Political Posts

[changegonnacome]

25 minutes ago, james22 said:

 

 

 

I’m not seeing a rebuttal of the ABC reporting…just confirmation a week ago that a Qatari plane is the centre of Trump’s affection right now…

 

Let’s see….glad to see that even Trump supporters feel a need to refute the ABC story online…cause it would be so beyond the pale that it would end up for his personal use at the end of his term under the banner of his Presidential library is beyond beyond.

Edited May 11, 2025 by changegonnacome

[Mephistopheles]

13 minutes ago, changegonnacome said:

I’m not seeing a rebuttal of the ABC reporting…just confirmation a week ago that a Qatari plane is the centre of Trump’s affection right now…

 

Let’s see….glad to see that even Trump supporters feel a need to refute the ABC story online…cause it would be so beyond the pale that it would end up for his personal use at the end of his term under the banner of his Presidential library is beyond beyond.

Yea but what about Hunter Biden’s laptop! 

[changegonnacome]

Spoke too soon…..WSJ pretty much confirming the outline of ABC reporting - 

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-administration-in-talks-to-accept-new-air-force-one-as-gift-from-qatar-14b29357?st=auU5X6&reflink=article_copyURL_share

 

The fact folks in the Dept of Defense legal department are spending ANY time on this (as confirmed by the Qatari official quoted) is something else.

 

Ive worked for firms and dealt with firms (Fidelity Investments for example) where accepting a gift even a lowly coffee was effectively banned by the company . If anybody has studied even basic psychology they’d understand why….i laughed when I first heard this policy….as the years go by it’s undoubtedly the correct posture for a firm….to say nothing about the right posture should be for a Federal gov employees, let alone the President. 

[Blugolds]

43 minutes ago, changegonnacome said:

Spoke too soon…..WSJ pretty much confirming the outline of ABC reporting - 

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-administration-in-talks-to-accept-new-air-force-one-as-gift-from-qatar-14b29357?st=auU5X6&reflink=article_copyURL_share

 

The fact folks in the Dept of Defense legal department are spending ANY time on this (as confirmed by the Qatari official quoted) is something else.

 

Ive worked for firms and dealt with firms (Fidelity Investments for example) where accepting a gift even a lowly coffee was effectively banned by the company . If anybody has studied even basic psychology they’d understand why….i laughed when I first heard this policy….as the years go by it’s undoubtedly the correct posture for a firm….to say nothing about the right posture should be for a Federal gov employees, let alone the President. 

Same, previous positions/employers viewed a $3 item/gift the same as $1M, just the potential of appearance or accusation of conflict of interest was enough. 
 

Its the reason the Hare Krishnas were able to raise millions in the airports in the 60’s-70’s

 

 

 

 

[Sweet]

8 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

I think people forget that Christianity isn’t the reason for westerns rise, it was the Renaissance  and the aptly named age of enlightenment. Basically at that time, the west (Italy mostly) overcame the confines of the Medieval time Christian thinking (Galileo etc) and the age of reasoning started.

 

If we were stuck in deep Christianity, we still would debate on if the earth is flat or not. The Muslims in a way never had their age of enlightenment yet NS that’s why they fall behind if they embrace their religion as a political framework as well.

 

I don’t agree with Karl Marx on many things but I agree on one thing - Religion is Opium for the masses. If we had gotten rid of religion post the Roman empire, we would probably be a couple hundred years ahead in our civilization.

I’m not sure if Christianity had a negative or positive net effect overall.  It wouldn’t surprise me either way but we can’t re-run the experiment again.

 

However the renaissance was funded by the Catholic Church, and the main historical figures were devote Christians.  But perhaps it hindered it too?

[Spekulatius]

3 hours ago, changegonnacome said:

I’m not seeing a rebuttal of the ABC reporting…just confirmation a week ago that a Qatari plane is the centre of Trump’s affection right now…

 

Let’s see….glad to see that even Trump supporters feel a need to refute the ABC story online…cause it would be so beyond the pale that it would end up for his personal use at the end of his term under the banner of his Presidential library is beyond beyond.

The fact the plane is not propriety of the government but basically is a personal gift to Trump and this clearly identifies this as bribery. To accept gifts other than token ones is illegal  for anyone in government function, Check out FCPA

https://www.globalcompliancenews.com/anti-corruption/anti-corruption-in-the-united-states/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2025 by Spekulatius

[Parsad]

On 5/10/2025 at 12:34 AM, Sweet said:

The IRA, nothing about their terror campaign was about religion, it was nationalism.

 

The KKK, racial superiority, not religion.

 

The British empire, imperialism, not even terrorism and not about religion.

 

The Crusades, on stronger footing because it was religious, but war is not terrorism.

Nobody claims that the Ottoman or the Muslim conquests was terrorism.  You are reinventing a definition to suit you.

 

 

You can categorize them how you want, but religion played some part in all of those.  Cheers!

[Parsad]

On 5/10/2025 at 7:54 AM, Sweet said:

I think I’ve explain everything fairly well in my other posts, it’s all there.

 

In the specific post you quoted, I don’t believe they are examples of religious terrorism.

 

Terrorism committed by a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist (whatever) for none religious reasons is not religious terrorism.

 

You specifically said:

 

I can’t remember a single act of terrorism in the name Christianity - not one.  Or any other religion for that matter.

 

This is completely incorrect, and there are dozens of books that prove this.  Cheers!

[patience_and_focus]

19 hours ago, LC said:

 

Every reason I've heard is nonsense that is non-causal and further, applicable to any (and every) major religion, at some point in time. I'm curious to hear your explanation.

 

It is easy to observe facts than to ascribe a cause (or causes). That is true even for hard science like physics and especially true in business, economics, social sciences. I do not pretend to have the root cause(s) for this phenomena in modern times. But there are strong hypothesis that are supported by evidence.

 

Clearly what @Spekulatius said earlier in this context is a significant part of it. It is necessary ingredient because Quran has quite a bit of strict and direct violence prescribed on non-believers (https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/65616/can-one-still-be-a-muslim-if-he-she-denies-some-verses-that-he-she-found-outdate, the book "Why I am not a Muslim" for sources) as opposed to New testament (Bible) which has it in a few places like Revelation but is more contextual and also contradicted in other places (I will admit that am certainly not an expert when it comes to Bible). And this concept of non-believers and violence inflection is almost non existent in Dharmic religions like Bhuddism, Hinduism and Jainism and also in traditional Chinese (Confucianism, Taoism) religious texts (Of-course there are other problems in these other religions and their texts but such visceral non-believer based commentary is simply not there).

 

The above is certainly necessary ingredient but is not sufficient. So the other factor I believe is Saudi funding of religious schools all over the world, starting around 1950s (follow the money). This Frontline documentary explores some of that https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/ (see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_propagation_of_the_Salafi_movement_and_Wahhabism). This has implications in all places including South Asia, Africa, and South East Asia's Muslim countries. A direct result of this is physical violence against non believers in modern era (very similar thing has been happening in these regions of the world since more than 1000 years but that is not the topic of discussion here). Even relatively rich Muslim countries such as in South East Asian countries like Indonesia, non believers in Bali suffered violence in modern times (2002 Bali bombing).This is in direct contrast to spreading of Christianity in the same modern era time frame and in rich countries like South Korea where Evangelicals have been aggressive in spreading their viewpoint but not violent against non believers as that of Islam. Heret poverty is largely not confounding in these situations because there is a tendency to always blame poverty as an alternative to confirm  conceived opinions when other arguments don't line up. All this is borne out in the statistics we see - https://www.fondapol.org/en/study/islamist-terrorist-attacks-in-the-world-1979-2024/

Edited May 12, 2025 by patience_and_focus

[changegonnacome]

7 hours ago, james22 said:

 

 

 

 

El Prez himself confirming ABC, WSJ reporting….he’s something else….what a lowlife to get United States & the office of the President involved in a gutter transaction like this with a counterparty like Qatar (of all people, the same money that paid for this plane also paid for Hamas’s tunnels).

 

When somebody TELLS you who they are you should BELIEVE them.

 

Trump via $trumpcoin & now this has laid his cards flat on the table on what Trump 2.0 is about. Two acts in an hundred odd days that are simply indefensible…both centered around the direct enrichment of the President of the United States. 

 

[lnofeisone]

22 minutes ago, changegonnacome said:

 

El Prez himself confirming ABC, WSJ reporting….he’s something else….what a lowlife to get United States & the office of the President involved in a gutter transaction like this with a counterparty like Qatar (of all people, the same money that paid for this plane also paid for Hamas’s tunnels).

 

When somebody TELLS you who they are you should BELIEVE them.

 

Trump via $trumpcoin & now this has laid his cards flat on the table on what Trump 2.0 is about. Two acts in an hundred odd days that are simply indefensible…both centered around the direct enrichment of the President of the United States. 

 

My favorite part is where the plane will be transferred to the Trump Library Foundation after he steps down. In other words, he will be the sole decider of who gets to use the plane.

[changegonnacome]

54 minutes ago, lnofeisone said:

My favorite part is where the plane will be transferred to the Trump Library Foundation after he steps down.

 

that part I’m gonna pretend is a brain fart he had….. I don’t doubt ABC/WSJ reporting so this idea was/is being kicked around by him which is bad enough…but if starts coming out with that part and defending it….we are truly not in Kansas anymore.

 

But just the basic concept…taking a plane from Qatar as a gift to the Dept of Defense…speaks to incredibly poor judgement and a complete lack of moral and ethical clarity from the Commander in Chief and the Leader of the Free World….i think even @cubsfan would agree here….America don’t need handouts from any State and certainly not one with as poor a track record as Qatar

Edited May 12, 2025 by changegonnacome

[james22]

Zero point zero.

 

That's the number of voters who'll change their mind because of this transaction.

 

Rage away.

[hardcorevalue]

Agreed James.

 

There were literally billions grifted by his crypto. A plane isn't going to make any difference.

 

They are extremely loyal at any cost.

 

This won't change anything.

[Sweet]

14 hours ago, Parsad said:

 

You specifically said:

 

I can’t remember a single act of terrorism in the name Christianity - not one.  Or any other religion for that matter.

 

This is completely incorrect, and there are dozens of books that prove this.  Cheers!

 

No Parsad, it’s true, because it’s a personal statement about what I remember.  Quite different from saying there haven’t been any which I’m in no position to say that.

 

It’s pretty simple.  I can recall many Islamic terrorists attacks because there have been so many in my lifetime.  Whereas I can’t recall a single Christian terrorist attack.
 

And no, the IRA were not religious terrorists, although yes, religion had a part in that conflict insofar as the two sides largely broke down along Catholic and Protestant lines.

 

I’ve explained it several times now, so I don’t know why it keeps coming back to me - it is a case of others believing I said one thing when I actually said something else.  Here it is again: 
 

Terrorism committed for non-religious reasons by a Muslim, Christian, Hindu - whoever - is not religious terrorism.  Terrorism committed for religious reasons is religious terrorism.

 

Edited May 12, 2025 by Sweet

[Gregmal]

We re all ok with these sleazeleeches enriching themselves via the “public servant” route. Heck, even amassing a collection of mansions is fine. Hell, accumulate generational wealth…why not? But we draw the line at….airplane?

 

Got it.

[Spekulatius]

Looks like US tariffs are going to be rolled back completely to prior liberation day status. China keeps 10% tariffs on US goods, which makes many exports like soy beans and LNG etc still uncompetitive.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/us-china-tariffs-trade-talks-trump-05-12-25
 

This is just a 90 day “cease fire” but still looks like capitulation from Trumps team.

[dealraker]

43 minutes ago, Spekulatius said:

Looks like US tariffs are going to be rolled back completely to prior liberation day status. China keeps 10% tariffs on US goods, which makes many exports like soy beans and LNG etc still uncompetitive.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/us-china-tariffs-trade-talks-trump-05-12-25
 

This is just a 90 day “cease fire” but still looks like capitulation from Trumps team.

Donny to Elon: "Some have their heads up my butt, others are haters...but since I've had all the little worthless people focused on tariffs I've doubled my net worth."   

[mattee2264]

Pretty unconscionable that Trump once again told everyone to buy stocks just days before giving China a 90 day pause. 

[sleepydragon]

2 minutes ago, mattee2264 said:

Pretty unconscionable that Trump once again told everyone to buy stocks just days before giving China a 90 day pause. 

market will crash, but it wont be today. It will be when Trump says buy stocks the Nth time. 

[Gregmal]

Just now, sleepydragon said:

market will crash, but it wont be today. It will be when Trump says buy stocks the Nth time. 

Yea, when all the panic and cash people finally take the bait. Then they'll complain that he lied!

[lnofeisone]

1 hour ago, Gregmal said:

We re all ok with these sleazeleeches enriching themselves via the “public servant” route. Heck, even amassing a collection of mansions is fine. Hell, accumulate generational wealth…why not? But we draw the line at….airplane?

 

Got it.

It's grift from the former and the latter. It is that simple. The latter is in the office, so naturally more light will be directed that way. 

Edited May 12, 2025 by lnofeisone

[lnofeisone]

17 minutes ago, mattee2264 said:

Pretty unconscionable that Trump once again told everyone to buy stocks just days before giving China a 90 day pause. 

Got to play the market you have and not the market you want. For example, some healthcare stocks will take a beating today. Might be worth looking into those that get punished more than they should. 

[Milu]

20 minutes ago, mattee2264 said:

Pretty unconscionable that Trump once again told everyone to buy stocks just days before giving China a 90 day pause. 

Not sure I follow, isn't publicly telling everybody at the same time via a public post the most transparent way to communicate things. Would you rather he kept it to himself and some close associates?

[mattee2264]

It is still market manipulation. Especially as it is quite likely he told his buddies before making the public announcement.