1. #22726
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    Video in the link.

    And we’ll have a sane person as Commander-In-Chief in just two days.
    Last edited by Amadeus Arkham; 01-18-2021 at 09:33 AM.
    "I love mankind...it's people I can't stand!!"

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  2. #22727
    Ultimate Member Tendrin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post
    Agreed but let's not respond in kind with hagiography..
    Pretty sure Kirby's post was firmly tongue in cheek man xD

  3. #22728
    Ultimate Member Mister Mets's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Amadeus Arkham View Post
    It's a positive that a majority of Trump supporters don't want Trump to run again.

    As for the idea that so many of them want someone with his views, I suspect that's more voters projecting their own views onto Trump, given how little he believes, and how many contradictory statements he has made.
    Sincerely,
    Thomas Mets

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    Quote Originally Posted by CSTowle View Post
    It's only bad faith if I were saying we're the only bad actor in the world. Obviously we're not. China's a bad actor in many ways (including helping us exploit their labor force for the state's profit), and many European nations as close allies are able to join in on the exploitation bandwagon with us (they also benefit from our military projection power keeping shipping lanes and markets open to the West). I am an American so I do tend to care more about and criticize what's done with my tax dollars and in part in my name. I have no voice in what China (or any other nation) does. There are some small measures I can take to try and avoid rewarding that exploitation, but it's so widespread and baked-in that you can't avoid it entirely.
    You're not the one who I was talking about having bad faith. You don't have to a citizen of a nation to criticise its actions.

    And while I wouldn't assume that your response is necessarily a deflection or "What-about"-ism, I'd point out that it really doesn't diminish the bad done by America to point out that others are bad actors as well. It's still wrong when we do it. And we do do it, all of the time. Almost everywhere in the world where there's opportunity. And when you're, again, the world's largest economic and military power that's something worth discussing.
    Yes, it is wrong when we do it, and we shouldn't be silent when others do it, too. Of course it's wroth discussing but when it's in good faith - the problem was the poster you were responding to didn't hate the tactics it was simply a means to an end to attack America. That's why it was in bad faith. Because if your going to compare America and China's bad actions condemn them both don't let the other get away with it as though they never did anything bad.

    Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary Jack
    Let's not toot America's horn too much. Let's all be humble.

    I will say one thing...America invented the Internet. That's all us. So yay.
    You're right that Americans should be more humble, but this is going in the complete other direction where the only response is shame. It's not like American hasn't produced many good things and people. Martin Luthor King, Muhammad Ali, Jack Kirby, Siegel and Shuster, Rage against the machine, Harriet Tubman, John Lewis, Stephen Spielberg - all American.

    No country is perfect, in fact many have just as twisted history and exploit industries as Hollywood. Have some pride in your country, America's not special in doing horrible things to its citizens or indigenous peoples.

  5. #22730
    Extraordinary Member PaulBullion's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mister Mets View Post



    Clint Eastwood wanted Bloomberg in 2020.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/202...trump-n1141066
    Don't tell that to MAGA twitter, who are mass forwarding a fake "letter" by Clint which has so many grammatical errors in it it is best read with a Russian accent, all about how corrupt rapist pedophile commie Biden is.
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    Hillary was right!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kirby101 View Post
    Hey, stop the America bashing. It is a great country that is the leading light of Democracy. Okay, there might have been the worse form of slavery in history for a few hundred years, and a little genocide of the indigenous people, and some exploitation of third world countries, a few immoral wars...But hey, what about Hollywood, Jazz and Comic Books.
    Speaking as a non-American, I will say that America, like any other country, has both its great parts and bad parts but need to be much better at addressing the latter and pushing the former.

  7. #22732
    Ultimate Member Mister Mets's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post
    Agreed but let's not respond in kind with hagiography.



    "Leading light of Democracy" is not true.

    When we think of the great innovations in democratic government, America has been a follower and not a leader:
    -- The French Revolution in 1792 introduced universal male suffrage without any property qualifications or conditions, unlike America where voting was restricted only to men who had property or met a certain tax threshold (aka oligarchy).
    -- The French Revolution also abolished slavery in 1794, and introduced the concept of a multicultural democracy with rights to Jews, non-Christians, and other minorities, including African-French generals like Thomas Alexandre Dumas who got a rank that nobody in America at that time who looked like he did would have gotten (and unfortunately for Europe, remains the highest ranking POC in any military to this day). Napoleon unfortunately reversed a lot of this, but it's Napoleon who the US government cut a deal with you know.
    -- Female suffrage was introduced and instituted in New Zealand and in Scandinavian countries well before England or USA. The English government gave women the vote before Americans did.
    -- Weimar Republic Germany introduced the most progressive LGBTQ laws of any major democracy in the 1920s (the Nazis of course reversed all of this and part of their platform was triggering rural voters against those decadent cosmopolitan urban people).
    -- In terms of social democracy, the UK Labour Party passed the NHS and a whole slew of legislation that's far beyond stuff like the New Deal, the Great Society, and Obamacare.

    As far as America and democracy goes, "doing the right thing after doing everything else" is more accurate than "leading light of Democracy".



    As far as Hollywood goes, well you have the likes of Harvey Weinstein and many other predators in the industry (and some have argued many producers early in the industry were no different), you have a history of cinema that propagated harmful stereotypes against minorities of all kinds, while restricting the roles of women and non-white professionals above the line and below the lines.

    As for Comic Books, the history of exploitation of creators from Siegel and Shuster all the way to Alan Moore is enough to make one pause about celebrating that.

    As for Jazz...many of the greatest Jazz geniuses were forced to perform in segregated areas to non-mixed crowds, to come in to clubs and venues through the back door, got exploited by managers and agents and so on. And hardly ever get respect or support because the National Endowment of Arts is notoriously underfunded and the Republicans want to gut funding for it time and again.

    Let's not toot America's horn too much. Let's all be humble.

    I will say one thing...America invented the Internet. That's all us. So yay.
    What country is better? What art form has avoided exploitation?

    The United States was important as the first large republic since ancient times. Other countries built on that idea, and we adopted some of the things they did well.
    Sincerely,
    Thomas Mets

  8. #22733
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mister Mets View Post
    What country is better?
    This isn't about the better country or the better people. The thing is that just as it's unfair and ridiculous to demonize America and give China and Russia and others a pass, that doesn't mean you rally to the flag of American exceptionalism or think of America as the moral right.

    Nobody is "better", that's the point. If you accept that you can be a little more compassionate and friendly, and that might actually do a lot more to spread democracy than going all gung-ho about how "you'd all be subjects to <Insert X here> without Uncle Sam" when in reality people were subject to and are subject to Pinochet, Franco, Muhammad bin Salman, Mao Zedong, Chiang Kai Shek, Xi Jinping with Uncle Sam.

    What art form has avoided exploitation?
    Art forms that arise in democratic societies and are touted as products of such, should be judged on a higher standard, no? Sure art patronized by aristocrats in European Kingdoms had exploitation too, but if you see something similar in a democratic society and then it's promoted as such, then that's what we call hypocrisy.

    Besides stuff like comics, Hollywood, Jazz were dismissed as popular junk until people from other countries (the English and the French) started touting it. So it's a bit hypocritical to claim it while ignoring the actual history and context of the reason why people treat this as serious products of American culture.

    The United States was important as the first large republic since ancient times.
    So? Does America want a cookie for that?

    Especially since it practiced a system of slavery that in a significant sense, was far worse than in Ancient Rome and Greece, where slaves wasn't based on race, and slaves had a path to freedom and citizenship, and eventually social mobility in more than a few cases unlike Antebellum America.

    Other countries built on that idea, and we adopted some of the things they did well.
    While denying credit of course and giving an impression or lie that somehow this was all part of the plan from the Declaration of Independence. I don't think you can ignore the consequences of American exceptionalism and arrogance. The response to the happenings is last week is humility and contrition, and not reiterating stuff like this.

    Look, people need to rid themselves of the idea of America as the protagonist of reality, of the world, and even Democracy itself. If we were to do Democracy as a movie, America would be Bran from GAME OF THRONES...you know the cool, interesting, charismatic, and intriguing characters do all kinds of cool stuff and make things happen, move and shake on the ground, and then at the end some rich poser comes and takes credit for everything.
    Last edited by Revolutionary_Jack; 01-18-2021 at 10:18 AM.

  9. #22734
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    Quote Originally Posted by Amadeus Arkham View Post


    Video in the link.

    And we’ll have a sane person as Commander-In-Chief in just two days.
    Something something but Antifa ... something something Deep State ... something something pizza pedos ...

    IMHO ... that is worse than what 2 Impeachments, 1 Term did .. if true.
    Last edited by BeastieRunner; 01-18-2021 at 02:51 PM.
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  10. #22735
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    Quote Originally Posted by PaulBullion View Post
    So apparently there is gonna be a MAGA Western Movie.
    Quote Originally Posted by Iron Maiden View Post
    The All-Stars of has beens. I forgot Robert Wagner was still alive...used to like him.
    That was my second thought. My first thought was that Dean Cain probably found some work, and that was before I looked at the cast list.

    Quote Originally Posted by Powerboy View Post
    I saw that Lucy Lawless quote. But Sorbo's not out in Hollywood because he's a Conservative or even a whack job Conservative. He's out because he's just not a very good actor. In fact, he sucks except in a very specific kind of role like Hercules when he was younger. He had two good roles which is more than most actors get.

    Sorbo firmly believes it's because he's a Conservative. Yet, he got that Supergirl season and played a reasonable guy who was sort of the good guy. If he was really anything as an actor, it would have led to more roles. From what I understand, he sort of put himself on the outs there not by his political views but by going on social media and giving away too much of the plot.
    He got that role on Supergirl, but was quickly killed off (though I think that was more because they wanted Supergirl to face off with Terri Hatcher's character than anything to do with his politics). And lest we forget, Dean Cain also had a recurring role on Supergirl... that was promptly ignored after season 2, and who's character was killed off off screen finally just last year.

  11. #22736
    Invincible Member Kirby101's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tendrin View Post
    Pretty sure Kirby's post was firmly tongue in cheek man xD
    Ya think?
    There came a time when the Old Gods died! The Brave died with the Cunning! The Noble perished locked in battle with unleashed Evil! It was the last day for them! An ancient era was passing in fiery holocaust!

  12. #22737
    Ultimate Member Malvolio's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by worstblogever View Post

    John Green
    Welcome to what is the 953rd profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing John Green, who was elected in 2018 to represent District 2 of Idaho’s House of Representatives, and we’re starting to wonder if there’s some sort of curse on that seat. Because Green was preceded in office by one Eric Redman, who we covered a short time ago for having ties to Islamophobic hate groups who were writing bills for him to submit. After Green’s tenure, well, he got Tim Remington, who we’re going to have to profile for being a pastor and big Ted Cruz ally who railed against Covid-19 restrictions because he might have to close his church. (We’ll get around to him at some point).

    Anyway, we’re just gonna focus on John Green… his campaign for office was almost solely based on his die-hard belief in the 2nd Amendment, his further obsession with the 10th Amendment, and his loathing for the 14th Amendment, thinking that state legislatures should choose U.S. Senators for the state, and not allow the voters to do so themselves. On domestic issues, he was over-the-top kooky, supporting Personhood in regards to reproductive rights, and as a state legislator, far and away the most revolting thing you might notice would be that he voted against a ban on child marriage in Idaho.

    But we profile John Green not because of that extremism as a state legislator, but because a year into his term, he was convicted of tax fraud in a case in Texas where he worked as an attorney for a couple and helped them hide their wealth from the IRS. Once he was convicted, the Idaho House of Representatives had a vote to expel him from his elected position, and that vote was unanimous. He is the only person to have ever been granted this dishonor in the history of the Gem State.

    Bizarrely, John Green decided that being a convicted felon appealing his tax fraud case would make him a great candidate for sheriff and wanted to run for that in 2020. He was of course not regarded as a credible candidate given his legal woes. Green is still hoping to win on appeal, because if he doesn’t, he is looking at a five year prison sentence.
    I just want to say that I have a cousin named Jonathan Green, who is an attorney in Michigan. Please don't mistake him for this schmoe.
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  13. #22738
    Astonishing Member Zelena's Avatar
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    Yesterday I watched a program about an US Inaugural Gala…

    Here is a footage about a Republican lady singing for a Democrat president:

    “Strength is the lot of but a few privileged men; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time.” Goethe

  14. #22739
    Ultimate Member Mister Mets's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post
    This isn't about the better country or the better people. The thing is that just as it's unfair and ridiculous to demonize America and give China and Russia and others a pass, that doesn't mean you rally to the flag of American exceptionalism or think of America as the moral right.

    Nobody is "better", that's the point. If you accept that you can be a little more compassionate and friendly, and that might actually do a lot more to spread democracy than going all gung-ho about how "you'd all be subjects to <Insert X here> without Uncle Sam" when in reality people were subject to and are subject to Pinochet, Franco, Muhammad bin Salman, Mao Zedong, Chiang Kai Shek, Xi Jinping with Uncle Sam.



    Art forms that arise in democratic societies and are touted as products of such, should be judged on a higher standard, no? Sure art patronized by aristocrats in European Kingdoms had exploitation too, but if you see something similar in a democratic society and then it's promoted as such, then that's what we call hypocrisy.

    Besides stuff like comics, Hollywood, Jazz were dismissed as popular junk until people from other countries (the English and the French) started touting it. So it's a bit hypocritical to claim it while ignoring the actual history and context of the reason why people treat this as serious products of American culture.



    So? Does America want a cookie for that?

    Especially since it practiced a system of slavery that in a significant sense, was far worse than in Ancient Rome and Greece, where slaves wasn't based on race, and slaves had a path to freedom and citizenship, and eventually social mobility in more than a few cases unlike Antebellum America.



    While denying credit of course and giving an impression or lie that somehow this was all part of the plan from the Declaration of Independence. I don't think you can ignore the consequences of American exceptionalism and arrogance. The response to the happenings is last week is humility and contrition, and not reiterating stuff like this.

    Look, people need to rid themselves of the idea of America as the protagonist of reality, of the world, and even Democracy itself. If we were to do Democracy as a movie, America would be Bran from GAME OF THRONES...you know the cool, interesting, charismatic, and intriguing characters do all kinds of cool stuff and make things happen, move and shake on the ground, and then at the end some rich poser comes and takes credit for everything.
    It doesn't seem hypocritical to praise jazz and comic books as products of the United States if someone believes that these are ultimately positive contributions to the world. Granted, Kirby101's comment was tongue in cheek and you missed that.

    I certainly disagree with the idea that no country is better. There should be metrics by which we can compare nations. Countries being flawed doesn't mean that all flaws are equal, or that every country's accomplishments are on the same level.

    America's status as the first republic is relevant if it's compared to later nations, which did some important things first, but not the most important.
    Sincerely,
    Thomas Mets

  15. #22740
    Extraordinary Member PaulBullion's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zelena View Post
    Yesterday I watched a program about an US Inaugural Gala…

    Here is a footage about a Republican lady singing for a Democrat president:

    Well, Garth Brooks will sing for Biden.
    "How does the Green Goblin have anything to do with Herpes?" - The Dying Detective

    Hillary was right!

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