General Current Events/Political Discussion

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

You have to spend a lot of money on the military because, like in other areas, government can’t do anything right.

https://www.navytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2020/03/25/it-costs-the-navy-400k-to-flush-its-prized-carriers-frequent-clogging-plumbing/

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

9 hours ago, ICrappedMyPants said:

They’re both terrible. Politics aside, Biden seems to have some form of dementia. Often, he struggles to speak or says incoherent things. He was never a great orator, but you can see a drastic decline from his time as VP.

I’m a more conservative person, but I’d much rather see someone like Michelle Obama as president than Biden. I don’t agree with most of what she stands for, but I don’t question her intellectual capacity to lead this country, unlike Trump or Biden.

The unfortunate choice is Trump or Biden. I'm slightly right leaning, but Trump has been, is, and will continue to be utter poison for America. His rhetoric is unacceptable and not based in reality. Its a show for votes. He has 10s of millions of people literally eating of his hand and hanging on to every word. He is successfully branding life long Republicans that are not 100% on board with him "rinos." He's got to go. I could go on for days ranting.

[jonebone | 1,307]

11 hours ago, Link said:

Maybe we’ll figure this out now.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhartung/2020/03/05/to-save-lives-shift-pentagon-spending-to-public-health/

The security of United States and the world depends on far more than throwing money at the Pentagon to deal with potential military challenges.  The spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) underscores this fact.  

          The Sustainable Defense Task Force, a group of former Congressional and Pentagon budget officials, ex-military officers, and non-governmental experts brought together by my organization, the Center for International Policy, makes the case for a more expansive view of security:

“[T]he most urgent threats to U.S. security are non-military, and the proper national security tools ought to be non-military as well. [The threats] include climate change, which undermines frontiers, leads to unpredictable extreme weather, and fosters uncontrollable migration . . . global disease epidemics, which pose societal risks to all nations; and income and wealth gaps, which foster insecurity and conflict.”

           Unfortunately, federal budget priorities are far out of line with this new security landscape. The Pentagon budget and related spending on nuclear weapons, pegged at a near record level of $740 billion, consumes well over one-half of the nation’s discretionary budget, which includes most government functions other than entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security.  This leaves inadequate funding for the non-military tools we urgently need to deal with non-traditional threats to public safety and global security.

 

 

I can't take this seriously at all.  You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that IT warfare / hacking / data security etc is probably the #1 threat and China has kicked the world's ass in that regard for the longest time.  Especially as we come into a 5G world that's an "internet of things" where every damn electronic device is going to be on the internet.

Weather, you could spend all the money in the world and not do anything about that.  Hurricanes, tornados and other acts of mother nature will destroy the world no matter what. It makes zero sense to have a massive budget there.  No return on those dollars spent.

Income and wealth gaps, we're a capitalist country.  We subsidize the poor but if you want complete wealth equality then you should go live in a communist country.

That study is a joke to be honest.  Especially if they are ex-military.  We sit in classified meetings every now and then to hear about the threats out there and if the public knew how far behind the curve the USA is they'd be wanting even more defense spending.

Though I do admit, any Government spending or Govt program in general is extremely inefficient.  Industry typically does much better with each dollar, though even look at a company like Boeing which has completely screwed up as of late. 

[Link | 2,710]

8 hours ago, jonebone said:

Weather, you could spend all the money in the world and not do anything about that.  Hurricanes, tornados and other acts of mother nature will destroy the world no matter what. It makes zero sense to have a massive budget there.  No return on those dollars spent.

Income and wealth gaps, we're a capitalist country.  We subsidize the poor but if you want complete wealth equality then you should go live in a communist country.

That study is a joke to be honest.  Especially if they are ex-military.  We sit in classified meetings every now and then to hear about the threats out there and if the public knew how far behind the curve the USA is they'd be wanting even more defense spending.

Now I know where I went wrong in the virus thread.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,526]

9 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

The unfortunate choice is Trump or Biden. I'm slightly right leaning, but Trump has been, is, and will continue to be utter poison for America. His rhetoric is unacceptable and not based in reality. Its a show for votes. He has 10s of millions of people literally eating of his hand and hanging on to every word. He is successfully branding life long Republicans that are not 100% on board with him "rinos." He's got to go. I could go on for days ranting.

Should only get better as he approaches 80.  Which, speaking of Biden...

Some awesome choices we got here

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

11 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

The unfortunate choice is Trump or Biden. I'm slightly right leaning, but Trump has been, is, and will continue to be utter poison for America. His rhetoric is unacceptable and not based in reality. Its a show for votes. He has 10s of millions of people literally eating of his hand and hanging on to every word. He is successfully branding life long Republicans that are not 100% on board with him "rinos." He's got to go. I could go on for days ranting.

If ever there was an election that deserved a viable 3rd party candidate, this is the one. I did not vote for Trump last time and he has done nothing to change my mind. Thankfully, I live in Illinois and can vote 3rd party with good conscience.

[Link | 2,710]

The president gets blamed for everything because he is constantly a stupid reckless asshole and he actually does things that have consequences. And “his job” is not to be constantly haranguing people on Twitter. So if he needs to do his job he should stop doing and saying things that people blame him for doing and saying things.

Just a general response to words I see on the internet

[Lincoln | 230]

Man biden looks worse every time i catch a video of him. Like there's a real chance he doesn't make it to the election right? Cant imagine him trying to debate trump in that condition.

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

Just now, Lincoln said:

Man biden looks worse every time i catch a video of him. Like there's a real chance he doesn't make it to the election right? Cant imagine him trying to debate trump in that condition.

I legitimately think he has dementia. I hope the Democrats have a legitimate alternative plan or it might be another four years of Trump. I’m not a Democrat, but I would like to see a more professional and mature person in office than the current president. 

[Link | 2,710]

Real estate magnate, casino king, food and liquor purveyor, reality TV host... if things go the way they’re looking, Trump can add “janitor” to his resume, because he is gonna mop the fucking floor with Biden.

[Tanooki | 4,933]

Oh yeah I think Biden is done, mentally a bit as well too.  He's gone from Obama era gaffes to Reagan post-error alzheimers medication time situation going on there.  He's finding it hard, even with much of our media favoring the left, to get quality air time that people will actually bother to pay attention to to help his numbers.

Say what you will about Trump, if the idiot would sit on his hands and tape his mouth shut, he has done a fairly decent job getting things done he promised to do percentage wise compared to most scumbag politicians from any party.  What's worse is the fact him crying fake media or not, when the media keeps trying to drag stories, make up stories, use flimsy info, and often gets caught in a string of bs so bad even the democrats at times shake their heads at it, it helps no one but Trump feel validated as well as those who follow him and the independents or disenfranchised right who dislike the guy and will make them want to vote for him as a middle finger statement if anything.

I didn't vote for either troll in 2016, but given the raging asinine behavior of the media despite my feelings I'm very tempted to vote for the guy this time around just to set them into a meltdown since he wouldn't have to worry about re-election.  Personally I more like my local guy Rand Paul and his leanings, but then again I also do like some left leaning social stuff but loathe their shitty ideas on how to pay for it outside of bluedog democrats who seem to be vanishing in the face of the vocal crazy.

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

Can someone please explain to me why it is a good idea to have a primary in the middle of the apex weeks of this virus? 
 

I thought it was stupid when my state, Illinois, had our primaries despite all their other concerns about social distancing. Now, the Governor of Wisconsin was being  responsible and the GOP fought it and now they are having their primary today. I’m convinced that it’s almost impossible to be a politician and act in the real interest of the people you are supposed to serve.

[Estil | 1,264]

On 4/1/2020 at 4:46 PM, Link said:

Real estate magnate, casino king, food and liquor purveyor, reality TV host... if things go the way they’re looking, Trump can add “janitor” to his resume, because he is gonna mop the fucking floor with Biden.

I think moping the floor is kinda pushing it.  Realistically I don't see how Trump can get more than about tree fiddy in the electoral college.

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by Estil

[Tulpa | 3,494]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/07/thomas-modly-coronavirus-speech-resign-navy-172625

[Strange | 1,700]

Biden isn’t my first, second, or third choice but I don’t understand where this “no one will vote for him” talk is coming from (not just here, all over the Internet). Isn’t the point of the primaries to find out which candidate the people will vote for? I voted Bernie in the primary, but everyone else overwhelmingly voted for Biden. In greater numbers than they did Hillary. I think it’s entirely possible that Trump could win a second term but don’t underestimate the moderate voters’ desire for a return to normalcy and what they perceive to be a sane leader. As much talk as there is about Joe’s supposed dementia, Trump is very clearly not mentally fit for office either, but he isn’t held to the same standards as others.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

Whelp looks like its "kid diddler" vs "grab em by the pussy" for 2020. Awesome.

[LutherDestroysTheGond | 690]

With Sanders out looks like I'll be voting 3rd party for the third straight general election.  Biden v Trump was the worst outcome imaginable.  Except for maybe Pete v Trump.

[Fleck586 | 300]

Who's taking bet as to which one drops an "F" bomb in a debate first?  I kind of like the matchup.  Two old timers that DGAF going at each other for the grandest of prizes.  Bring it on. LOL!

[Estil | 1,264]

1 hour ago, CodysGameRoom said:

Whelp looks like its "kid diddler" vs "grab em by the pussy" for 2020. Awesome.

You do know that along with his "shooting up Manhattan" comments were not meant to be taken literally right?  You gotta love how the Biden commercial disclaimer will go:

"I'm Joe Biden and I forgot this message"  

[Estil | 1,264]

14 hours ago, The Strangest said:

Biden isn’t my first, second, or third choice but I don’t understand where this “no one will vote for him” talk is coming from (not just here, all over the Internet). Isn’t the point of the primaries to find out which candidate the people will vote for? I voted Bernie in the primary, but everyone else overwhelmingly voted for Biden. In greater numbers than they did Hillary. I think it’s entirely possible that Trump could win a second term but don’t underestimate the moderate voters’ desire for a return to normalcy and what they perceive to be a sane leader. As much talk as there is about Joe’s supposed dementia, Trump is very clearly not mentally fit for office either, but he isn’t held to the same standards as others.

If they can't come up with a better challenger than that then Trump should easily win re-election...though I don't think he'll realistically get more than 340-350 electoral votes.

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

Go get em Biden! Let's get Mr. Chinese Virus We Have This Under Control out of here!

[Strange | 1,700]

31 minutes ago, Estil said:

If they can't come up with a better challenger than that then Trump should easily win re-election...though I don't think he'll realistically get more than 340-350 electoral votes.

Oh I’m with you there. Biden is not a great choice. Unfortunately wealthy Democrats are more inclined to weather another 4 years of Trump than a Democratic candidate that threatens their comfortable middle ground. That said, all I’m saying is I think Biden will do better than people are giving him credit for (unless he bombs the debates). I think he’ll outperform Hillary (another bad choice).

I guess the point I was making is that there’s a very large but silent crowd of moderates who help decide elections. These people voted for Biden over Bernie. That’s just how it played out, which is why I don’t understand the “Biden wont get any votes” talk. He got the most votes out of the Democratic candidates.

Hillary was arrogant and didn’t even acknowledge the states she needed to win because she thought there was no way Trump could win people over. Biden is more willing to hit the campaign trail and talk to these moderates and address their concerns, many of which are desperate for a return to normal, boring politics.

[Strange | 1,700]

50 minutes ago, Fleck586 said:

Who's taking bet as to which one drops an "F" bomb in a debate first?  I kind of like the matchup.  Two old timers that DGAF going at each other for the grandest of prizes.  Bring it on. LOL!

It’s gonna be two old, mentally deficient jerks screaming “OBAMA” over and over.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, Trump’s legal team won’t even let him testify. Will his campaign let him debate or are they afraid he’ll say some dumb shit there too?

Edited April 8, 2020 by The Strangest

[Estil | 1,264]

7 minutes ago, The Strangest said:

Hillary was arrogant and didn’t even acknowledge the states she needed to win because she thought there was no way Trump could win people over. 

I still can't get over how she ignored her own husband's pleadings about that, as he knew winning over those rural/blue collar folks was absolutely essential to his 1992 win.  The thing is though, the longer this coronavirus thing goes on, I don't think there's gonna be much of a campaign to speak of and this will especially affect Trump as he can't really do his signature pep rallies with this whole virus thing going on.  OTOH though Biden absolutely cannot be any sort of "boring politics" candidate...that was the main reason McCain lost in 2008 as his voters were kinda "heh" about him.  As (ironically) both 2008 Obama and 2016 Trump demonstrated, it's all about keeping your voters excited and hungry!  Now whether any such thing will be possible in 2020 for anybody though, it's looking increasingly unlikely with this virus thing going on and there's only seven months to go until Election Day besides.

[Estil | 1,264]

And now that it looks like Joe Biden will be the D's challenger, the most important question by far, more important than all the other ones combined in terms of his candidacy is this (to paraphrase Jesse Ventura's thoughts several years back on Sarah Palin being a possible Presidential contender):

Who is his running mate?  Because Joe won't finish the term!

Under virtually any other circumstance, virtually nobody ever votes for the second guy on the ticket.  But this time, it is a virtual certainty that Joe will not even come close to doing a full term (because of how often his mind wanders and forgets stuff and all that and we all know it will over time only get worse); he may in fact only be able to do the first few months!  So this time it is vitally important more than for any other major Presidential candidate in history to choose a really good running mate, because it is a virtual certainty that he/she will be the President at some point during Biden's term!  It's not a question of if, but when.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Estil