Lostwingman

Hey what level of autistic screeching are you at?
 
I don't know...3..or 4?
 
You are like little baby, hold my chai mocha latte.

Why would Putin do that?

Cnn is currently making a big deal about how the white supremacists were outnumbered by the protestors at some rally. 
 
Well no shit they were. There's maaaaybe  a couple thousand people in the KKK these days. They are the biggest nonissue ever but the left treats them like some sort of seething illuminati of hatred.
 
Antifa thugs beat people within inches of their lives, but a guy cosplaying as a ghost and yells something about racial superiority is somehow a more grave threat. 

@Walter_Sobchak, I think it's important to understand that many conservative and poor Americans felt completely left out of both parties. The Democrats were no longer the party of the working man and the poor (which they never really were - but the good branding had finally worn off), but clearly revealed as a party of elites feeding their own interests at the expense of the country and especially the middle class. Not only did (and does) the Democratic and left-wing chatter center around concepts that feel alien to blue collar Americans, but any attempt at dissent or even discussion would quickly result in the label of "racist" or "Nazi" being slapped onto the dissenter. Any blue collar worker who piped up with beliefs as innocent as that they believe legal immigration is a good thing, but they'd like the US to stay demographically similar to what it is now would find themselves branded with labels they had worked hard for years to escape. Prior to the Obama years, most rural Americans took tolerance seriously, even if they didn't understand it entirely. But now, despite all that, they were cast out anyway.

Their treatment by Republicans was not much better, either. The GOP might as well have been a clone of the DNC, but with less power, less social capital, and less ability to win elections. This was such common knowledge that there were even South Park episodes about it. McCain was the final capstone of this long-time project to "liberalify" the GOP, as before the campaign he had been considered a Democrat in all but name by virtually everyone. No surprise that McCain walked away with a halfhearted turnout and a second place sticker. Romney was more of the same!
 
Trump's appeal lies in his destructive power. Trump vexes the DNC and cucks the GOP, both of whom left his base behind long ago. Trump talks a good game on foreign policy, bureaucratic reform, immigration, etc., which is frankly more than any recent previous candidate ever did. Trump also acts like he likes being around the salt of the earth, a far cry from Obama's barely-concealed Ivy-league contempt of them. Precisely because he's a wrecking ball who is shaking things up, many people aren't taking anything for granted anymore and that brings them hope. Because everything was that bad before. Our foreign policy was insane. Our immigration policy was retarded. Our bureaucracy was out of control. People knew all this for a long time but the existing structure had calcified so much that nothing could be done about any of it. Maybe it's different now, maybe Trump will break or has broken enough stuff that some real progress can be made. I dunno that I have that much hope, but hope is there for a lot of people, and no amount of off-color tweets will change that.

Sadly you seem far more concerned about supposed problems with the Republicans when they are not threatening any of our fundamental rights, but poo-poo the actions of the Democrats like they are no big deal, while they make moves attacking the rights of US Citizens.  Since I'm not a republican or democrat, I'll go after either party when they attack my rights, and contrary to the lefty and media spin, the only party doing that right now is the Democrat party. I've said it before, I'll say it again, politicians are scumbags, they always have been and always will be, both sides, and they should be watched and not trusted, and I don't give a shit if they can fake looking like nice people. They can run around in clown makeup if they actually get things done.  
 
 
 
That's a lot of text just to spew the standard Pelosi/media line, I am almost surprised to you didn't call the cuts crumbs.   Also, it's not just me, it's anyone with eyes, who's willing to look around. Even in California, people are spending money again. We've done more pool upgrades for people this year than in the last 5 by a huge margin, and it's industry-wide. The funniest part is how far lefties got to say it's not real, or just for the rich when Obama achieved nothing like it. FACT, the American people, and economy are doing better under Trump than Obama.  You can try and be like MSNBC and CNN to spin it as a negative, but its still, better than Obama ever achieved.  
 
 
I thought you said no more snark, or are you really trying to say, you don't understand, when Trump says "Fair Share", he means paying the obligatory amount of money required by the treaty, on National Defense, and you know damn well they were not doing this, and you know damn well their readiness was terrible. You knew all this, yet you still put up that crap, stolen right from CNN BS?  
 
Once again, the facts are, Trump, got NATO moving on this when previous admins failed. 
 
If the US should spend blood on a bunch of shitholes eastern European countries who have no business being in NATO at all is a whole other debate, and something NO use Citizen was asked about. 
 
 
 
 
The shity Iran deal that had them still working on a NUKE, while spreading Islamic Terror throughout the middle east, killing that was a plus and a campaign promise, or was that the Paris deal, also a shit deal.   Of course,  you could just trust the Iranians when they claim they were not, in spite of evidence to the contrary. 
 
 
 
The deal is not done, but Trump, as meager as it is, has still gotten more out of North Korea than Obama, or Bush, and without paying a dime.    So again, I stated a fact, you couldn't just concede. Yet, its a fact, the media does the same thing, and their credibility is at an all-time low, and the rights hate of the press predates Trump, so don't try and play that silly card. At worst, all we get is the dead soldiers, and things go back to the way there were, at best we get something better. How is that a bad thing?   
 
 
 
So, you don't understand Trump is trying to use tariffs on countries that unfairly tariff our goods to get a better deal for the US companies, and we have nothing like free trade in reality?  If you understand this, why is it a bad thing?
 
 
What president has been free of Cabinet officials doing stupid/embarrassing things?  We only hear about the Trump ones because the media turns minor things, into news stories and then makes shit up, like how many scoops of ice cream Trump gets.  Were the optics of the Obama Whitehouse 'better'? Maybe, if you didn't bother to dig a little, the mainstream media litterally worshiped Obama and continually avoided covering things that embarrassed him. I guess if all you care is appearances admin politicized everything and did real damage to the nation. Unless you think a corrupt and incompetent FBI and Justice department are good things and it's one or the other or maybe both at this point, and it is really not deniable, there is all the evidence you would ever need in the IG report.  
 
Trumps Chaotic Whitehouse may look bad to people who can't see past the crap the mainstream media insists on covering or the blatant lies they tell using unnamed sources, people who like results can't ignore the fact things are better under Trump, well you can't ignore it if you have an ounce of objectivity on Trump. 
 
 
Yeah Sadly he was stuck with the Obama admins Cage policy.   And of course you won't give the man credit for actually trying to push these things through, and I'm sure you know the reasons why they failed, but lack the objectivity to be honest about it.  
 
 
 
Well, since you ignored/excused the problems with the justice department and FBI in the past, I don't think you actually want to know what the deep state is, or the swamp, or any of the actual deep problems with lifelong government employees having power over the lives of Americans, and the problems that can cause in a democracy.  I also think its funny lefties think someone who is already stupidly rich, would try and get rich by cheating the American people, while every media outlet in the in the nation, as incompetent as they are, is watching. I suppose it's no more stupid than the left's insistence on passing laws, to stop criminals from doing things, by taking the rights of non-criminals away, under the assumption, that the new anti-freedom law will be the one those criminals decide to obey. 
 
There are so many problems with the Meuler probe, that it stands no chance of actually getting Trump, see that's the problem with having a corrupt justice department and FBI, they mess shit up and it,  and ruin their own credibility.  We could get into this, but in the past, you seemed really apt to dismiss problems with the FBI and Justice Dept as Trump/republican BS attacking our law enforcement agencies. You might want to read up on some the subject, and aviod lefty sources, maybe start with the IG Report before you dive in. 
 
I will say this though, at least under Trump, there is a chance the justice department might go after government overreach and corruption when there was no chance of that taking place at all under Obama.  Somehow investigating government curruption is now a bad thing under Trump though!
 
 
Yeah, that depends on when you look at the poles and what poles, and Obama wasn't much more popular when he was in office, and the media was kissing his ass. If you had any objectivity about Trump, you might wonder if all the unfair media coverage of Trump might be having an effect on the polling, and you'd also note it has spike up into the Obama range several times,  but we're back to your lack of objectity.  Yeah and spin "high profile" Republicans, who the base hates because they sell out on immigration, as a bad thing, while your party has leadership older than the average AARP senior member. Maybe the left losing some of its prominent Democrats would be a good thing too unless you like have Nancy P as your spokesmummy...  
 
 
I'm not actually sure why you do participate in these discussions.  Your mind is closed, you said it yourself,  to paraphrase, nothing could ever convince you Trump isn't bad since no objective fact can change your mind. That means you have no objectivity, why bother?  
 
And don't try and act like we're all mindless Trump drones when we don't agree with your mostly mainstream media hate-driven opinions on Trump, for me, I will drop support for Trump when he goes after the first and second Amendments like the left in this country has. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Also who needs to spend billions to win an election when it has been shown that $100,000 in Facebook ads and an office building full of Slavs squatting behind a computer screen with troll accounts can hack an entire election.

Man she ain't the only one. I could probably kill someone with the stack of fliers and ads from this persons campaign. Like every goddamn day for 3 months and the area of San Antonio I'm in is like 90% democrat.
 
The DNC and related groups burn money like nobodies business. I should consider getting into the printing business, sheesh.

Trump reflects the true poise and grace of all his predecessors, like the one who gave the Queen a iPod, or the one that made up words, or the one that ejaculated on his secretary in the Oval Office.

I can't even begin to care about the "faking professionalism" that every one of them has done. The pedestal of any elected office is a sham, getting elected is not like being a doctor or scientist. They all deserve and should be mocked and brought low. Caring about it is a peak non-sequitur. The office of the presidency is not some royal court position, people need to stop raising the theater of the office over the function of it. Oh no the president did a faux pas! Good thing I'm not a bourgeoisie fart sniffer then. 

The Left wants to kill the Right, that's pretty obvious to most everyone around here. At least some of the Right wants to kill the Left, too, but it ain't Proud Boys chanting "Liberals get the bullet too"
 





 

You just don't have the galaxy brain to understand THAT RUSSIA DID IT AGAIN REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

 

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
 
GREEN PARTY REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
 
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Well the Russians aren't currently saying they want to kill them, so...

Funny, that's the exact same sentiment that I have when I see illegal aliens hopping the border, refusing to assimilate, and taking down the US flag from government buildings to fly the Mexican flag instead.
 
 
So, the only options are to be either a Democrat or a Russian? Non-Democrats aren't welcome and should leave the country?

But muh Blue WAY-IVVVVV!!!
 
And here we have an advert from Jon Tester, the incumbent Democrat Senator from Montana.
 
 
 
...
 
Wait. Did you catch that? Tester is running a campaign on bills that President Trump signed into law. Five seconds into this ad and Democrat Sen. Jon Tester is giving an in-kind contribution in the form of positive air time to Trump. 
 
Unlike Sen. Heitkamp, Tester is a more savvy politician and he almost makes you believe that he is conservative senator from a very conservative red state. He's also polling three or four points ahead of his GOP opponent currently Matt Rosendale. 
 
Here are some stills from a few of his other commercials.
 

 
Look at that. Tester found someone to hold a gun in one of his commercials, albeit a very responsible over-and-under shotgun with empty tubes. But still! He must be for "responsible" gun rights.
 
And here is a screen grab of Tester himself driving an old, beat-up 'murican pickup truck.
 

 
Savage Model 99 in the gun rack. Clearly trying to appeal to the most intelligent and discerning of voters, and that would be lever action rifle fans.
 
...
 
In any other part of the country, if a Republican had run an ad featuring a gun called "Wired to Fight" he'd be labeled a terrorist and every other name under the sun. But that's the issue. These races for Senate that the Democrats need to win in order to ride the "Blue Wave" aren't in "any other part of the country". No. They're in Montana. And North Dakota, Missouri, Tennessee. Florida, Indiana, and a few other states where Trump won by running on his #MAGA message and where Democrats are now having to do the same in order to retain their seats.
 

I knew you'd interpret that as me saying "lol women in politics". This is why everyone hates the Left now, they can't give anyone else credit.

Fucking end me fam

 
 
I've never seen a Trump tweet that didn't have this moron somewhere in the top replies.

what in the fuck
 

Russia didn't managed to influence elections in Ukraine, which was very important for us, and suddenly can manipulate all sort of elections everywhere in a matter of less than 2 years!

The sanctions on Russia I linked are executive orders.  Trump can reverse those with a pen stroke.  Russia is plenty upset about THAAD in South Korea.  Trump is the CinC of the entire US military; it's one of the few areas where he has absolute, unquestioned authority if it comes down to it.  It might cost him some political capital to exercise this authority, but then if he's a Russian puppet who is controlled by blackmail and/or installed by Russian meddling, why would that matter?  Recognition of countries is also another rare area where the US president has a large degree of unilateral authority.
 
Trump is causing tension in NATO by asking them to increase defense spending.  How does that help Putin?  Trump is causing tension in the G7, which favors free trade, and simultaneously asking Saudi Arabia to increase oil production.  Russia's economy is 2/3 dependent on oil production.  That clearly doesn't help Putin either.  As for the EU, they're Russia's largest oil and gas export market.  They're insanely dependent on Russia.  Trump pointed this out and mocked them for it.  Again, this does not help Putin.
 
I like Russia a lot.  I think the country has been unfairly vilified, and I find much of their history and technology fascinating.  But let's be fucking real here; Russia is not a strategic peer to the USA.  Russia has a GDP somewhere between Spain and Italy.  Russia used to have enormous industrial capacity; this was looted in the 1990s and will need to be reconstituted from scratch if they ever want it again.  This further means that the relatively large number of technical specialists Russia has in certain high-tech fields (aerospace, nuclear engineering, some medicine) can't really be utilized domestically.  At this very moment, Russia just doesn't matter all that much.  Russia isn't trying to manipulate US politics from the top down.  Russia has just gotten down with narrowly avoiding disintegration and implosion, and is now working in building itself back up to where it was decades ago.  By what means exactly, is Russia supposed to be able to manipulate US presidential elections?
 
Thus far, the Mueller investigation has discovered a few thousand ads that Russian front companies purchased for a grand total of $100,000.  The entire Trump campaign cost more than half a billion dollars.  The Russian contribution is rounding error.  It's a lot like how voter fraud verifiably does happen.  It does occur, but it's generally considered so rare that it doesn't threaten the integrity of the election.  Did the Russians run some intentionally divisive ads during the election?  Sure looks like it, but nobody should care.  Mexico and Australia try to do it too, but it's not really considered significant.  Unless you're telling me that Russian memes are orders of magnitude more dank than American ones, I don't see how this is a major concern.
 
Now, that's not saying that Russian companies and the Russian government weren't above a bit of old-fashioned pay for play, but you'd be stupid not to.  The price of bribes for minor favors is ridiculously low.  But actually controlling the US president on high-level matters?  When he's already a billionaire?  Again, by what means?

1)  Point of order, William Browder is not a US citizen.  As the links above explain, he renounced his US citizenship to lower his taxes.
 
2)  The US allows foreign countries to interrogate and even imprison its citizens semi-regularly.  It's called an extradition treaty.

3)  The US and Russia currently have no extradition treaty, so it would make sense that anyone that Putin really really wanted to have dangled into his shark tank would need to be negotiated on a case by case basis with someone high in the US government.

And if I were Putin and I'd mind-raped Trump into being my psychic catamite, I'd be pretty pissed right now.  Complete waste of time thus far.  The sanctions punishing Russia for its intervention in Ukraine are still in place.  The US is still planning on putting THAAD in Germany and South Korea.  Trump has ordered air strikes on Russia's ally Syria, twice in fact.  The US military still maintains a ground presence in Syria, and has no immediate plans to leave.  The US still does not recognize South Ossetia.  Ukraine is still considered an official NATO aspirant.
 
Basically all the items of contention between the US and Russia lingering from the Obama era are still the same as they were before.  If Trump is a Russian puppet sent to D.C. to give Putin everything he wants on a silver platter, he's pretty fucking useless at that job.

Please tell me you just found this on Facebook or something and that you don't know who Bill Browder actually is.  Because that would be way more forgivable than actually supporting the man.

The article describes him as a "British-American investor and rights activist," which is a hell of a way to describe someone that slimy.
 
Here's the deal; everyone that the official US government actually likes who deals with Russia in any official or quasi-official capacity is scum.  You can take that to the bank.  While Russian organized crime was probably more than capable of looting post-Soviet Russia without any help, they had lots of help.  This article gives a good summary.  The rape and pillage of Russia in the 1990s wasn't just overseen by men in Adidas tracksuits.  There were a fair number of well-connected Harvard men.  And I do mean well-connected.  The Larry Summers mentioned in that article?  Yeah, it's that Larry Summers.
 
Once these assholes were done helping gangsters strip-mine Russia of anything valuable, they peddled their "expertise" on Russia to a credulous audience in the US government so they could gain juicy sinecures in various Russia-related posts.  And so it came to pass that Michael McFaul, who can't fucking speak Russian, became the US ambassador to Russia.  With predictably disastrous results.

So, who is William Browder, this man that Putin wants offed?  Well, it might surprise you know that fourteen years ago he was firmly on Team Putin.  You see, he used to be a Putin stooge, and then he probably stole a fuckload of money, and now he's become a successful lobbyist and tax-non-payer who has managed to rebrand himself as a human rights advocate.  Does Putin want him dead?  Yeah, and the fact that he used to be a Putin cheerleader, won't testify in court about his finances, and probably lied about the basis for the law that he successfully lobbied for is enough to give you a rough idea of how that came to be.  Don't steal from the boss!  Don't even steal from the capo!