US Politics Mega-thread - Page 4335

On July 20 2016 06:23 Simberto wrote:


And the most weird think about Trump, the fact that he seems to give no fucks at all. He lies, people show evidence that he lies, and instead of apologizing, changing the topic, giving some explanation, or any other sensible reaction to that situation, he just keeps on repeating the original lie without even acknowledging that there ever was any evidence that it is complete nonsense.

I find this behaviour to be very weird. I have no explanation as to why it seems to be working. It does not sound like a reasonable strategy.

On July 20 2016 06:26 TheTenthDoc wrote:


Many of the people that support him believe he cannot be wrong because him being wrong.

On July 20 2016 06:27 OuchyDathurts wrote:


Because its all free publicity from top to bottom. It is the sole reason he's save hundreds of millions of dollars running his campaign. His presidential bid being a three ring circus means he's been able to get this far with just a $20 bill he found in his helicopter seat cushion.

Every channel wall to wall for the last year has been "DID YOU SEE WHAT THIS RETARD SAID?!". Every day, every channel for a year has blasted their spotlight on him for zero dollars.

On July 20 2016 06:25 Gorsameth wrote:

He means the veteran charity fundraider done instead of going to the last debate
(I think)

On July 20 2016 06:06 ragz_gt wrote:


Man, I want to get paid 40mil to be fired...

On July 20 2016 06:28 GGTeMpLaR wrote:
When you go into a movie hearing from everyone how shitty it is and that it's the worst movie of all time, you're going to lower your expectations so even if it isn't a great movie, you might walk out saying 'you know it isn't as bad as people said it was, it was okay'. Certainly better than some other shitty movies I've seen.'

On July 20 2016 06:42 TheYango wrote:

What if the movie is the director talking for 2 hours about how great it is?

Dear Steve King: Here's What Asia Contributed to Western Civilization
Rep. Steve King’s ahistorical commentary cannot go uncorrected.

By Akhilesh Pillalamarri
July 20, 2016

The Diplomat mainly focuses on the Asia-Pacific, the world’s most dynamic and strategically and economically important region. Moreover, Asia, as well as the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas have featured some the most culturally, philosophically, and scientifically sophisticated civilizations that humanity has ever produced.

So, given this, the comments of U.S. Republican Representative Steve King of Iowa regarding the civilizations of the world are a cause of great trepidation and sorrow. Referring to non-white people, King asked: “I’d ask you to go back through history and figure out, where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you’re talking about — where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?”

He added his view that the greatest contributions to civilization came from “Western civilization itself…rooted in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the Unites States of America and every place where the footprint of Christianity settled the world. That’s all of Western civilization.”

What’s discouraging about King’s statements are that they resemble an increasingly common viewpoint in the discourse among the right and nationalists in the Western world and among the rank and file of the Republican Party in the United States. It is a discourse that does not match up with the facts about the historical development of civilizations.

Modern Western civilization, after all, is a relatively recent phenomenon that arose through the fusion of Roman and Christian ideas in Europe during the Medieval Era. Other civilizations preceded, influenced, and coexisted with the West.

At the same time it is important to clarify that the opposite perspective on Western civilization–that it contributed nothing of worth to the world except imperialism and exploitation, and was a mechanism to ensure the privilege of a few white males–embraced by many on the hard-left and among progressives is utterly wrong.

It would be as fallacious for one not to not be proud of the achievements of his or her own civilization as it would be to be to think that other civilizations contributed nothing to civilization. Certainly, for most of the past half-millennium, the West has been overwhelmingly dominant, in what has been termed the “Great Divergence.”

The Scientific Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and the Enlightenment are among the unique contributions of the West–driven by unique institutional and historical factors–that enabled the scientific, medical, and political developments that have made world a better and more prosperous place than ever before. By the turn of the 20th century, virtually everyone in the non-West from the Japanese to the Ottomans was attempting to “catch up” with the West in the military, political, and economic spheres.

But we cannot and should not deny the achievements of other civilizations, both due to their own merits, and because of the contributions that enabled the modern, global civilization to come into being. And of course, in the sphere of music and the arts, it would be impossible to argue that non-Western civilizations were ever anything other than the equal of the West, as “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

Civilization itself arose in the ancient Middle East. The desert biome of that region forced tribes to come together and cooperate in order to produce the irrigation systems necessary to produce enough food for everyone. This led to an increase in the complexity of social and political systems in order to induce cooperation.

Thus, in addition to the domestication of crops and animals, the first weights and measures, the first bureaucracies, organized government and religion, writing, and the wheel all arose in the ancient Middle East. In later times, that region, which became a part of Islamic civilization, gave the world algebra, distillation, and advanced astronomy and navigation, which Europeans used to sail all over the world.

India gave the world its numeric system, including the number zero, plastic surgery, steel production, and urban planning with sewage systems. And among China’s many contributions are paper, printing, gunpowder, the compass, and clocks. This is not to mention the various other crops domesticated, production techniques, and technical achievements of various other non-Western peoples.

Western civilization, and indeed the modern global civilization built largely by the West, would have been impossible without the contributions to civilization from the people of the rest of the world. This is not to disparage the achievements of the West; nor should we ignore the historical failings of other civilizations. But we ought to remember and celebrate the contributions to civilization from all the peoples of the world.

Today, as the era of Western domination draws to a close and as other nations have borrowed much of the best from the West, we should expect to see many more contributions to civilization from outside the West, and from among non-White or non-Christian people in the West itself.

On July 20 2016 06:47 GGTeMpLaR wrote:


Every director/actor/producer promotes their movie in a positive light because they have a direct stake in it's success so it's meaningless.

When a movie gets hated on by top critics across the board with a 15% on Rotten Tomatoes are you going to go into the movie thinking 'wow this is gonna be great I have such high expectations!' because the director said so?

7 months ago I couldn't give a shit that Trump said he was great - everything I heard about him from the media said he was a lunatic crazy hitler that would ruin the country if elected, but stood no chance of getting elected.

That's what I based my expectations on and when I finally started digging into campaign news in January/February/March during the heat of the primaries, I came around to consider him the 'lesser of all evils' in the race.

Guess that makes me an uneducated idiot and a horrible person -shrug-

On July 20 2016 03:41 xDaunt wrote:

Yeah, and that's the other thing. The overall message that Melania gave was very different from Michelle Obama's.

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) -
Hundreds of protesters and police took over Public Square in downtown Tuesday afternoon. Some of the larger groups began dispersing just after 5 p.m., but about 10-20 new protesters just arrived with masks on. Heavy law enforcement presence remained.

Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams was on hand most of the afternoon to try and keep groups calm.

It's the largest gathering of protest groups and the largest gathering of police since the beginning of the Republican National Convention.

Activists from Black Lives Matter, Westboro Baptist Church and the KKK were in the square and were said to be throwing urine at each other.

Police were trying to draw a line and keep the groups separated. A police spokeswoman said that emotions were high, but not too many fights broke out.

Several groups started showing up at Public Square throughout the afternoon. Different groups seem to come and go to the square.

The smaller groups Tuesday included a Tamir Rice group, a man carrying an AR-15, a man with a sign saying "Jesus Vapes," a woman doing yoga with a pro-police and anti-bullying sign and another person asking folks to tell their best Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump joke. The West Ohio Minutemen are there, too, they call themselves a constitutional militia group.

On July 20 2016 06:36 OuchyDathurts wrote:
Christ, Dana White, really?

Activists from Black Lives Matter, Westboro Baptist Church and the KKK were in the square and were said to be throwing urine at each other.

On July 20 2016 07:06 CorsairHero wrote:

He turned a 2 million dollar purchase into a 4 billion dollar sale last week.

On July 20 2016 06:59 PassiveAce wrote:
He actually got the manager of trump winery a speaking slot.

Presumably he will attest to the quality of trump wine? Not sure what else he could be there to talk about.