• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Cont: President Trump: Part 3

Status
Not open for further replies.
Perhaps as prescient as Idiocracy, and 40 years ago to boot!
I only remembered the first few seconds of it but the rest would seem to apply also.
(Note: NSFW language)
Come to think of it, The Groove Tube itself predicted YouTube.


"I'm the [] President."
 
I have no problem pointing out how short Germany has been in their commitments. As a nation that has made it a point to honor agreements, they dropped the ball on this one.

You do realize that Germany signed up to boost their defense budget relatively recently in 2014, right? Moreover Germany has until 2024 to reach that target.

Here's the relevant articles of the "Wales Declaration":

We will therefore strengthen the military capabilities the Alliance needs. After two decades of intensive operations, Allies now have the most experienced, capable and interoperable forces in NATO's history. We will continue to invest in modern and deployable armed forces that can operate effectively together and at a high level of readiness to fulfil NATO's tasks, in full accordance with the principles of the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act.

We recognise that these steps will take the necessary effort and funding. In light of this, we agree to reverse the trend of declining defence budgets and aim to increase defence expenditure in real terms as GDP grows; we will direct our defence budgets as efficiently and effectively as possible; we will aim to move towards the existing NATO guideline of spending 2% of GDP on defence within a decade, with a view to fulfilling NATO capability priorities. We will display the political will to provide required capabilities and deploy forces when they are needed.

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_112985.htm?mode=pressrelease

Germany doesn't "owe" anyone anything because its defense spending has been lower than the NATO guideline of 2% of their GDP.

Trump really needs better advisers because he seems just as misinformed and clueless as any American that gets their news from far-right talk radio, Fox news and Facebook clickbait. Otherwise Germany and its allies might as well start their own defense alliance if it's supposed to rely on unreliable and clearly deranged people like these Americans.
 
I don't subscribe to these semantics whatsoever. When you say something that's false, and you know it's false, that qualifies as a lie.

I guess I don't fathom a distinction either.

The distinction is sharp and important. The tl;dr version is that if you know a statement is false when uttered, that's lying. When you don't care regarding its truthfulness, that ************. There's a whole, interesting essay on the topic; the Wiki article on ************ is a good place to start.

The key here is that Trump doesn't care about the truthfulness of his statements. Hell, he will contradict himself in the same paragraph and not give a damn, figuring his ****kicker fans won't care either.

Maybe you can shame a liar and hope that he/she will get the facts straight. You can't shame a bull****er because, again, they don't care if they're right or wrong. The problem with Trump is perfectly illustrated by his recent interview with Time. They told him before he showed up that the interview was going to be about his lying. But he didn't care. In that very interview about lying, he lied about his lying. He repeated some of the same lies he's been called on before.

That's not a liar, that's a bull****er. An unbelievably brazen one.
 
The distinction is sharp and important. The tl;dr version is that if you know a statement is false when uttered, that's lying. When you don't care regarding its truthfulness, that ************. There's a whole, interesting essay on the topic; the Wiki article on ************ is a good place to start.

The key here is that Trump doesn't care about the truthfulness of his statements. Hell, he will contradict himself in the same paragraph and not give a damn, figuring his ****kicker fans won't care either.

Maybe you can shame a liar and hope that he/she will get the facts straight. You can't shame a bull****er because, again, they don't care if they're right or wrong. The problem with Trump is perfectly illustrated by his recent interview with Time. They told him before he showed up that the interview was going to be about his lying. But he didn't care. In that very interview about lying, he lied about his lying. He repeated some of the same lies he's been called on before.

That's not a liar, that's a bull****er. An unbelievably brazen one.

There's a segment of his base that loves that he's completely full of ****.
 
It's worse than that. I think they all know that a) it's good law (certainly not great or ideal but a solid first step in fixing the system) and b) it's good for their constituents. In other words, not only did they know they couldn't roll it back in procedural terms but I believe they knew that doing so would be bad for the country. It can't help that the vast majority of Republicans at least pretend to be Christians and that their Lord and Savior would never approve of denying health care to anyone.

You're more optimistic than I am. I believe that many of them really believe the idea that the free market can give better results. Take our own sunmaster14; that's precisely what he thinks. Take a guy like Ryan who worships at the feet of Atlas Shrugged. I'll bet all the Freedom Caucus congrescritters think that. I believe they honestly think government is bad and anything it does is harmful. Reagan stated their motto in 9 words: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" and stated those were the worst 9 words you could hear.
 
I hear you but... Trump world? While I don't expect to permeate the impermeable, I'm certainly not taking the lead from fact-free zealots as to language usage.

I'm the one who raised the distinction. Is that how you would characterize my views, a "fact-free zealot"?
 
You do realize that Germany signed up to boost their defense budget relatively recently in 2014, right? Moreover Germany has until 2024 to reach that target.

Here's the relevant articles of the "Wales Declaration":



http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_112985.htm?mode=pressrelease

Germany doesn't "owe" anyone anything because its defense spending has been lower than the NATO guideline of 2% of their GDP.

Trump really needs better advisers because he seems just as misinformed and clueless as any American that gets their news from far-right talk radio, Fox news and Facebook clickbait. Otherwise Germany and its allies might as well start their own defense alliance if it's supposed to rely on unreliable and clearly deranged people like these Americans.

2% targets go back to the early 2000s. This Target bin 2014 is the same as saying you are getting a project done in January, it reaches February, your boss asking what is a deadline you can actually meet, setting it for end of March. If you make it by the end of March you haven't actually did a good thing. You have just quit sucking.
 
It doesn't say who the bill was meant to be paid to.

Even if it said US, the point still stands. Germans should be ashamed of themselves.

I might add that part of the German Air Force is based and flying their aircraft out of New Mexico.
 
Last edited:
You’re President of the United States, and you use “Judge” Jeanine as your messenger to the Speaker of the House? :covereyes

But here's the thing...why wouldn't he just blast Ryan directly, even if only on Twitter? And they've both said that they didn't communicate, so how would this work, anyway?

And the truth is, while insulting to Trump, she was pretty accurate. The Obama admin worked for, what, a year with congress, and more before that, on the ACA? And Trump has a clear path to what he wants (which is single payer - Medicare for all, fill out the details, done.), they just flail around for a few days and give up? That's not even running a business well, to be honest.

And when did "I alone can fix it!" become "Nah, y'all do it, I want to goof off."? :)

Yes, but for those of us who can't look at them now, what is the attraction? Live video of Trump, Pence, Bannon, Miller, Mnuchin, Conway, etc., all being marched off in handcuffs?

Nothing like that :) Although that's obvious by now.
 
The US could have never even been a member of NATO and I would still care about Germany's​ budget commitments.

NATO has an important role and has been active in a number of countries and Trump needs to understand its importance as president.
 
I might add that part of the German Air Force is based and flying their aircraft out of New Mexico.

For training and pilot education since we're here in Germany are a bit tight on free to fly over land.

And yes, we pay for it.
 
For training and pilot education since we're here in Germany are a bit tight on free to fly over land.

And yes, we pay for it.


While employed at Travis AFB, CA., the Germans would sometimes drop by for an overnight visit and park their aircraft behind my hangar. In my opinion, Trump is too ignorant of NATO among other things, to be an effective president.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top Bottom