***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[IATT]

 

[frenchbreadbuilds]

I respect your opinion and I'm willing to change my stance towards racism with the proper insights and facts. I am Pakistani and Filipino so I look " of color " I've seen racism towards me and others and I went to them racial rallies here in the bay area but after all that nothing has changed in this country. I just see a lot more racists coming out . Heck some of the people I knew came out being racist it just gave me an option to not want to deal with them anymore if it bothered me that much.

Why do you keep harping on peoples feelings? Like I’ve said about a hundred times to you in the past and now others as well. The goal is to end the SYSTEM of racism. Keyword is system. You know how racism was combatted in the work place? They didn’t fire every person with racist feelings, they enforced EEOC and affirmative action policies in the work place. Literally stripping racisms power in the work place. That’s the same approach that needs to be taken with policy. Your neighbor may never stop hating the color of your skin but you can rest assured that his options to weaponizing that hatred against you in political and economic means are limited. A racist that can’t act on their hate are just stupid people. but your votes, your support, your anti-liberalism gives those bigots political power to impact peoples lives. Like mentioned before you may or may not be an actual racist but you’re absolutely an ally to racism.

 

[IATT]

 

[Quincy McCall]

Visual chart made last year, wonder how it would look now with all that's been uncovered since

https://www.politico.com/magazine/s...ies-chart-flynn-page-manafort-sessions-214868

 

[sonoftony]

 

[rolaholic]

So he walked back his walk back



'Higher ends of intelligence'

 

[blastercombo]

I've accepted that velociraptors are going to eat babies. It's just how it is. I'm not going to waste time locking the door to the nursery. Does that automatically make me a velociraptor?

Horrible analogy. Won’t even list why

 

[blastercombo]

Just cause I don't care about racism and accepted that part of the nation is racist it automatically makes me one ? Please homie play a different assumption game

No, you’re a racist. That’s not an assumption, it’s an observation

 

[Mark Antony]

Who got the worst stans? Drake or Trump?

Trump for sure, it's tribal and a cult at this point. Heard a comedian say he wants wife to be a Trump supporter because no matter what lie you tell her, or how ****ty you treat her she gon ride for you.

 

[sonoftony]

Unicorn poppin' all that **** and he's a POC.

 

[Mark Antony]

Dude, please. Shut the hell up

I was born in the foreign country, I travel back there all the time. I get stopped at immigration and the workers crack jokes at crazy Bush and now Trump supports

I travel a ton for my jobs over the years, to Europe, South America, Canada. Most of the contact there know about American politics and loony Republicans.

My sister travels more than me and she has similar experiences.

Why do you think America was viewed as **** under Bush, rebounded under Obama and now back in the ****ter. Because people know the GOP is nuts.

Plus I am black, so trust, I don't get thrown in with the vile bigots. More often, people are worried that I have to live in a country with so many overtly self-destructive racist. And they vile enablers

The world knows I am not on your team.

So please, again, miss me

For sure people can tell the difference when you travel.

 

[rolaholic]

Good thing deficits are only relevant when Democrats are in power though

 

[RustyShackleford]

Deficits are only relevant when Democrats are in power though

Da coffers doe

 

[rillo561]

" The fundamentals of the economy are strong"

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

#snowflakes

 

[IATT]

 

[AEA18]

Unicorn poppin' all that **** and he claims to be a POC.

Fixed.

 

[deuce king]

Then il say it again , If you're not with us at 1-15 then don't come back to us when we're 16-0 and winning the superbowl and on top of the world again .

LOL. "We're in this togeeeeeeeeether". Not just no but hell no.

 

[AEA18]

Murders
Pimps
Pedos
Rapists
Racists
Homophobes

Da party of family values folks

 

[Belgium]

There's a couple small countries in the Baltic area too... I'm sure they'd love to hear that the POTUS doesn't seem very interested in honoring the mutual defense contract for "small NATO allies."
The US is the only country that has invoked Article 5, for a war based purely on lies and greed from the very start, and NATO allies honored the mutual defense contract and sacrificed lives. Including those "small NATO allies."
https://www.politico.eu/article/donad-trump-nato-montenegro-defending-could-mean-world-war-iii/
Trump: Defending NATO ally Montenegro could mean ‘World War III’
US president again casts doubt on wisdom of alliance’s collective defense pact.
U.S. President Donald Trump took another swipe at NATO Tuesday night, suggesting that sending troops to defend a small NATO ally from attack could end in disaster.
Asked in an interview with Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson why the U.S. should send troops to defend a small country such as Montenegro if it were attacked, Trump replied: “I understand what you’re saying, I’ve asked the same question. Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people. They are very aggressive people, they may get aggressive, and congratulations, you’re in World War III. But that’s the way it was set up.”

Trump’s comments came after a European visit in which he threatened to pull out of NATO if allies didn’t increase their defense spending, and a bilateral meetingwith Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

Montenegro, which has a population of around 620,000, joined NATO in June 2017. The military alliance’s Article 5 obligates its members to come to the aid of another member country if it is under attack.

Trump and Montenegro have a bit of a history: The U.S. president shoved Montenegrin Prime Minister Duško Marković aside at a NATO summit in 2017.

Here's a bit of extra information about Montenegro.
(March 28 2017)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-montenegros-nato-bid/?utm_term=.f22a2f2ddd7f
In defiant jab at Russia, Senate approves Montenegro’s NATO bid
With the support of the Trump administration, the Senate took a swipe at Russia on Tuesday by voting to let one of Europe’s smallest countries into NATO.
The Senate approved Montenegro’s bid to become a full-fledged member of the security alliance by an overwhelming vote of 97 to 2.

Hawks and moderates of both parties were convinced that Russia’s influence should be checked wherever possible, and that adopting Montenegro — once part of the former Yugoslavia — was a way to do it.

“It is a nation in this contest that we are now engaged in with Vladimir Putin, who has committed to extending the reach and influence of the Russian government … to the point where he attempted a coup to overthrow the freely elected government of Montenegro,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said on the Senate floor Monday. “If we turn down Montenegro, it will not remain the democracy that it is today.”

Authorities in Montenegro claim that pro-Russian factions attempted to stage a coup last October during parliamentary elections. Russia has denied any involvement.

The Kremlin also is strongly opposed to any more expansion of NATO. Three Balkan countries that were once in Russia’s Cold War sphere of influence are in the process of joining. Georgia, a former Soviet republic, has also expressed interest in joining.

All current NATO member states must ratify Montenegro’s bid in order for it to accede to the treaty — or become a member.

The road to ratifying Montenegro’s bid in the U.S. Senate has not been entirely smooth. During the last Congress, the term clock ran out before the Senate got a chance to vote on Montenegro — leading many to wonder whether Republicans were dragging their feet because Trump had struck a conciliatory tone on Russia.

The president spoke highly of Putin on the campaign trail, and the intelligence community determined that Russia had attempted to interfere in the 2016 election with the intention of promoting Trump’s candidacy. Two congressional committees, as well as the FBI, are currently investigating possible ties or collusion between the Kremlin and members of Trump’s campaign and transition teams.

But the administration urged the Senate to approve Montenegro’s effort to join NATO. In a letter, first reported by Reuters, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wrote to Senate leaders earlier this month that ratifying Montenegro’s membership is “strongly in the interests of the United States.”

In fact, the opposition to Montenegro’s bid came from just two senators — Kentucky Republican Rand Paul and Utah Republican Mike Lee. Paul argued that supporting it is a waste of U.S. taxpayer money.

Accusing his fellow senators of simply using the issue as an excuse for “a punching session about Russia,” Paul said Monday that “admitting Montenegro to NATO will do nothing to advance our national security and will do everything to simply add another small country to the welfare wagon of NATO.”

Paul’s tone was reminiscent of Trump’s disparagement of NATO during his presidential campaign, when he told the New York Times that member states “aren’t paying their bills” — suggesting that the U.S. commitment to fulfill its treaty obligations to other members of the alliance might be leveraged by whether those countries had settled their accounts.

As president, he appears to have altered his stance, pledging earlier this year that the United States will “strongly support NATO,” as reported by CNN — though he continued to stress that other NATO members have to contribute more toward collective defense.

NATO members agreed in 2014 to a 10-year timetable to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense. Most do not at the moment.

Montenegro’s contribution, as a country with a GDP of about $4 billion and a standing army of about 2,000 soldiers, would likely not contribute much, even if it meets the 2 percent target.

NATO members have been called upon only once to meet their collective security obligations under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty — after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...leged-pro-russian-coup-plotters-idUSKBN1A413F (July 19 2017)
Montenegro begins trial of alleged pro-Russian coup plotters
The trial of 14 people in Montenegro accused of an election day plot to kill the prime minister and bring a pro-Russian party to power began on Wednesday, with defense lawyers demanding the state prosecutor be removed from the case.

 

[kdawg]

There are so many holes in that story that it’s just ridiculous.

 

[whywesteppin]

Horrible analogy. Won’t even list why

that was the point though.

point was that even if you're not a racist by definition, enabling them/not trying to put safeguards in place to limit their power is effectively just as bad.

 

[Rootin4EverybodyBlack]

It's amazing how Trump literally wings it and people defend his statements as if they're informed or have any validity. It's like showing up to a job as an aerospace engineer, saying the plane should be a rectangle and people actually try to make it into a ****ing rectangle.

 

[boris]

I respect your opinion and I'm willing to change my stance towards racism with the proper insights and facts. I am Pakistani and Filipino so I look " of color " I've seen racism towards me and others and I went to them racial rallies here in the bay area but after all that nothing has changed in this country. I just see a lot more racists coming out . Heck some of the people I knew came out being racist it just gave me an option to not want to deal with them anymore if it bothered me that much.

You showed up to some rallies and called it a day? You really put in a lot of effort there!!