where some regulation may well be removed. This make Financial game players happy, so they invest I what they see as a brighter future and the market goes up.
"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
As noted in the Syria thread, if IS retreats into endemic guerrilla activity in West Asia while hundreds of its most skilled fighters, leaders, and technicians disperse around the world to join regional groups - it's not really a victory. Ultimately the Obama policy was less a principle of rebalancing than of minimizing direct liability, and that's probably the plurality consensus among the political and military leadership to this day. Decisive military campaigns won't accomplish much (outside perhaps the nakedly-destructive "raid" model of constantly repeating Afghanistan 2001 in trouble areas, then pulling out immediately), but long-term political and diplomatic strategies are too complicated, hard to devise and to propound, require concomitant comprehensive changes in other areas of strategy and policy: path of least resistance it is then.
I never knew much about Al Franken, the senator resigning over photo-groping allegations, but I like this story about him and Paul Wolfowitz:
At last weekend's White House Correspondents' Dinner, one gossip column reports, liberal comedian Al Franken went up to Paul Wolfowitz, the neoconservative deputy defense secretary and said, "Clinton's military did pretty well in Iraq, huh?" Wolfowitz responded by proposing that Franken perform an anatomically impossible act.
Vitiate Man.
History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies, the same defeats
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
It means it has retreated into just another terrorist organization as it was before it took Raqqa and Mosul. At least they are no longer able to capture towns and cities and enslave thousands of women and children while summarily executing their opposition enmasse. Yes, if given the space and time they could always pose another threat to the region but right now they are a force that is no longer able to be a banner of victory for the extreme islamists that flocked to the middle east to wage war or were inspired to conduct terrorism in their home country. Yes, terrorism will still occur but sadly that's just part of the new normal of our times.if IS retreats into endemic guerrilla activity in West Asia while hundreds of its most skilled fighters, leaders, and technicians disperse around the world to join regional groups - it's not really a victory.
Correct if it's just a campaign on its own. In the middle east there is no military solution to create peace but there's also no peace without some sort of military component. The current Iraq model of letting US firepower hammer ISIS while the Iraqis can shed blood clearing streets and buildings works to our strength at the least and is politically sustainable for us and the host nation. A "great raid" approach against ISIS could probably have been done sooner though with a more significant military footprint but not necessarily one so large that we're re-establishing semi-permanent bases again.Decisive military campaigns won't accomplish much
I do understand that but I would not credit Trump with that too much. FYI I too have been personally benefiting from this booming stock market and happy about it.Again, Trump IS affecting it because the stock market is (if anything) a leading indicator, unlike economic growth reports, which lag. The Street is happy with Trump because they see an era where very little regulation will be added or changed and where some regulation may well be removed. This make Financial game players happy, so they invest I what they see as a brighter future and the market goes up.
His protectionist personal stance is at odds with the free market policies of the Republicans. If were to actually undo NAFTA, be tough on China via tariffs, and punish companies that outsource labor the market would react quite poorly. He has been thankfully hamstrung by Ryan and McConnell from doing these things and the economy is running along in a business as usual approach just as it did before Trump.
The Tax bill which has many things I like and hate in it is a product of anything but what Trump was speaking about during his populist campaign rallies. Trump at the very least though has learned to listen to his betters on the economy which is far more complicated than his real-estate business ever was.
Last edited by spmetla; 01-19-2018 at 05:13.
"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
-Abraham Lincoln
Four stage strategy from Yes, Minister:
Stage one we say nothing is going to happen.
Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
Stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.
Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.
edit: nevermind
Last edited by Kralizec; 01-19-2018 at 15:56.
My condolences to all the park rangers out there who now have to put up those signs that say "please stop walking in this part of the country".
Run liberals in Republican primaries, run socialists in Democratic primaries.
Vitiate Man.
History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies, the same defeats
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
Extraordinary Implication:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Last edited by Montmorency; 10-30-2018 at 21:12. Reason: Image fix
Vitiate Man.
History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies, the same defeats
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Requesting suggestions for new sig.
-><- GOGOGO GOGOGO WINLAND WINLAND ALL HAIL TECHNOVIKING!SCHUMACHER!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Trump... Trump is apparently going to... apologise! I fear more than ever for his health... Link
He does plead ignorance that he had no idea about the group he was re-tweeting which certainly is plausible.
An enemy that wishes to die for their country is the best sort to face - you both have the same aim in mind.
Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings.
"If you can't trust the local kleptocrat whom you installed by force and prop up with billions of annual dollars, who can you trust?" Lemur
If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter. Winston Churchill
Bookmarks