Political Posts

[73 Reds]

Just now, cubsfan said:

 

Of course it was the right thing to do. The Japanese Military killed 8 civilians for every 1 soldier they lost.

Japan killed 16 million civilians.. 

 

They earned the bomb. Why would the US risk 1 million casualties to invade Japan when we could end the war is 3 days with 2 bombs?

Cubs, the issue is always proportionality and whether it was necessary.  Again, hindsight is much more clear than present day.  We didn't start or provoke WWII but we ended it.  The issue is how we ended it and whether we would do the same thing again.  We did learn how destructive a nuclear bomb can be, which hopefully is the reason it will remain a useful deterrent for those who have it and who value human life.

[cubsfan]

1 minute ago, 73 Reds said:

Cubs, the issue is always proportionality and whether it was necessary.  Again, hindsight is much more clear than present day.  We didn't start or provoke WWII but we ended it.  The issue is how we ended it and whether we would do the same thing again.  We did learn how destructive a nuclear bomb can be, which hopefully is the reason it will remain a useful deterrent for those who have it and who value human life.

 

The whole notion of "proportionality" in war is total bullshit. You end wars with disproportional responses - not 1 for 1, but 10 for 1.

 

Why do you think the USA has not invaded Iran?

 

We could never end it with "proportional" responses. Therefore, we obliterate what we can without any losses to the US.

 

Israel would be stupid to play this game with Hamas or Hezbollah.  Both terrorist organizations are getting exactly what they deserve - where Gaza is a pile of ruble and Southern Lebanon may end up.

For every Israeli death - Israelis are responding "disproportionately"

 

Proportionality is nonsense when you are in war.

[73 Reds]

8 minutes ago, cubsfan said:

 

The whole notion of "proportionality" in war is total bullshit. You end wars with disproportional responses - not 1 for 1, but 10 for 1.

 

Why do you think the USA has not invaded Iran?

 

We could never end it with "proportional" responses. Therefore, we obliterate what we can without any losses to the US.

 

Israel would be stupid to play this game with Hamas or Hezbollah.  Both terrorist organizations are getting exactly what they deserve - where Gaza is a pile of ruble and Southern Lebanon may end up.

For every Israeli death - Israelis are responding "disproportionately"

 

Proportionality is nonsense when you are in war.

Sorry, meant disproportional loss of innocent human life.  And of course no one can explain or justify Hezbollah presence in Southern Lebanon as just one example.  Lebanon doesn't want them there and neither does Israel yet when Israel responds to their terrorist attacks, it gets blamed and used as a pawn and/or excuse for jeopardizing a peace deal with Iran.  Informed people know better.

[changegonnacome]

31 minutes ago, cubsfan said:

The whole notion of "proportionality" in war is total bullshit. You end wars with disproportional responses - not 1 for 1, but 10 for 1.

 

Remind me never to get into a bust up with you in real life @cubsfan 

[cubsfan]

17 minutes ago, changegonnacome said:

 

Remind me never to get into a bust up with you in real life @cubsfan 

 

Don't worry change - I would never mess with you!

[cubsfan]

38 minutes ago, 73 Reds said:

Sorry, meant disproportional loss of innocent human life.  And of course no one can explain or justify Hezbollah presence in Southern Lebanon as just one example.  Lebanon doesn't want them there and neither does Israel yet when Israel responds to their terrorist attacks, it gets blamed and used as a pawn and/or excuse for jeopardizing a peace deal with Iran.  Informed people know better.

 

And now Israel will hit Beirut until Hezbollah stops, just like they did with Gaza.  At least Hamas is mostly killing their own Palestinians now. 

[cwericb]

1 hour ago, cubsfan said:

 

Of course it was the right thing to do. The Japanese Military killed 8 civilians for every 1 soldier they lost.

Japan killed 16 million civilians.. 

 

They earned the bomb. Why would the US risk 1 million casualties to invade Japan when we could end the war is 3 days with 2 bombs?

 

Cubs we don't often agree but I am with you 100% on this.

 

Those in charge of Japan at the time were completely ruthless and life was relatively worthless. Death and torture by the Japanese was commonplace and quite acceptable. To end the war with an invasion would have taken as many as 1,000,000 lives. On the other hand the two A bombs killed approximately 200,000 people and ended the war.

 

Further, and what many tend to forget, the nightly B-29 raids in 1945 were fire bombing Japanese cities and were burning to death as many as 100,000 Japanese people per NIGHT.

 

Personally, I would much rather be vaporized than burned to death. But those critical of dropping the bombs seem to overlook the hard truths of the situation.

 

I knew a guy who was in the Canadian army and posted in Singapore when the Japanese took the city in early 1942. He was captured and spent the balance of the war in prison camps. People today have no concept of the situation in 1940's Japan. And those who who like to apply present day morals to decisions made 80 years ago do a great disservice to those who fought and died for our present day lives and society.

 

Here is a small example for those who don't know.

 

The Sandakan Death Marches (1945)

 

The Sandakan Death Marches directly involved Allied prisoners of war (POWs) who were captured during the fall of Singapore in 1942. 

 

The Background: Thousands of Australian and British POWs captured at Singapore were shipped to labor camps in Sandakan, North Borneo (now Malaysia).

 

The Marches: As the war neared its end in 1945, Japanese forces, fearing an Allied rescue, forced emaciated and sick POWs to march hundreds of kilometers through the dense Bornean jungle into the interior.

 

The Outcome: Of the roughly 2,500 Allied prisoners (1,787 Australians and 641 British) forced to march, only six Australians survived by escaping into the jungle. The rest died from starvation, disease, exhaustion, or execution

 

The number of prisoners who died in Japanese POW camps was 7-8 times higher than those who failed to survive German POW camps in WWII.

 

 

 

[cubsfan]

27 minutes ago, cwericb said:

 

Cubs we don't often agree but I am with you 100% on this.

 

Those in charge of Japan at the time were completely ruthless and life was relatively worthless. Death and torture by the Japanese was commonplace and quite acceptable. To end the war with an invasion would have taken as many as 1,000,000 lives. On the other hand the two A bombs killed approximately 200,000 people and ended the war.

 

Further, and what many tend to forget, the nightly B-29 raids in 1945 were fire bombing Japanese cities and were burning to death as many as 100,000 Japanese people per NIGHT.

 

Personally, I would much rather be vaporized than burned to death. But those critical of dropping the bombs seem to overlook the hard truths of the situation.

 

I knew a guy who was in the Canadian army and posted in Singapore when the Japanese took the city in early 1942. He was captured and spent the balance of the war in prison camps. People today have no concept of the situation in 1940's Japan. And those who who like to apply present day morals to decisions made 80 years ago do a great disservice to those who fought and died for our present day lives and society.

 

Here is a small example for those who don't know.

 

The Sandakan Death Marches (1945)

 

The Sandakan Death Marches directly involved Allied prisoners of war (POWs) who were captured during the fall of Singapore in 1942. 

 

The Background: Thousands of Australian and British POWs captured at Singapore were shipped to labor camps in Sandakan, North Borneo (now Malaysia).

 

The Marches: As the war neared its end in 1945, Japanese forces, fearing an Allied rescue, forced emaciated and sick POWs to march hundreds of kilometers through the dense Bornean jungle into the interior.

 

The Outcome: Of the roughly 2,500 Allied prisoners (1,787 Australians and 641 British) forced to march, only six Australians survived by escaping into the jungle. The rest died from starvation, disease, exhaustion, or execution

 

The number of prisoners who died in Japanese POW camps was 7-8 times higher than those who failed to survive German POW camps in WWII.

 

Yup, good to hear from you CW.  The Japanese have no sympathy from me. Hell, it took them 50 years before they ever apologized for the millions of Chinese they murdered, let alone Allied POW's.

[RichardGibbons]

6 hours ago, cubsfan said:

 

Of course it was the right thing to do. The Japanese Military killed 8 civilians for every 1 soldier they lost.

Japan killed 16 million civilians.. 

 

They earned the bomb. Why would the US risk 1 million casualties to invade Japan when we could end the war is 3 days with 2 bombs?

 

Yeah, at the time, I think it was a no-brainer.  Why wouldn't you use a massive bomb you recently developed in a war that already lasted four years?  It also was pretty tiny relative to nukes today.

 

My impression is that the controversy only arose decades later, when the moment was long past and people had the prosperity necessary to develop luxury beliefs.

[Blake Hampton]

Trump and the American people are trapped in a dangerous, negative feedback loop with one another. Throughout his life, Trump's entire mission has been to put his name and likeness wherever possible, through any means available. We are talking about a man who, now as president, receives a yearly document detailing how many times his name has been used on TikTok. He must be talked about, shown on TV, and embedded in the brains of everyone around the world incessantly. It is his drive.

How does he accomplish this? Through increasing amounts of chaos of course.

And at the same time, the American people are increasingly tuning out as the chaos Trump generates begins to scare them. They tune out more and more, which, in turn, causes Trump to push ever harder in his never-ending mission of capturing the minds and thoughts of everyone. This feedback loop will not end until Trump is either out of office or dead, and will likely only increase in its ferocity.

I would also like to say that I do not respect the views, opinions, or logic of Trump supporters. It's always funny for me seeing your input because it only ever reminds me of how worthless it is. You are the ones who enabled the dangerous feedback loop I described up above, after all. But this is not to say that you are bad people outside of those beliefs. My dad is one of the biggest Trumpers there ever was. I love that man so much it is indescribable. But I also realize that he is a racist who is highly ignorant when it comes to policy, markets, economics, anything really of macro substance. He is a tribal-thinking ideologue who has fallen in line behind a mass manipulator, as I believe many on this board have as well.

[Blake Hampton]

Change, you must be the fastest typer in the world.

[cubsfan]

20 minutes ago, Blake Hampton said:

Trump and the American people are trapped in a dangerous, negative feedback loop with one another. Throughout his life, Trump's entire mission has been to put his name and likeness wherever possible, through any means available. We are talking about a man who, now as president, receives a yearly document detailing how many times his name has been used on TikTok. He must be talked about, shown on TV, and embedded in the brains of everyone around the world incessantly. It is his drive.

How does he accomplish this? Through increasing amounts of chaos of course.

And at the same time, the American people are increasingly tuning out as the chaos Trump generates begins to scare them. They tune out more and more, which, in turn, causes Trump to push ever harder in his never-ending mission of capturing the minds and thoughts of everyone. This feedback loop will not end until Trump is either out of office or dead, and will likely only increase in its ferocity.

I would also like to say that I do not respect the views, opinions, or logic of Trump supporters. It's always funny for me seeing your input because it only ever reminds me of how worthless it is. You are the ones who enabled the dangerous feedback loop I described up above, after all. But this is not to say that you are bad people outside of those beliefs. My dad is one of the biggest Trumpers there ever was. I love that man so much it is indescribable. But I also realize that he is a racist who is highly ignorant when it comes to policy, markets, economics, anything really of macro substance. He is a tribal-thinking ideologue who has fallen in line behind a mass manipulator, as I believe many on this board have as well.

 

Pretty harsh Blake.  You definitely sound like an arrogant little shit!

[cubsfan]

1 hour ago, RichardGibbons said:

 

Yeah, at the time, I think it was a no-brainer.  Why wouldn't you use a massive bomb you recently developed in a war that already lasted four years?  It also was pretty tiny relative to nukes today.

 

My impression is that the controversy only arose decades later, when the moment was long past and people had the prosperity necessary to develop luxury beliefs.

 

100%. I think the same thinking has overcome our younger generation when it comes to 9/11 as well.

[Blake Hampton]

1 minute ago, cubsfan said:

Pretty harsh Blake.  You definitely sound like an arrogant little shit!

You don't even know the half of it

[cubsfan]

2 minutes ago, Blake Hampton said:

You don't even know the half of it

 

Hey, at least your old man loves you!

 

[Parsad]

6 hours ago, cubsfan said:

 

Pretty harsh Blake.  You definitely sound like an arrogant little shit!

 

Watch it Cubs!  His post deserves your scorn, but the "little shit" stuff can go.  

 

Blake, you're not posting on investing, and you are telling people how stupid they are, what exactly is your point of being on here?  The only person who posts less about investing is Doo...but we know that already and he posts shit without specifically insulting any one person.  Please keep the political posts on an issue rather than aimed at any one person.

 

Cheers!

[Libs]

To our friends on the Democrat side of the aisle, how do you see - in light of Mamdani running the table in NY last night - the rise of the DSA and their attempted takeover of the party? Seems like it is happening. 

 

This is the mirror image of MAGA's takeover of the GOP. I never would have predicted that either.

[boilermaker75]

49 minutes ago, Libs said:

To our friends on the Democrat side of the aisle, how do you see - in light of Mamdani running the table in NY last night - the rise of the DSA and their attempted takeover of the party? Seems like it is happening. 

 

This is the mirror image of MAGA's takeover of the GOP. I never would have predicted that either.

 

Looks like we could have two extremes with nothing in the middle. We need a third party that Thomas Paine would have called the Common Sense party.

[Blake Hampton]

17 hours ago, Parsad said:

Blake, you're not posting on investing, and you are telling people how stupid they are, what exactly is your point of being on here?  The only person who posts less about investing is Doo...but we know that already and he posts shit without specifically insulting any one person.  Please keep the political posts on an issue rather than aimed at any one person.

 

Cheers!

 

The Trumpers are stupid. They like to act surprised about the rising tide of socialism, but fail to realize that their party is the definition of failing governance. What do they expect?
 

I respect your views Parsad and your disagreements always give me pause. However, I also think you underestimate the damage currently being done by the Trump administration and just how bad the current situation really is.

 

I fear a fiscal crisis and resulting hyperinflation. And I think that most people fail to grasp just how sizable these items actually are; that they have the power to change our entire reality. I think if people could understand, they may be more upset about what's happening instead of the apathy that I currently see.

Does anyone here actually listen to Buffett? I mean fuck! This dude has been incessantly detailing the perils of runaway inflation and casino analogies for years now!

But here we are, the smartest people I can seem to find on the internet, fighting over trans people and talking up our thesis on why Bitcoin is the future currency.

I don't know. I guess I just feel like the world has lost its mind. I know Americans certainly have.

[whiskybravo]

5 minutes ago, Blake Hampton said:

 

The Trumpers are stupid. They like to act surprised about the rising tide of socialism, but fail to realize that their party is the definition of failing governance. What do they expect?
 

I respect your views Parsad and your disagreements always give me pause. However, I also think you underestimate the damage currently being done by the Trump administration and just how bad the current situation really is.

 

I fear a fiscal crisis and resulting hyperinflation. And I think that most people fail to grasp just how sizable these items actually are; that they have the power to change our entire reality. I think if people could understand, they may be more upset about what's happening instead of the apathy that I currently see.

Does anyone here actually listen to Buffett? I mean fuck! This dude has been incessantly detailing the perils of runaway inflation and casino analogies for years now!

But here we are, the smartest people I can seem to find on the internet, fighting over trans people and talking up our thesis on why Bitcoin is the future currency.

I don't know. I guess I just feel like the world has lost its mind. I know Americans certainly have.

The Trumpers, man… they’re like these little fish swimming upstream through a river of their own confusion. They keep staring at the rising tide of socialism like it just materialized out of the cosmic fog, completely forgetting they’re standing on the deck of the ship that’s taking on water. Their party feels like a monument to governance entropy, slowly dissolving into static. What did they think was going to happen?

And Parsad, seriously, I respect you. Every time you disagree with me it’s like finding a hidden doorway in a room I thought I understood. You make me stop and inspect the wallpaper of reality. But I still think you’re underestimating the scale of what’s unfolding right now. The damage being done feels bigger than politics. It feels structural. Geological. Like cracks forming beneath the foundation while everyone’s arguing about the paint color.

What really keeps me up is this looming fiscal singularity. Hyperinflation. Not as some abstract economic term floating around in a textbook, but as this enormous reality-bending force. People hear the words and shrug, but these things can reshape entire civilizations. They’re like tectonic plates moving beneath human consciousness. If people could actually feel the size of these forces, if they could see the shape of them from above, I think they’d be far more alarmed than they are. Instead I mostly see this weird blanket of apathy draped over everything.

And does anyone here actually listen to Buffett? For fuck’s sake. The guy has been standing on the mountain for years waving warning flags about inflation, about speculation, about turning markets into casinos. He’s been repeating the same message over and over like some ancient economic oracle trapped in a time loop.

But here we are.

The brightest minds I can find online are locked in endless battles over trans people while simultaneously sketching elaborate diagrams explaining why Bitcoin is destined to become the sacred currency of the future. It’s like watching philosophers argue over shadows while the building they’re standing in slowly catches fire.

I don’t know.

Maybe it’s me.

But it feels like the whole collective mind of the world has wandered into a funhouse and forgotten where the exit is. And Americans especially seem determined to stare into the mirrors until they mistake the reflections for reality.

[Gregmal]

3 minutes ago, whiskybravo said:

The Trumpers, man… they’re like these little fish swimming upstream through a river of their own confusion. They keep staring at the rising tide of socialism like it just materialized out of the cosmic fog, completely forgetting they’re standing on the deck of the ship that’s taking on water. Their party feels like a monument to governance entropy, slowly dissolving into static. What did they think was going to happen?

And Parsad, seriously, I respect you. Every time you disagree with me it’s like finding a hidden doorway in a room I thought I understood. You make me stop and inspect the wallpaper of reality. But I still think you’re underestimating the scale of what’s unfolding right now. The damage being done feels bigger than politics. It feels structural. Geological. Like cracks forming beneath the foundation while everyone’s arguing about the paint color.

What really keeps me up is this looming fiscal singularity. Hyperinflation. Not as some abstract economic term floating around in a textbook, but as this enormous reality-bending force. People hear the words and shrug, but these things can reshape entire civilizations. They’re like tectonic plates moving beneath human consciousness. If people could actually feel the size of these forces, if they could see the shape of them from above, I think they’d be far more alarmed than they are. Instead I mostly see this weird blanket of apathy draped over everything.

And does anyone here actually listen to Buffett? For fuck’s sake. The guy has been standing on the mountain for years waving warning flags about inflation, about speculation, about turning markets into casinos. He’s been repeating the same message over and over like some ancient economic oracle trapped in a time loop.

But here we are.

The brightest minds I can find online are locked in endless battles over trans people while simultaneously sketching elaborate diagrams explaining why Bitcoin is destined to become the sacred currency of the future. It’s like watching philosophers argue over shadows while the building they’re standing in slowly catches fire.

I don’t know.

Maybe it’s me.

But it feels like the whole collective mind of the world has wandered into a funhouse and forgotten where the exit is. And Americans especially seem determined to stare into the mirrors until they mistake the reflections for reality.

LOL hilarious

[Blake Hampton]

Complacency

[LC]

4 hours ago, Libs said:

To our friends on the Democrat side of the aisle, how do you see - in light of Mamdani running the table in NY last night - the rise of the DSA and their attempted takeover of the party? Seems like it is happening. 

 

This is the mirror image of MAGA's takeover of the GOP. I never would have predicted that either.

 

Is it my favorite idea in the world? No, but I think implementation is going to be much harder given Dems don't have a history of steamrolling their politics thru. I think they are more reliant on compromise, in comparison with MAGA. My recollection was even Obama being held a bit in-check by his own party. 

 

Not sure I'd call it a mirror image either as Trump kind of co-opted the tea party, unless you think Mamdani is going to similarly co-opt the DSA? I don't think he has nearly the star power as our boy DJ Trump 

[LC]

1 hour ago, Gregmal said:

LOL hilarious

I'll have some of what he's having

[Parsad]

1 hour ago, Blake Hampton said:

 

The Trumpers are stupid. They like to act surprised about the rising tide of socialism, but fail to realize that their party is the definition of failing governance. What do they expect?
 

I respect your views Parsad and your disagreements always give me pause. However, I also think you underestimate the damage currently being done by the Trump administration and just how bad the current situation really is.

 

I fear a fiscal crisis and resulting hyperinflation. And I think that most people fail to grasp just how sizable these items actually are; that they have the power to change our entire reality. I think if people could understand, they may be more upset about what's happening instead of the apathy that I currently see.

Does anyone here actually listen to Buffett? I mean fuck! This dude has been incessantly detailing the perils of runaway inflation and casino analogies for years now!

But here we are, the smartest people I can seem to find on the internet, fighting over trans people and talking up our thesis on why Bitcoin is the future currency.

I don't know. I guess I just feel like the world has lost its mind. I know Americans certainly have.

 

The funny thing is Blake, you are telling people who have been listening to Buffett for far longer than you...who have actually met or known Buffett...that they aren't listening to Buffett or have no idea about the risks in the economy.  Do you see how moronic that is? 

 

Buffett also said that if he was managing a million dollars or less, he would be fully invested in the markets all of the time and could get 50% annualized returns.  But you are playing macro games.  Again, the irony is that you really don't know what Buffett is talking about or doing.  Very few actually do.

 

I am the furthest thing from MAGA...I've also never been a Nazi...I'm also not a psychopath.  But if you were fighting in the Second World War, you would want to know what your enemy was thinking.  If you were a detective, you would want to know what the psychopath might be thinking.  And if you are a Democrat/Liberal, you would want to know what a MAGA acolyte is thinking and why. 

 

In life, you should stand for things...but absolutism is not a rational stance.  If the facts change, change your position...don't adhere to something solely because you are adamant you are right and everyone else is wrong.   I've found the best investors, and generally the most rational human beings, are the ones that are intellectually honest with what they know and don't know.  And most don't waste their time arguing with people who cannot see that!  Cheers!