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Trump is actually selling merchandise off the back of this Ukraine thing.
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@Salacious-Crumb said in US Politics:
50 soldiers are being pulled. What can fifty American GIs do that 5000 Kurds can’t?
The reaction to a partial draw down has been over the top. All options are bad (the status quo is crap, increasing involvement is worse and leaving possibly results in an escalation of violence against Kurds)
Trump didn't articulate his position very well. However Rand Paul did a good job of explaining the rationale.
I always get suspicious when the corporate press agrees with the Trump cheerleaders. One side claims that the President is an isolationist and is pulling troops out of the middle east. The Trump cheerleaders claim Trump keeping a promise to bring troops home from the middle east.
On Friday it was announced 1800 more troops were going to Saudi Arabia. Their purpose is to increase the Saudi Arabian defences.
Given that they are getting very close to a hot war with Iran, the presence of those troops increases the chances of the US getting dragged into a conflict with Iran.In the last 6 months US troop deployment to the middle east has increased by ~14000. That is not isolationism and that is not bringing the troops home.
Why does no one talk about Yemen? Early this year Congress passed a bipartisan bill that would have all but ended the US involvement in that conflict.
Trump vetoed that bill so the US could continue to support Saudi Arabia's war.
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Amazing how the war-machine supporting news outlets suddenly care about non-American lives being lost when America pulls OUT of a conflict.
It's a sad comment on the weakness of the EU and NATO that British and French forces are unwilling to defend their own interests against one of their own members - Turkey.
Erdogan has them over a barrel. If they go against him, he can threaten to release the thousands of ISIS prisoners Turkey are holding back into their native countries.
Europe will not defend itself; will not kick Erdogan out of NATO; will not take their own ISIS fighters back for trial and punishment; and instead, just like Lindsey Graham, the EU demands the U.S. remain as perpetual zookeepers.
The EU will not pay for the U.S. to remain as zookeepers and the EU simultaneously fights the U.S. on trade agreements so they can continue their one-way financial benefits.
Might be time for them to sort their own shit out.
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@rotated said in US Politics:
Fair play on the Zucker recording, but filming rank and file employees casually bitching about their job seems a bit gross.
I am a big fan on Project Veritas, but I agree with the rank and file thing. Is the destruction these guys lives (slightly hyperbolic) really worth it?
Smells a but like what CNN does to Trump supporters.
As for Zucker he is a prize twunt and deserves the exposure.CNN is a PR company for the democrats.
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@jegga I think the timeline was pretty compressed to lay it on her pointing her gun first - given the cops didn't announce themselves how is she to know who the F is coming through her window. We'll never know if she saw a gun or worked out they were cops given she had a light shining in her eyes.
I get the cops might not want to alert an intruder (esp an armed one) when following up a situation like this, but it seems this scenario was just destined for death. Especially as she was a legit gun owner who was looking to defend herself and nephew. If she'd fired first I presume she'd have been cleared as there was no identification?
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@Paekakboyz agree with that , the neighbor who must feel terrible right now rang the cops number that isn’t for emergencies when she saw the front door left open .
What happened was caught on the cops bodycam apparently. When I first heard the story it sounded like one of those awful stories like the kid with the toy gun being shot by the cops . This sounds more like a tragic misunderstanding than a racist cop killing a black person . -
@jegga ugh, so true, I hadn't thought about that side of it. I know I'd want my neighbour to help out if they saw something dodgy... but maybe contact me before the cops! but that is a slippery slope of what if's etc.
100% agree that it's a tragic accident - but I guess the murder charge comes down to not following due process? It feels horrible to say it given someone has lost their life, a young person has seen a family member killed, and a cop is likely going to jail... but this is an edge case (or I bloody hope it is!) for a country where you can carry guns and the police are super cautious about perps having weapons.
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@Rembrandt said in US Politics:
Actual transparency there.
The letter was leaked to the media (Fox business and the NYT)
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What actually happens with these letters? Assume they are not actually posted. If so, do they pay extra for tracking?
Or are they just emailed? From a POTUS account or an official White House a/c? Is POTUS allowed to send an email with that sort of content or does it have to be a letter?
Maybe they are faxed still!
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@reprobate said in US Politics:
@Rembrandt You seriously see that letter as a positive? I genuinely thought it was satire.
I do. I havent seen any other letters from world leaders to each other, but that one is pretty clear and plainly spoken.
Some might think it isnt presidential enough, but I think ppoliticians are generally forked tongue dishonest fuckwits.. so I am not sure about this obsession for being more like them -
@voodoo said in US Politics:
What actually happens with these letters? Assume they are not actually posted. If so, do they pay extra for tracking?
Or are they just emailed? From a POTUS account or an official White House a/c? Is POTUS allowed to send an email with that sort of content or does it have to be a letter?
Maybe they are faxed still!
Well duh.. they are obviously leaked to the NYT and everyone knows Edrogen is a subscriber.
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@reprobate I thought it was very non-typical of what I would expect a presidential letter to be. On balance I think it is positive, clearly a plain straight talking politician resonates with many sick of the ultra slick double talk status quo.
If I were to put my Trump 4D chess hat on I'd say perhaps this 'leaked' only so msm would report on it thinking it a win to mock Trump (which they have, hell it was even on the advertising board of the elevator up to my floor this morning)..and in turn exposing more people to his exact words. Some will continue to think him a fool and continue to underestimate him, some will think "hang-on he actually seems like a normal bloke that I can identify with".
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Some people at my work (a non-representative sample to be sure) dislike Trump because he doesn't "speak well". That he doesn't act with enough subtlety. Therefore, he is an "idiot".
They loved Obama because he spoke well and acted the part. Very shallow reason - imo.
I think they don't know the difference between being street smart and book smart.
I prefer a grimy barbarian who understands the street level thinking of many other world leaders (China, Turkey, Russia) far, far, far better than some pontificating, slick elitist any day of the week.
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