After this's all over, I hope the U.S. gov't bills Trump for the damage he's done to our reputation

[dubkitty]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4KiQ6_FMoY[/youtube]

[Kacey Y]

I think it's hilarious that people treat all the Russian "trolling" stuff like "who cares? Also, what do they have to gain by that?". Ummm...have you ever paid attention to Russia in the past decade (or 50 years even)? We're a major competitor and opponent for them in A LOT of areas. Politically in the UN, weapons supplying, energy, financially in world markets, business wise here and there. Their primary strategy in EVERYTHING is to just fuck up, confuse and internally undermine opponents and even some allies, politically, economically, even culturally. They're trying to be an empire again and stay a major world player and their attitude is pretty much anyone that isn't directly benefiting them is open game to be mercilessly fucked with. Even to the point where they'll admit they did something crazy, but then deny something EVERYONE SAW THEM DO. Like how they claim they had no military aggression towards Ukraine, even though they massed troops and tanks at the border, fired and actively invaded in several incursions and then said on state media that they were just running routine drills and all the pro Russian factions within the country (and government) just independently loved Russia and wanted to come back (and give them all their land, oil and money again). Their entire modern foreign policy MO is constant psy-op style confusion, it also happens to be their primary domestic policy strategy too.

[Blackened Soul]

I think it's hilarious that people treat all the Russian "trolling" stuff like "who cares? Also, what do they have to gain by that?". Ummm...have you ever paid attention to Russia in the past decade (or 50 years even)? We're a major competitor and opponent for them in A LOT of areas. Politically in the UN, weapons supplying, energy, financially in world markets, business wise here and there. Their primary strategy in EVERYTHING is to just fuck up, confuse and internally undermine opponents and even some allies, politically, economically, even culturally. They're trying to be an empire again and stay a major world player and their attitude is pretty much anyone that isn't directly benefiting them is open game to be mercilessly fucked with. Even to the point where they'll admit they did something crazy, but then deny something EVERYONE SAW THEM DO. Like how they claim they had no military aggression towards Ukraine, even though they massed troops and tanks at the border, fired and actively invaded in several incursions and then said on state media that they were just running routine drills and all the pro Russian factions within the country (and government) just independently loved Russia and wanted to come back (and give them all their land, oil and money again). Their entire modern foreign policy MO is constant psy-op style confusion, it also happens to be their primary domestic policy strategy too.

it's times like this I really fear for you.

[jrfox92]

[Kacey Y]

I'm fine.

For the sake of balance, our political policy follows the same format. Although it's increasingly more by accident now.

[Chankgeez]

We're all in trouble.

[Jwar]

Saw that. We need to get jwar on that case. Everybody knows he's the best flipper.

Divide & Conquer?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/tech ... v=top-news

I think the Russia stuff will eventually blow over. Teflon Don isn't going down for that shit. No way.



Unrelated but kind of related. I watched that Dirty Money show on Netflix and it was interesting how much they demonized Trump in their last episode, which while most of it (if not all of it) was true it seemed way too agenda driven. So, instead of making me hate Trump it made me sick with the show.

I will say Trump has helped my taxes. His cuts allowed for my wife to get enough of an increase that I can now afford health insurance when open enrollment happens in June. My kids and I have been without for a year now. Fucking sucks. It's also helped my real estate business going forward. Huge breaks for that stuff, which is awesome.

[Chankgeez]

I'm sick & tired of increased partisanship all around.

We'll see if those Trump tax cuts help people in the long term though. I'm a little skeptical on that.

[dubkitty]

i now get a whopping $27 a paycheck in additional funds. whoop-de-doop.

[Achtane]

NSFW: show

Clinton was like Edward, a distant, cold and uncaring vampire who is in an abusive relationship with an impressionable, obsessive and dumb young girl (hint: America). The relationship is built literally on nothing except some aesthetic ideal that Edward represents to Bella America. In fact Edward keeps abandoning her for long periods of times, and only appears occasionally for short periods of time (hint: election) when their relationship appears to evolve into something more meaningful, but then he always leaves her again, supposedly for her own good but realistically for his own selfish reasons, often to carouse with billionaire vampire elders, as all the other vampires seem to function reasonably well around America, and Edward is the only one who is an awkward sperglord with the personality of a dead rabbit (vampires eat dead rabbits, so this is a joke for you Twilightheads). The other vampires are alternative Democratic nominees, such as Bernie Sanders, represented by Alice Cullen, who has the incredible psychic power of predicting the future through perfect empathy with all living creatures (Bernie Sanders used this power to summon a bird of peace to his rally) - Sanders predicts the upcoming class battle between the establishment (represented by a thinly disguised ripped-off World of Darkness Ventrue clan in the books) and the disenfranchised proletariat of all the other characters on the frozen surface of a lake - this is a metaphor for the precarious state of the world in face of the climate change.

Trump is like Jacob, an unlikable, self-obsessed hothead with an attitude issue and a shallow physical lust for America, which he tries to feebly rationalize in his platitudes to her. He is the opposite of Edward, while Edward would keep America hanging for extended periods of time, only appearing at strategic junctures to temporarily reinforce his relationship with America, Jacob is basically a stalker, who appears downright pathetic and seems to do his more harm than good to his chances with America with his constant attempts to talk her into leaving Edward for good and becoming his girlfriend instead. However, much like Trump, Jacob reveals that he has several trumps up his sleeve - first, he becomes a vampire, thus reversing the powerplay between him and Edward, whose frail physique makes him seem weak, and reminds one of a sufferer of some disease, perhaps even consumption (or pneumonia!), second, he represents the interests of the citizens of America (his Native American tribesmen) against the arrogant, violent newcomers (the aristocratic, yet bloodthirsty Anglo-Saxon vampires who are intruders in Jacob's land). It doesn't need to be mentioned that this is a striking parallel to the Trump platform of protecting the territorial and demographic integrity of his country against a legion of rapists and terrorists.

Now, in the books Bella chooses Edward over Jacob, but therein lies the real genius of Stephenie Meyer. Remember that the books were written during the Obama presidency - Bella here represents the naive America wowed by the Obama campaign, surrendering herself to his charms, even though it in effect means that the first sight that ignited her love would put her under the sell of Obama's natural follower, the uncharismatic, selfish Hillary (Obama is the side of Edward that made Bella fall in love with him, Hillary is the side that makes her relationship with him abusive and unsustainable). However, by doing so this America turns into yet another lifeless vampire. Now our gaze must turn towards Bella's newborn child, the product of her unholy bond with Edward (establishment Democrats), though which America itself was seemingly turned into a domain of ivory tower elites with no place for the common man. But Renesme, the child, has in fact warm blood coursing through her veins, she is the future of America, not Bella, and Jacob Trump sees it, he imprints on the newborn, and thus is symbolically described the dynamic of this election - the aging coalition of people who elected Obama is too lifeless, too disenchanted to really effect the world outside the circles of Establishment vampires, even though they are nominally bound to Democrats through marriage to Hillary Cullen, there is no life in them that could stop their descent into irrelevance. But they gave life to a new political being, Renesme, which is an antithesis of its parents, you can imagine her as all the expunged, abandoned life force of Bella / America coalescing into a new form, a fertile soil to be tilled by Trump - Jacob and his lustful, energetic, albeit naive and brutish way.

[jrfox92]

Unrelated but kind of related. I watched that Dirty Money show on Netflix and it was interesting how much they demonized Trump in their last episode, which while most of it (if not all of it) was true it seemed way too agenda driven. So, instead of making me hate Trump it made me sick with the show.

I knew it was coming.
Every episode had a bias towards a certain mindset (that is, liberal/progressive), it's just that the earlier episodes were better at telling a story and covering that bias.
The last episode was the inevitable point where the director got sloshed and said "fuck it, let's spend an hour talking about something everyone's been talking about for two years, now".

[Kacey Y]

Anything that runs on the premise that it's uncovered the "truth" has a bias. Especially if the truth it's uncovering is the bias inherent in something else.

[Gone Fission]

.

[comesect2.0]

was told the other day...that "thanks to trump, im getting more money this year" ......in which I said nothing.

[Andrew]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWR-zuiIFvQ[/youtube]

Jesus Christ