Politics

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Re: Politics

Postby St. Elmo's Fire » Sat Mar 04, 2017 8:08 am

Mr357 wrote:The U.S. (NATO, really) military-industrial complex is a HUGE business, and their lobbies ensure that our military and defense agencies buy what they want them to, instead of what might actually be best. You can bet that some people made shit loads off of the U.S. invasion of Irag and Afghanistan; around 5 trillion was spent between those two conflicts.


Don't you think that's a bad thing also though? I mean that 5tr could have done a LOT to make the lives of those living in America (who paid some of the taxes that made up that insane amount of money) better, instead of lumping the entire country/tax payers with a huge debt?
US also takes research most seriously, which is why I think their hardware makes them by far the best. This would need some ex-military person to post and verify though...

EU countries are MEANT to pay about 2% of GDP towards NATO, but I think some of them drag their heels and get away with not paying.
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Re: Politics

Postby Mr357 » Sun Mar 05, 2017 2:45 pm

St. Elmo's Fire wrote:Don't you think that's a bad thing also though? I mean that 5tr could have done a LOT to make the lives of those living in America (who paid some of the taxes that made up that insane amount of money) better, instead of lumping the entire country/tax payers with a huge debt?
US also takes research most seriously, which is why I think their hardware makes them by far the best. This would need some ex-military person to post and verify though...


What, the invasion of the Middle East? I didn't mean to make it sound like I was in favor of it; that was easily the worst decision made under the Bush 43 administration.

St. Elmo's Fire wrote:EU countries are MEANT to pay about 2% of GDP towards NATO, but I think some of them drag their heels and get away with not paying.


And there's another issue. I can't say whether the graph below is accurate, or up to date, but it should still give a good idea of the disparity.

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Re: Politics

Postby St. Elmo's Fire » Sun Mar 05, 2017 5:16 pm

Surprised Germany gets that close TBH. Impressed that France, who has been near-bankrupt since the 1980s, still manages to put so much in too. If it's "2% of GDP" though, then technically it's probably about right and Germany and France are probably putting in a good bit more than 2%, since remember America's GDP is miles higher than any other place in that graph, so 2% of their big black cock of a GDP will naturally give them the biggest share of that graph! ;-)

America should simply tell them enough is enough, they'll reduce payments and support to a similar level of the other big hitters in terms of numbers of units given to NATO usage. It may mean a few bases would have to close, but that still won't necessarily mean they're opening the floodgates to allow Russia or China in to enslave everyone, because NATO will still be a mighty force that would squash anything once it's mobilised...
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Re: Politics

Postby Sonikku » Sun Mar 05, 2017 10:37 pm

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Re: Politics

Postby InsanityIsCrazy » Mon Mar 06, 2017 1:17 am

Sonikku wrote: Trump claims Obama wire tapped him.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03 ... paign.html


Due to the shady nature of the FISA court and the subsequent leaked intelligence articles, I wouldn't be surprised if he did. Given the nature of how things work in the government, Obama didn't, but someone in his admin did, and he probably knew about it.

Big blurb about FISA here: http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/yes-oba ... veillance/

I think it's great that Comey's inserted himself, too. Remind me again if he's a good or bad guy this month?
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Re: Politics

Postby sand4fish » Mon Mar 06, 2017 9:04 pm

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Re: Politics

Postby Mr. Frozen » Tue Mar 07, 2017 9:03 pm

Sonikku wrote: Trump claims Obama wire tapped him.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03 ... paign.html


The media basically admitted this before Trump did. As reddit would say, he is playing 58 hyper-dimensional chess. I'm not going to search for all possible news articles, but a 30 second google search leads me to this link that shows the government was monitoring his communications during the campaign:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... ussia.html

That article suggests that the government hired computer scientists to monitor and analyze the data intercepted from a server in Trump tower in order to uncover Russian ties.

The man is the president of the goddamn United States. The fact that people still try to portray him as a fool that doesn't have access to all clandestine activities is fucking stupid. Trump is literally at the top of the chain of command, if he says something is happened, you better damn well be sure it is true. On top of that most people who meet with him say that he is a great listener, and speak about him in high regard. He is not the type of guy to ignore what his top advisers in the IC have to say, and he is also the type of guy to call people out on their bullshit. It is obvious that the democrats want to constantly undermine Trump's presidency and their acts to push their bullshit narrative is very tiring.

EDIT: I know the link you posted wasn't really pushing the narrative that Trump is a fool (they did briefly mention a Breitbart article as his source, though), but I did read a few articles created after Trump published his Tweet so my rant is more towards the other stuff I read.
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Re: Politics

Postby sand4fish » Wed Mar 08, 2017 4:53 pm

Sonikku wrote: Trump claims Obama wire tapped him.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03 ... paign.html


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Re: Politics

Postby Mr. Frozen » Thu Mar 09, 2017 8:59 pm

Here is a video where actors re-enact part of one of the presidential debates, but the genders are reversed. I really think the actors did their jobs well.

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Re: Politics

Postby Sonikku » Sat Mar 11, 2017 2:03 am

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Re: Politics

Postby Monkei » Thu Mar 16, 2017 3:48 pm

With Trump surfing the internet to check out what's going on and him tweeting on a regular basis I kinda like the thought of him trying to join this place, maybe a couple of years ago, but failing to create an account due to "Orange Lightning" already being taken.
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Re: Politics

Postby St. Elmo's Fire » Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:23 pm

Jeff used to sort-of channel him. ;-)
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Re: Politics

Postby Mr. Frozen » Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:05 pm

Jeff was pretty insufferable back in the day with his strong support for Bush. Turns out he is just a diehard republican. I am an independent who liked Sanders before his sold his soul to the Democrats, and I also like Trump to a certain degree. Was pretty wary of him for a while, but my confidence in him grew over time.
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Re: Politics

Postby Sonikku » Thu Mar 16, 2017 10:08 pm

So no one is going to pass off the article I linked above as fake news?? If not, anyone here that thinks it's good policy?
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Re: Politics

Postby sand4fish » Fri Mar 17, 2017 1:39 am

Sonikku wrote: So no one is going to pass off the article I linked above as fake news?? If not, anyone here that thinks it's good policy?


Invasive medical scrutiny that could easily extend to their relatives, potentially putting whole families at risk for discrimination is sure what America needs right now (sarcasm).

sand4fish has received 2 thanks from: Monkei, Sonikku
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