The Political Discussion Thread

[Falcon Horus]

2: Anyone in NATO strong enough to keep them? Sorry, you don't want us, you don't get to keep our nukes.

You put them here.
And we protest them being here each year -- which is a cat-and-mouse-game every single time. Cudos to those who manage to run the farthest on the fields towards the hangars. A friend of mine got arrested at one of those protests -- proudly waving his plastic cuffs around too.

we are our own worst enemy. And as long as we try to control and use others we will remain our own worst enemy

It's like I said earlier -- humanity is humanity's downfall.

So, trump today on Charlottesville, quite a sight.
Still just "foot in mouth" I guess.

Especially the reaction of Kelly and others behind him is telling.

He just talks and tweets his own demise -- that is if the Repubs are man enough to stand up and save their own skins cause there are going to be consequences -- what kind, I dare not say.

How is that victim blaming?? If those counter protestors were not even there, THERE WOULDN'T hae been any violence?

You stupid fool!

What "peaceful" marcher takes clubs, pepperspray, helmets, and shields. Only those out to cause trouble.

And those who were rammed by the car carried none of those. They were not there to cause trouble, only to counterprotest the hate and racism.

And if there's any doubt about whether someone waving a Nazi flag, lifting the arm in the way Hitler greeted his masses, goes with "Sieg Heil" and "Blood & Soil", you should know they ARE a racist.
Racism is big part of the Nazi ideology.

What about the poorer nations developing themselves and earning their way to equal standing rather than depending upon handouts? How many of these "poorer" nations have shot themselves in the foot, like Turkey did?

Turkey -- poor?!?

Compared to the poorer nations GF was probably referring to, Turkey is anything but poor.

But outside of that, the event was violent before that. Has anyone determined which side started the violence? Did the "Unite the Right" folks, or one of their number begin the conflict or was it one of the counter-protesters? Who threw the first punch? There's your guilty party as far as the rest of it goes.

The violence started the evening before with the white boys and their tiki torches.

I don't approve or condone the bigoted, racist message the KKK & others of that ilk spew forth. But they have the right to spew it. The proper response is to give it all due consideration and move on. In other words, ignore them. How much publicity has that bunch gotten out of this?

No, you do not ignore these guys.
You pay attention and you do not stay silent.

You resist.

If you ignore, and stay silent. You are complicit.

[Annoyed]

If the groups were not conflicting, then would that dumb shic have drove his car into the oppoistion?

AND IF you wanna liken them to ISIS< then compare it properly.
WHICH group wants to destroy historic monuments and statues, which ISIS and the taliban has done? OH Yea the Antifa nuts.

Which group likes to show up, at these 'events' dressed in all black wearing face masks, LIKE ISIS.. Antifa again.

In my opinion, you're off target with this. Yes, UTR has the right to peaceably assemble and protest. So do the folks that oppose them. Strategy-wise, was it a smart decision for the counterprotesters to show up? Absolutely not. Before this weekend, I've never heard of UTW. But now, the whole country has. They've gotten more publicity out of this than they would have gotten in 10 years otherwise. So yeah, strategically, very bad move on the part of those who oppose them.

But nothing can excuse that guy running his car into a crowd. You can put whatever label you want on it, Terrorist, ISIS imitator, nut job, or whatever. But a rose by any other name.. He had no right to ruin a perfectly good Dodge Challenger like that.

[Gatefan1976]

What about the poorer nations developing themselves and earning their way to equal standing rather than depending upon handouts? How many of these "poorer" nations have shot themselves in the foot, like Turkey did?

How about the developed nations recognize that they -raped- damn near all of the "poorer" nations (say, Africa for example) for hundreds of years?
"We took your people, we took your mineral wealth and used it to build us into a first world nation, how DARE you ask for handouts now, I didn't do it, it was my ancestors" (I just reap the benefits of it)
What if a foreign nation at the dawn of the industrial age came along to the US and took by superior force of arms your coal?
Would you still be then nation you are today -without- it?
You can't look at the issue of wealthy and poor nations in a historical vacuum because the historical effects are still being felt today. The "important resource" might have changed, but the repetition of behaviour has not.

You have a good point about the military, though. I don't see how that could be equalized.

It can't be, unless someone -willingly- chooses to go down, and not the lesser one. -That's- the responsibility of leadership, sacrifice and doing the right thing for the most people -especially- if they are not your "own".

[Annoyed]

Anything to ensure the US is blamed, right?
Oh, and doesn't Africa contain a whole lot of diamonds? Who is in control of them?

[Gatefan1976]

If the groups were not conflicting, then would that dumb shic have drove his car into the oppoistion?

Conflicting?
Have you bought trumps "best words dictionary" or something??

AND IF you wanna liken them to ISIS< then compare it properly.
WHICH group wants to destroy historic monuments and statues, which ISIS and the taliban has done? OH Yea the Antifa nuts.

So, your standard of comparison is property destruction (which, BTW is property owned by the people then destroyed by the people) to using basically an IED on people who think differently?

Which group likes to show up, at these 'events' dressed in all black wearing face masks, LIKE ISIS.. Antifa again.

So now -clothing- is more important to you than at least 3 dead bodies?
Good to know how far you will go to defend your dear leader, Just like a loyal North Korean.

[Gatefan1976]

Anything to ensure the US is blamed, right?
Oh, and doesn't Africa contain a whole lot of diamonds? Who is in control of them?

The only time I mentioned America was to see what you would say if someone stripped your resources. The slave trade and the rape of Africa was conducted by many "advanced" nations.
That's called knowing history, you are more displaying a guilty national conscience.

EDIT:
As for diamonds, they served no practical application at the time they were taken except as symbols of wealth and trade goods, By the time we had a practical application for them like coal, we were not that far off making industrial diamonds. As for who owns them, well, private non African companies for the most part, conflict diamonds are a sanctioned item in most of the world, and a lot of diamonds coming out from Africa -are- conflict diamonds which have zero value except in the black market.

[Gatecat]

But nothing can excuse that guy running his car into a crowd. You can put whatever label you want on it, Terrorist, ISIS imitator, nut job, or whatever. But a rose by any other name.. He had no right to ruin a perfectly good Dodge Challenger like that.

So you value an overpriced ride, more than some peoples life? Or do you blame the victims for ruining the stupid car?
If you try being funny... it's not...

[Gatefan1976]

So you value an overpriced ride, more than some peoples life? Or do you blame the victims for ruining the stupid car?
If you try being funny... it's not...

Given Annoyeds history, I would say it was an attempt to be funny, so while I had a double take about the two comments, I took it in jest.
It's in poor taste, but it was in jest.

[Skydiver]

Anything to ensure the US is blamed, right?
Oh, and doesn't Africa contain a whole lot of diamonds? Who is in control of them?

De Beers owns owns most of the mines. And they mine more diamonds than ever get on the market. THey mine and hoard them, only releasing small amounts to keep the value high. If they ever released their whole stock diamonds would be less valuable than cubic zirconia.

[Annoyed]

So you value an overpriced ride, more than some peoples life? Or do you blame the victims for ruining the stupid car?
If you try being funny... it's not...

Given Annoyeds history, I would say it was an attempt to be funny, so while I had a double take about the two comments, I took it in jest.
It's in poor taste, but it was in jest.

Considering how ridiculous the idea was, I couldn't see anyone taking it seriously.
And besides, While the modern day Challenger looks cool, it's still a Chrysler, which means it's a P.O.S.

[Gatefan1976]

Considering how ridiculous the idea was, I couldn't see anyone taking it seriously.
And besides, While the modern day Challenger looks cool, it's still a Chrysler, which means it's a P.O.S.

The problem is the space you are occupying, and I don't mean Gateworld. The republican party has bent over for trump, and will accept anything he does to advance the party line, and no damage seems to be significant enough to make people consider "is this really our voice"?
I see this as a joke -only- because of the amount of times we have spoken togeather, but outside of that? Text does not give tone, and to a passerby, it -really- does look like you give more of a crap about the car than the person that it hit, and your -leader- does absolutely ZERO to change that perspective.
Even your ability to tell a joke is being damaged by this arsehat.

[Gatefan1976]

De Beers owns owns most of the mines. And they mine more diamonds than ever get on the market. THey mine and hoard them, only releasing small amounts to keep the value high. If they ever released their whole stock diamonds would be less valuable than cubic zirconia.

Yup.
Diamonds have no intrinsic value, and in the few applications where they do, synthetic works just as well.

[Skydiver]

The problem is the space you are occupying, and I don't mean Gateworld. The republican party has bent over for trump, and will accept anything he does to advance the party line, and no damage seems to be significant enough to make people consider "is this really our voice"?

That is the most frustrating thing. I swear every news network could video him tossing Melania off the balcony of the white house and the republican party would still find a way to justify his actions.

Ethics and integrity have fallen to blind slavish loyalty. THings that he is doing that are tolerated when someone else could do less and be treated more harshly.

ANd I too did not think he were joking about the car.

Tone of voice does not translate well to text

[Gatefan1976]

Now, to lighten the mood a little bit:

[Annoyed]

That is the most frustrating thing. I swear every news network could video him tossing Melania off the balcony of the white house and the republican party would still find a way to justify his actions.

Ethics and integrity have fallen to blind slavish loyalty. THings that he is doing that are tolerated when someone else could do less and be treated more harshly.

Oh, you mean just like the Democrats accepted whatever BS Clinton or Obama pulled.

ANd I too did not think he were joking about the car.

Tone of voice does not translate well to text

To me, the idea was so ridiculous that I didn't think anyone could take it seriously.