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On February 13 2017 16:45 Karis Vas Ryaar wrote: Brown asking for FEMA assistance for flooding and mudslides in Northern California. Up to 188k people evacuated.
also Oroville dam made it to BBC. still below NK missile test though.
must refrain from joke about state of Jefferson and northern California wanting small government.
hopefully we don't have a full dam collapse or things could get ugly.
I suspect the US will need a new target for their bombs once Yemen has been flattened and the shaky coalition to take out ISIS in Syria is dissolved. I'm sure some excuses can be made to justify the bombs, maybe something along the lines of nuclear weapons or missile tests being repeated endlessly on western media. A couple of anonymous CIA leaks here, a couple of anonymous CIA leaks there... Shouldn't take more than two years to get there, right?
you do realize the cia is absolutely behind the iran deal and our confidence in intel is the backbone of enforcing that deal?
it's fun to bash on the nsa etc when you've got this bum snowden as the face of your little movement but newsflash, it is now 2017, trump is president and the intelligence community including the abilities of the NSA is an important (and shall we say, last) safeguard against full meltdown
On February 13 2017 18:04 Biff The Understudy wrote: I know some of you don't like Oliver but he is making some really frightening points today. The segment about Trump retweeting badly digested Fox News bs ten minutes after it aired or praising Infowars are quite terrifying.
America, what hast thou done?
Link doesn't work, but i watched it elsewhere. The ignorance and ego of Trump is outstanding. I actually didn't even realize it was that bad.
On February 13 2017 18:04 Biff The Understudy wrote: I know some of you don't like Oliver but he is making some really frightening points today. The segment about Trump retweeting badly digested Fox News bs ten minutes after it aired or praising Infowars are quite terrifying.
I swear, I should set up shop as someone who conducts "here's why Trump's election isn't surprising" tours. Y'all come and spend a week or two here in Central Michigan and you'll begin to see why "half the country" can be convinced of practically anything
On February 13 2017 22:20 farvacola wrote: I swear, I should set up shop as someone who conducts "here's why Trump's election isn't surprising" tours. Y'all come and spend a week or two here in Central Michigan and you'll begin to see why "half the country" can be convinced of practically anything
I travelled in rural Indiana, and i have had my share of american insanity for a lifetime. But half the fucking country?!
The US has been divided along close to 50/50 lines regarding important topics for much of its history, that we're seeing a bit more of that nowadays isn't all that surprising.
Also that segment about handshakes is really disturbing. He systematically tries to pull the other person off balance.
I think Trump is a man who lives in a 0 sum world. You must win and winning means crushing the other guy. The idea that cooperation, soludarity, compassion or mutual trust might be productive seem completely out of his universe.
On February 13 2017 21:02 oneofthem wrote: you do realize the cia is absolutely behind the iran deal and our confidence in intel is the backbone of enforcing that deal?
it's fun to bash on the nsa etc when you've got this bum snowden as the face of your little movement but newsflash, it is now 2017, trump is president and the intelligence community including the abilities of the NSA is an important (and shall we say, last) safeguard against full meltdown
As member of Congress, now-CIA chief Mike Pompeo had also advocated bombing Iran's military facilities, calling Iranian officials "serial nuclear cheaters".
"[Mattis] warned that the Iranian regime "is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace". He recalled that as commander of US troops in the Middle East, the first three questions he would ask his subordinates every morning "had to do with Iran and Iran and Iran."
"We only pray, the rest of us outside this town, that someone good is listening here," [Mattis] told the Washington crowd, as he issued an ominous prediction: "The future is going to be ghastly", and that "the next president is going to inherit a mess".
Flynn also insisted in his Head to Head interview with Al Jazeera's Mehdi Hasan, that Iran is "intent on having a nuclear weapon", despite proof to the contrary from Iran experts.
Trump seems to have a large collection of anti-Iran people surrounding him. From Pompeo to Mattis, Flynn and Bannon. Every last one of them. It's not at all inconceivable to me that they will be spinning what I said above.
On February 13 2017 22:28 farvacola wrote: The US has been divided along close to 50/50 lines regarding important topics for much of its history, that we're seeing a bit more of that nowadays isn't all that surprising.
Fine. Electing Bush or Reagan was imo a very very very bad idea, but it's nowhere near the level of insanity required to put a guy who don't understand the concept of truth and is systematically behaving like, and by all standards, a huge douchebag to the white house.
And don't say it's Hillary or whoever else's fault. If you cast your ballot for a guy that demonstratingly lies absolutely all the time, you are doing something very wrong.
I don't find the culpability game following an election result very interesting, though the gymnastics folks go through in order to blame the voting decisions on anyone but the person who issued the vote have been fascinating to see unfold.
Believe me, I'm the last person to disagree with the notion that the US is really fucked up nowadays, only I must insist that you acknowledge how fucked we've been throughout our history.
On February 13 2017 22:28 farvacola wrote: The US has been divided along close to 50/50 lines regarding important topics for much of its history, that we're seeing a bit more of that nowadays isn't all that surprising.
Fine. Electing Bush or Reagan was imo a very very very bad idea, but it's nowhere near the level of insanity required to put a guy who don't understand the concept of truth and is systematically behaving like, and by all standards, a huge douchebag to the white house.
And don't say it's Hillary or whoever else's fault. If you cast your ballot for a guy that demonstratingly lies absolutely all the time, you are doing something very wrong.
Ultimately, it is the fault of the people who voted for Trump - whether they were conned into it or not. Nobody else holds responsibility regarding this. Those who voted for him in the primary, and those who voted for him in the general election.
On February 13 2017 22:38 farvacola wrote: I don't find the culpability game following an election result very interesting, though the gymnastics folks go through in order to blame the voting decisions on anyone but the person who issued the vote have been fascinating to see unfold.
Believe me, I'm the last person to disagree with the notion that the US is really fucked up nowadays, only I must insist that you acknowledge how fucked we've been throughout our history.
I politely disagree with that.
In France it's s great national sport to find sociological reasons for the FN vote, and it's never, ever the fault of people who vote for Le Pen. It's always the elite, globalization, expression of a just anger bla bla. You should never, ever, ever say that Le Pen voters are you know, mean, hateful people.
Le Pen is a huge fascist. If you vote for a huge fascist, whatever the circumstances, you are doing something horrendous, and it's shameful. And i think it should be said. Nobody should excuse you or find you reasons.
Oh i know. People want to "blow up the system". Well. You know who else does the worst as a form of protest? Terrorists.
I don't think we disagree lol, I get into arguments with folks all the time as to how the Constitution is an inherently racist document, and I've been arguing in favor of "call a spade a spade" on these boards for some time now
On February 13 2017 22:58 farvacola wrote: I don't think we disagree lol, I get into arguments with folks all the time as to how the Constitution is an inherently racist document, and I've been arguing in favor of "call a spade a spade" on these boards for some time now
This sounds like fun. But what if it looks like a spade, and quacks like a spade, but insists it is actually a bicycle when you talk to it, and furthermore insists that it is insulting to call it a spade, and calling perfectly innocent bicycles spades just because they look and quack like them, is precisely the reason why we can't have useful discussions on the topic, and people vote for Trump in frustration, because he finally gives voice to all these frustrated bicycles.
The problem comes with moral progression and relativity throughout history. The founding fathers didn't think black people or native americans were people. Not even beginning on the hypocrisy of "all men are created equal" without women or even not reasonably rich people for the age being able to vote. Or even before andrew Jackson the only people that it was okay to run for president.
But you have to forgive them of these things beacuse it wasn't what the morals of the age were. If we're ever going to get better we have to admit we're capable of getting somewhere.
Btw, I remember when i was a kid, that voting Le Pen was an extremely shameful thing to do in most people's mind. It basically made you a bad person.
Then appeared the idea that you really shouldn't say bad things about Le Pen voters and now it's totally ok to support fascism. Surprise, Le Pen is also at 25%.
This PC crap about not simply calling a FN voter a fascist is a strategic mistake imo.
On February 13 2017 23:12 Biff The Understudy wrote: Btw, I remember when i was a kid, that voting Le Pen was an extremely shameful thing to do in most people's mind. It basically made you a bad person.
Then appeared the idea that you really shouldn't say bad things about Le Pen voters and now it's totally ok to support fascism. Surprise, Le Pen is also at 25%.
This PC crap about not simply calling a FN voter a fascist is a strategic mistake imo.
If you think that 20-25% of the French population is fascist you're simply deluded... but we should take this conversation to the European thread.
On February 13 2017 23:12 Biff The Understudy wrote: Btw, I remember when i was a kid, that voting Le Pen was an extremely shameful thing to do in most people's mind. It basically made you a bad person.
Then appeared the idea that you really shouldn't say bad things about Le Pen voters and now it's totally ok to support fascism. Surprise, Le Pen is also at 25%.
This PC crap about not simply calling a FN voter a fascist is a strategic mistake imo.
The so-called paradox of freedom is the argument that freedom in the sense of absence of any constraining control must lead to very great restraint, since it makes the bully free to enslave the meek. The idea is, in a slightly different form, and with very different tendency, clearly expressed in Plato.
Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. — In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.
EPT
