I visited New Orleans two weeks ago. The locals gave me all kinds of recommendations on food, music, the french quarter, the local ecology (apparently most alligators are farmed rather than hunted, which I did not know), and all sorts of other culture and history. The only time the confederacy came up was when we drove by one of the monuments and our Uber driver complained that the protestors made the rest of the country think New Orleans is full of racist morons.
Aside from the fact that society requires some kind of compromise to work and pissing off more than half the country to make rich people richer is a bad look? You would be wrong. Human nature demands retribution. Imagine a scenario where the Democrats are in the same position as Republicans are in now, except it was after 4, or god forbid, 8 years of Trump. Fox News would have to display trigger warnings before every segment. Cuba would like a word.
I'm not saying that Trump is great but as soon as he approved the MOAB bombing I was ok with him. After 8 years of Obama appeasing and cajoling enemy countries a statement needed to be made. America isn't a pussy nation as it had seemed and won't be for the next four years. Before I'm called a keyboard warrior I served as did every male in my family that was eligible and my brother is working on twenty years in the Army. The Iran deal was horrible to begin with and should definitely be revoked until they agree to quit funding Hamas and other terrorist organizations.
But there's a problem: Trump is a moron, and his bombing of Syria wrong. He did that off basically a rumour, the press excuse was beyond retarded, and the bottom line is that it was none of America's fucking business in the first place. I don't give a shit about the MOAB bombing, it worked. But never, EVER forget you have a clueless moron in charge who makes promised threats over Twitter posts.
Is this really a common perception? Because we're talking about Obama who kept troops in Iraq during his administration, got criticized for drone strikes against suspected terrorists, and - for whatever credit you can assign to him - oversaw the raid that got Bin Ladin. So none of that counted - except to act as ammunition for criticizing Obama - for showing the world that America isn't a pussy nation?
This is, I think a problem: Trump is all about his dick. "Winning, MAGA, MOAB, etc." Dude's ego is steering the ship and you can't rule or lead by "I've got the biggest dick here". As someone who has travelled somewhat extensively, I can tell you: EVERYONE FEARS US. EVERYONE. NO EXCEPTIONS. They KNOW beyond a shadow of a whisper of a dream of a fart of a thought of a doubt: America will FUCK your country up. There are two options: give us what we want, or don't have anything we want. We are the only country to bomb at a whim. Think about how fucking insane it would be for South Korea, Russia or India to bomb a place like Indonesia because of Islamic terrorists. It would be pandemonium. We do it so casually, it only makes the news when it's the biggest bomb we have. The only question is what can we bomb to justify the millions of dollars of expense? The only realistic answer is oil, these days, with the precious strategic minerals in North Korea a looming second. If we're going to spend $100M bombing something, we'd better see a return on that "investment". We're not pussies, we're just cheap. However, if our president's business interests coincide with the defense contractors.... Obama used flying fucking death robots to murder people, like some kind of Terminator mastermind. Again, ask yourself: qui bono? Who benefits from you thinking we're becoming a "Pussy nation?" Why did everyone say Obama was going to act on gun control, a functionally intractable problem in our society, and he never did shit? Could it have been the gun manufacturers who had record sales during his term, and now that no one believes Trump will do a fucking thing on gun control their sales are flat? Who would profit from you being afraid of ISIS or some bogey man in the ME? Could it be the defense contractors who need a villain to rouse a rabble against to justify their existence and the ludicrous technology they peddle (or the trillions of dollars they've spent since 9/11)? It boggles my mind that the actual facts don't make it this far: Obama was a bloodier president than both Bushes and Clinton by some measures (he bombed people weeks after winning a fucking Nobel Peace Prize!...think of the BALLS!), he just wasn't willing to commit to another inevitably unpopular ground war, and chose to quietly use the terrifying technology we've developed to murder people strategically. Why risk billions (if not trillions) and thousands of lives if you can send a surgical strike, kill 5-10 people and avoid the calamitous showdown? Answer: because then people will think you're a pussy.
No. The perception under Obama was that the United States was a competently run superpower who rained death from the skies. Under Trump our allies are treating us the way a nanny treats a small child, and our enemies are treating us the way a priest treats the same.
I can understand him not wanting to commit to new ground wars as they are costly and we don't need to flex our might to prove anything. I think the Obama is a pussy, for me, was the constant harping on the US's past mistakes when he'd be in front of other nations. His so called apology tour. Going into any talks or negotiations or even just traveling and leading off with our sins of the past in the end doesn't come off as strong leadership. You don't ignore past mistakes, you learn and move forward in ways to avoid them. He came off in his original campaign rhetoric as similar to what has enveloped higher academia as far as labeling everything xenophobic, racist, etc etc to shut down debate. It's really all a perceptual thing as far as strong leaders go. You didn't see Steve Jobs remind everyone at his presentations that Apple was built off stolen code and borrowed ideas. Trump sold himself totally as an American first type. A lot of people wanted something like that after 8 years of Obama and being increasingly told how shitty they were because America doesn't have a clean past.
I don't agree that Obama was a pussy. He was no different then the rest of the interventionist leaders we have had previously or currently. The only area I can see where he would be called a pussy is Iran. Again, I don't agree with it because I'm pretty sure diplomacy is actually a good thing. Did he give away too much? Did our Government under Obama not enforce the rules of the agreement? It would seem so. Rest assured, America is going to go back to it's Pre-Obama Iran stance.....do you recall this: Smashing Iran has been a part of the Neocon agenda going all the way back to when the Shah was overthrown and the Embassy was attacked. All appearances coming out of the Trump tour of the Middle East is that the upcoming war with Iran is back on.
For some reason the Norks fascinate me, I can't explain why... The mass media is reporting the Norks are going to mass produce a missile. From what? They don't have any money, they lack intellectual and engineering capital. The only think I can see the Norks mass producing is....really shitty propaganda videos that an 8th grader could do.
Hopefully when they unplug the computer to fly their missile it will still save all the Double Dragon high scores. That country is nothing more than a retarded kid who won't stop showing dinner guests his penis: tiresome, pathetic and too idiotic to freak us out.
They do have an enormous wealth of raw materials and precious metals, though. Just not the technology to mine and harvest it.
I steer clear of this thread, and am not even commenting on your main poiint downndirty, but this: I don't think this is correct? It was X million to develop the thing like 20 years ago, but the per unit is something like 16 or 19 million......and we already owned it, anyway. It was expensed long ago. Just saying. Carry on!
Like Improper stated, I also tend to steer clear of this thread, and the But Seriously thread. On the very rare occasion I flip through news channels, read political posts on Facebook, or browse this thread, It seems as if everyone is talking about two completely separate Americas. That aside, I really love this post. It speaks to the essence of what is really wrong and echos what Eisenhower said in his famous speech: There is no fixing any of this. It will continue no matter who is elected and get worse.
Wow you never hear the second part of that where he warns against college level research being poisoned by big money and goverment contracts. Interesting as I'd never heard that part of the speech.
Never thought I'd see the middle of the Venn diagram of "things written in an 8th grade yearbook" and "things written by the president of the United States in an Israeli Holocaust memorial guestbook."
You left out how he ended it with "lmao jk". I'm pretty sure he stole line that from one of the sidewalk slabs at Planet Hollywood.