Newt has it researched as usual, some minor points:
- Ukraine is in the UN
- Ukraine in its pre war state could not get into the EU, there are economic criteria for that to have a chance to work. What was proposed was a free trade zone and economic help. The EU was slow as fuck. The Ukrainian political situation was volatile.
- Ukraine could not be admitted into NATO after 2014 as it was already in a proxy war against Russia.

What a US president with a brain could have done in Trumps term was broker a deal with Putin that would make land concessions to Russia (russian speaking regions based on referendums maybe?) in exchange for future EU and NATO affiliation for the rest of Ukraine with vague promises of weapon and troop movement limitations. Nearly impossible but it could be tried if one stayed a step ahead of Putin.

Trump patted him on the back instead and took selfies.

Nope, sorry. Another total failure of your memory.

This is Trump's retreat, negotiated by Trump with the criminal terrorists who gave up absolutely nothing to get Trump's unconditional surrender and retreat. In the process, Trump delegitimized and abandoned the legitimate Afghan government and indicated they would not be supported by the U.S. military. He also abandoned those Afghanis who risked their lives to help us, making absolutely no plans to identify or allow them to immigrate here, instead actually putting active road blocks in the way, slowing or discarding their applications, and not staffing positions required to process applications. Biden was left to facilitate the disastrous agreement Trump made when he "negotiated" (actually just capitulated) with terrorists but did not prepare for. Biden failed to fix this disastrous withdrawal Trump caused and botched, he didn't cause it.

I understand, with an IQ below 75, it's hard for you to remember who did what. Trump made this happen, bragged about it until a few weeks ago. Trump released 5000+ of the Taliban from prison then unconditionally surrendered to them last spring without consulting the Afghan government. The only concession he got was an agreement from terrorists to not attack the U.S. during the retreat until May but attacking the Afghanis was allowed...Biden got that extended through August.

Got 25th? Could you mean implement the 25th amendment? When did right wing nutjobs lose their ability to speak English?

Won't happen....if Delusional Donny wasn't demented and dementia riddled enough to remove, Biden has nothing to worry about at all. His mental state makes Trump look like a Alzheimer's patient and stroke victim who's addicted to crack. Is that why he's besties with the My Crackpipe Guy now....that's his dealer?
Are you advocating for President Harris? How about President Pelosi? Do you even realize that's what happens if Biden was removed? Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face! Lol.

Biden is such a virile, imposing leader that Republicans are terrified to be in the same room, so they have announced the entire party plans to skip his address to congress....because they claim they want bipartisanship and respect. 🤦‍♂️


So much for bipartisanship. No more concessions to you snowflakes. The obstructionist party has proven conclusively for decades that sour grapes and obstinate obstruction are more important to them than leadership or legislation, more important than fighting the pandemic, more important than the economy, more important than infrastructure projects, more important than America.

Biden's approval rating has yet to dip near as low as Trump's best day. His plans are popular among even Republican voters. Your feeble little cries, dumb whining, sour grapes, and blind projection are music to our ears. Enjoy the next 8 years.
Covfefe.

Frothing at the mouth and hyperbole? Hardly. Are you miffed I called you out on spreading false accusations designed to invalidate an election result or something? Can you give one example?

More damage than Trump can do in two months?! Now who's hyperbolic? Please.

250000+- of us haven't survived 46 months. Over 1 million more have been utterly devastated physically and financially, many permanently.

Trump threw tradition out the window, not America. We are itching to get back to some traditional civility, rationality, and sanity.

No, there's 4 years of evidence indicating most republicans up to and including Moscow Mitch and Barr will support him until he fires or turns on them no matter what. The best we can hope for there is the system still being stronger than one flailing party, but it's certainly not as strong as it was 4 years ago.

Ok, how about zero chance he'll graciously concede or accept that he lost, he might concede that he's been cheated out of winning, but that's not a concession it's an accusation.

Where have you heard that before? Don't say Gore, he never said that although it was nearly true.

He will leave, it might be kicking and screaming like he said he would. It could conceivably be in the back of a cop car.

Trump claims the first stimulus package was for up to $6 trillion, not just two....and expects two more will be needed, making the bill for his inaction near $18-19 trillion by his estimates. That means all the outrage over Sanders plans to spend trillions on healthcare and education was utter bullshit (which we knew) or that the problem was we would get something for our money. Trump's just handing it out, largely without strings attached or getting any equity or concessions for it like Obama's bailouts did. Now THAT'S some serious socialism, meaning in just over 3 years his mismanagement would have more than doubled the national debt during an economic expansion (he added >$5 trillion without the pandemic, well over $1 trillion per year deficit before the economic collapse)....Conman Don, Don the Con, that's what they call him, I'm hearing people call him that, Don the Con.

It's all but guaranteed that he's going to just grab the Covid19 funds to build his wall, which is quickly becoming the wall America paid for FOR MEXICO who handled the pandemic infinitely better with only .3% of the cases America has and is stopping Americans from going to Mexico now.
(Side note, with immigrant harvesters staying home and crops rotting in the fields, expect food prices to skyrocket while unemployment also continues to skyrocket.)
@bobknight33 , comments?

ALL you can drink?

This reminds me of those "all drinks are on us" cruises you see advertised on TV.

I mean, a thousand frat boys with an unlimited bar tab stuck on a boat with nothing else to do? Didn't anyone involved in this promotion see the videos of the Nickel Beer Night Riot in Cleveland? If they haven't, they really should, because the Nickel Beer Night Riot was the greatest thing to happen in the history of Western Civilization Assholery. I'm serious! If I had a time machine, screw going back to meet Jesus or killing baby Hitler: I'd grab me a ride to June 4, 1974, drop a dollar at the beer concession stand, then get hoot-chimp drunk and huck D-cells at the Texas Rangers until it was Penis Puppetry time at third base.

All-you-can-drink beer in Japan? That'd be like the Nickel Beer Night Riot, only with samurai and ninjas -- how fucking awesome would that be?! I'm half-way to the airport already!

God bless you, Japan!

Giving respect gets respect. If she was cool and nice and NOT I'm Such and Such important community person, She might have been given a warning.

People who put on airs turn others off.

I work with about 300 customers Those who work with me get breaks. Ill put them first in for service events. I'll try to concede as much billable items under their contract. Ill even go to bat when their bill exceeds my limit of 5K and get my boss to concession it.

Those who don't, at times get delayed service and billed for even the minor of things.




HELP ME HELP YOU.

No, they aren't compelling in the least, they're obvious disingenuous propaganda, lies, and misdirection not worth debunking.....but you asked so here's your comments.....

First....
"catch and release" refers to a practice of releasing an immigrant to the community while he or she awaits hearings in immigration court, as an alternative to holding them in immigration detention.The migrants whom U.S. immigration enforcement agencies have allowed to remain in the community pending immigrant hearings have been those deemed low risk, such as children, families, and those seeking asylum.

There is no "hard-and-fast definition" of the phrase, which is pejorative. Rather, the phrase refers to a "collection of policies, court precedents, executive actions and federal statutes spanning more than 20 years, cobbled together throughout Democratic and Republican administrations."-Wiki

So he starts by lying about what catch and release is and who started the policies.

....Can send the asylum seeker to the interior until they've been adjudicated, which can be forever......
No, it can't be forever, and Trump/Republicans are doing all they can to extend the wait times. Obama did it to unaccompanied minors, he didn't separate families. Another lie. Funding immigration courts would solve it all, end separation and get everyone processed in a reasonable, legal timeframe....perhaps why Trump took that off the table.

Really, a Faux news talking head wants to deride someone's English.....Try Trump, he can't put a rational English sentence together.....ever.

Trump destroyed Daesh? I think Syria and Russia might disagree, as well as Daesh, which is still in existence.

Yes, the N Korea summit was a loss for us and a win for them. We gave massive concessions and granted them official recognition, and got vague unsecured promises to negotiate in the future in return.


You claim to not be a Trumpophile, but it's blatantly obvious that's a lie. Your bias is so thick and blinding perhaps you can't see through it.

Exactly. Meeting Kim is the one thing that Trump has done that on the surface looks good. There is no conclusive evidence about any real results, AFAIK Kim did not promise anything new while Trump made concessions, but Trump fans are happy because their star appears to have scored.

I say good for you, I for one hope that pronounced achievements really get accomplished, that peace will be made and US gets to invest in NK, private ownership and human rights get established, people there get to eat, and everyone will live happily ever after.

However I am not sure that China, NK, SK, Japan and Russia consider this meeting anything more than a fleeting episode in a long struggle over bits and pieces of the far east. Trumps come and go and say things.

So now he is friends with two dictators, one has personally pledged not to interfere with US elections and another has promised not to nuke the US. That would be better if those same dictators had a history of keeping their promises.

He took one tiny step towards a good thing, and gave up quite a lot of leverage to take that tentative step. IF it eventually leads to some binding meaningful agreement, kudos to him. It's insanely early to be patting any backs yet, though, except perhaps Kim's back, he did amazingly well for his country already.
It's not straw grasping, it's reality, there's no agreement yet, only a stated willingness to discuss one. That's only a good thing if it's successful, certainly not good if it ends with more concessions from us but nothing from NK, and I think that's what many people expect. Don't expect any kudos for Trump until the process bears tangible fruit that benefits us.

Edit: you said he made peace, but there is no peace agreement and we are still technically at war, then you said he got nuclear war off the table, but that's simply not in any way true. Who's grasping?

Hmm. I think Trump's healthcare and economic policies have consequences in human lives. War is not the only injustice.

Idk. Context is important, but then... life is meaningless and ephemeral - soon there will be nothing. It seems there is always a bigger picture to reach for to diminish somebody's argument.

I don't disagree with what Bush said about the state of politics now. If it was an anonymous comment I'd still agree with it, but it would less interesting. Perhaps it is fair to "whataboutbush" because so much emphasis was on the "who" of the comment rather than the "what". I think to the left we hope our acceptance of his comment is evidence to our impartiality. "look", we say, "we even agree with BUSH on this! Objectivity!". It seems to me to entirely be a concession to the opposition...but I can understand those who cannot abide any concession.

I say we dust off and nuke the site from orbit. Then go to the concession for tacos.

Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn't, but now it's unequivocal that we aren't working for peace, we are working for Israel, and finding a solution that's acceptable is exponentially harder, especially since no one trusts us to keep our word anymore and we can't mediate.

This gave Israel their biggest wish (besides all Palestinians just evaporating) and offered the Palestinians nothing but a nice "Fuck you", stay off our holy land. For that concession, we got nothing, zip, nada. Great mediating...give one side what they want, then pretend mediation doesn't work. What a negotiator, the best ever. Fuck.

Can anyone honestly tell me that in their wildest dreams this somehow advances the peace process? That's like Miss America thinking she won't be oogled while changing by the pageant owner in her dressing room level naivete.

Hmm. I disagree with your description text, @ChaosEngine.

I've never shot something fully-automatic. I have shot an AR-15 semi-automatic, and I know where you're coming from when you say that hitting a target on full auto would be difficult, especially for a relatively untrained person (recoil control).

However, I think Vox and others are basically correct when they say that this modification (bump stock) contributed to the Las Vegas shooting being so deadly. Specifically in that sort of scenario.

The dude wasn't picking targets and sniping, going for accuracy. He picked an ideal shooting location (elevation with clear LOS) and sprayed into a crowd. He'd have been more accurate by keeping the weapon on semi-auto and actually aiming carefully, and certainly would have gotten more hits per bullet fired, but on the other hand the rate of fire difference would have so different that people would have had more time between shots to scramble for cover, etc.

He had position, an abundance of bullets, and lots and lots of time. Given those givens, having a rate of fire approximately equal to fully-automatic means a much higher body count than if he'd have been limited to traditional semi-auto.


The NRA is being more cunning than I figured they would, and has come out in favor of banning bump stocks. I agree with you that they see that mostly as a pointless concession, and a distraction from additional / better stuff that needs to happen.

But it isn't a pointless concession. If banning fully-automatic firearms in 1986 (minus the ones grandfathered in) was the right thing to do, extending that to include bump stocks is also the right thing to do. For the same reasons.

@newtboy is correct to note that technically, a rifle with a bump stock isn't a fully-automatic "machine gun". The user's finger still pulls the trigger once for every bullet that comes out -- semi-automatic.

However, I think that the "spirit" of the distinction is that with semi-automatic firing you have to think and consciously decide to pull the trigger each time you want to shoot a bullet, whereas with fully-automatic you consciously decide when you want to start and stop shooting. By the letter of the law, weapons with bump stocks are semi-automatic. But by that definition of the "spirit" of the law, they are fully-automatic. Pull the grip/barrel forward to start shooting, pull it back to stop.

It's a pretty frequent occurrence for technology to outpace the law. The definitions of semi vs fully automatic include the word "trigger" because they didn't anticipate this kind of conversion that makes the trigger sort of one step removed from the conscious decision to fire. The law would have similar hiccups if a weapon was developed that used a button or switch to fire, rather than a traditional trigger.

When those hiccups happen, the solution is to clarify the intent of the law and expand or clarify definitions as necessary. I'm pleasantly surprised that many legislators seem willing to do that with bump stocks, and that the NRA seems like it won't stand in the way. Mission accomplished, situation resolved? No. But a step in the right direction.

Good quality Japanese blades are carbon steel, with no concessions to stainlessness at all. In a humid environment (my cellar, for example) carbon steel can grow that much rust in a week, easy.