Using violence, torture, and the backing of the Russian military, and after numerous failed coup and assassination attempts he took and held tenuous control. Torture hardly played a huge roll or he would have been successful the first time, or the second. He retained and increased that power in the 70-80's by spending his huge amounts of oil money on the people, mostly not by torturing them (except for Kurds).

The "others in the room" we're his forces, not random people who murdered for him out of relief. He didn't hand weapons to an adversarial group he was convincing to follow his lead by having them kill those who wouldn't. I mean...WHAT?

You use fear mongering as proof torture works? Um... ok.

Since what I've been discussing is torture working to get sensitive, useful information, not the long term terrorism and brutal oppression of a population, I'll just move on.
Yes, despots can ride nations into the ground by making the populations powerless and fearful until those populations revolt. Yes, an iron hand and willingness to make your population stone aged can allow you to hold on a long time. Yes, torture can be part of that, but only one small unnecessary part, a strong military willing to murder unarmed civilians is what it takes, torture or not.

Wow, now you think the U.S. military taking out Saddam proves torture works because ...force and violence?

Strength vs weakness is what worked, not torture or terrorism, that's why he failed, brought down by a coalition of locals and Americans with his military deserting him in droves when he needed them most.

Torture is not a functional interrogation technique nor a means to foster loyalty, only fear. Fear only works until someone adds hope to the equation.

Um.....the number of humans is a MASSIVE problem, even if superhuman coordination can move them efficiently.

Side note, how did you live there for years and not know it's normally spelled Tokyo? ;-)

Um....earth dollars are fine to fund your trip off earth....you'll have to get your own Vega spending money.
Extinctions today are 99% from habitat destruction, not the bush meat trade.

Eat some protein, your brain isn't working

Lol. Good point.....dirty hippies. ;-)

Um....what? Vegans should want to avoid them almost as much as the hunter's helper and slaughterhouse sucker brand lozenges, not flock to the brand marketed at meat harvesters.

Um...really? You think non vegans fear a vegan culinary takeover or something enough to falsify studies/polls? That's hilarious.
As to the 7% number, even vegan organizations in Britain disagree, as does Wiki....
According to a 2018 survey by Comparethemarket.com, the number of people who identify as vegans in the United Kingdom has risen to over 3.5 million, which is approximately seven percent of the population, and environmental concerns were a major factor in this development.[140] However, doubt was cast on this inflated figure by the UK-based Vegan Society, who perform their own regular survey: the Vegan Society themselves found in 2018 that there were 600,000 vegans in Great Britain (1.16%), which is a dramatic increase on previous figures.[141][142]
United States: Estimates of vegans in the U.S. vary from 2% (Gallup, 2012)[143] to 0.5% (Faunalytics, 2014). According to the latter, 70% of those who adopted a vegan diet abandoned it.

Um.... Russia. I'm beginning to think we all deserve to die.

Um, happy new year!

Probably a good decision to write the year in question in your headline.

Um, can someone please explain this to me?

Um, Ant... those animals really are that fast. There was no time-shifting that I could see.

Um.... given the location, the rape victim will now be trialed for murder..... She'll probably get stoned to death by her own brother or father.

There's no such thing as #meToo in those parts of the world.

No. That's not the issue.
The issue is that when you are to the right of Goebbels, everything looks liberal and honest truth looks like a partisan attack. The right has not just run far right, they put on rocket shoes with wheels and warped right. What was considered a hard right position 20 years ago is now called hyper liberal by your ilk.
There is no excuse for the garbage "reporting" going on....at Fox, OAN, and Info Wars. None. It's not really reporting when you make up 90% and use each other as sources.

Kavanaugh was treated like a prince compared to Garland, a centrist judge confirmed unanimously by republicans before they lost their minds and souls to become the party of "Fuck you".
Fusion thing? You mean his crappy dietary supplements that he claims could make you the Adonis that Jones himself is? Um...yeah, that's obviously and undeniably a pack of lies concocted by Alex Jones. Duh.

Again, you choose to conflate imperfection on the left with inhumanity and consistent dishonesty and fraud from the top leadership on the right.
Obama did better stopping undocumented migrants out than Trump has without dehumanizing them or calling them murderers and rapists in obvious racist ploys to get his racist base excited, but you certainly disagree because and are certain Trump has done more because Trump calls them rapists and murderers, and implies that any middle eastern is a terrorist (but not angry white guys with guns and mail bombs, those are good people).

There may be more than enough scum to go around, but one side is nothing but lying fraudulent scumbags now, and it's not the left. Trump is a convicted fraud who defrauded poor students (and charities, and anyone he ever did business with) and is 100% incapable of being truthful even when his words are written for him, and the dishonesty seeped through the party like Ebola, leaving none uninfected. You look at 2 children, one with some mud on its face, the other slathered head to toe like a golem, and you say they're both dirty, plenty of mud on both sides. *facepalm

Um....I just......Um.....really?!?
*doublepromote *quality foreshadowing

Um, I doubt this is legal. *discusss

Um....he's providing evidence against Trump in the Trump Russia investigation as part of his plea deal....that is about Trump.

Keep denying.

He's pleading guilty to crimes he committed for and during the Trump campaign, through 2017, namely conspiracy against the U.S. by intentionally hiding his foreign agent status and the tens of millions the Russians paid him and lying under oath about them (a gift by Muller who has far more dirt on him but let him off easy), and he's providing documentation about Trump's campaign working with Russia, not so old or unrelated to Trump. Derp.

Maybe Muller will suggest 14 years in prison for Manafort if his evidence proves useful, or perhaps much longer if not. Remember he already has 8 other convictions awaiting sentencing, this takes care of the other 10 charges he had pending.

Yes, conspiracy against the United States, and defrauding the government are fairly big time crimes.

Odd that, when every person Trump hand picked is totally in Russia's pockets and as an administration they go to extreme lengths to hide it, including lying under oath and in official documents until caught, then are convicted or plea guilty, you still try to pretend it's not related to Trump.

He's either outrageously bad at his job, easily tricked by Russia into hiring only Russian operatives, and should be removed, or is complicit and should be removed. Which is it?