The Shrine

Called it.

https://splinternews.com/mad-dog-goes-t ... 1831243536

The last reasonable adult in the Trump Administration has left the room. Be on the lookout for aggressive maneuvers by Bolton and others, and the threat of new wars.

It needs to be made very clear to our politicians that anyone who tries to start a new war right now, with Iran or anyone else, will have some of the shortest political careers on record.

2020 is *just* around that corner.

My litmus test for if this is a big deal or not:

Comments on foxnews.com are heavily slamming the president. Normally, the comments there defend the indefensible, but not this time.

Mattis has managed to rouse defenders on all sides of the aisle, and probably for good reason. He's not a saint or a hero, but he's kept an extremely unstable Presidency from starting any new and major wars for two years now, while still adequately managing the conflicts we are in - and is on record essentially as saying that he is against any unnnecessary killing in war zones because it creates future terrorism.

Bolton certainly won't take that same attitude - and I will be out in the streets with signs and pitchforks if Trump tries to make him SECDEF, because he's a genuinely evil man and Iraq War co-conspirator who only cares about the interests of his powerful friends in the region.

No matter who it's going to be, the next SECDEF appointment is very seriously important and is something we should all take an interest in.

Lol. Trump is a warmonger lunatic that will start WW3. Trump is a lunatic for pulling troops from Syria, which was a campaign promise.

Lefty nutbars will crucify the man no matter what he does.

Mattis was an establishment appeasement. Hes a hawk and he disagrees with Trump ON PULLING TROOPS OUT OF NEEDLESS WARS. And now you are fantasizing his replacement will be MORE hawkish? Hahahhaha.

Your brains are turning to mush folks.

Is there any possible world in which I will not regret having further contact with you?

I actually agree with the troop pullouts. Never let it be said that I hate Trump so badly that I will not give him credit for moves in the right direction - in fact, I don't hate him at all. But, he's still a deeply unkind human being at the end of the day, which is causing endless friction and has him under 15 active investigations right now. As a result actions which should be applauded - bringing our troops home - are despised instead, caught up in the general miasma of hate that has characterized the country since he was elected.

As with everything about this Administration, things are being handled in a bitter, rancorous way that hurts people badly. 800,000 U.S. government employees are not getting paid right now; many didn't have much of a Christmas at all. According to many reports, some are in dire and desperate straits and could lose homes or other essential parts of their basic needs. This could have been avoided - it almost was, and Trump would have been lauded for it - instead, he caved to Jeanette Pirro and a few other media demagogues, who continue to advocate disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans (and indeed weakening our national security) via a government shutdown, because apparently if the border wall isn't funded then large portions of America just shouldn't work at all.

Yup, I'm absolutely on board with the pullouts. We shouldn't be in these places and we never should have been. To the extent that we are actually and legitimately attacked by Middle Eastern terrorists - which is, of course, far less often than most people think, but we won't go there today - it is because we are constantly fucking around over there, overthrowing the local governments, keeping the black-tar-heroin-needle of oil flowing into the national arm at vast human cost to the local semi-medieval populations, and creating a perpetual recipe to create an endless stream of future generations of terrorists who hate us more than they value their own lives, often because we blew up their families.

But I'm not thrilled with the way it's all going down, for sure. Maybe Mattis is part of the same contingent who keep starting up these corrupt wars in order to loot the local natural resources, and that's why he's resigning - if so, then good riddance. But I'm not going to feel secure about the national direction until Bolton and Giuliani are no longer at the table.

Soo...ummm.. you agree?

Media is bias, half the population is insane with Trump hate and pulling troops from Syria may actually be a good thing.

I liked Mattis though -- he is largely responsible with getting everyone in line and stopping the leaks. He was an interesting balance in the administration, and Trump kept Mattis reigned in mostly too. and for that particular position, it's not a bad idea to have someone diametrically opposed to the president. No matter who Trump replaces him with, they will have a tough time filling his shoes.

Media is bias[ed] [sic]

You know, when I pointed out years ago that our mainstream media had become unreliable, biased, and full of misinformation I remember getting a shitstorm of resistance over it all.

half the population is insane with Trump hate

Hmmm. I seem to remember a quote from someone here, two years ago...

America needs to hate again

Maybe you should be clearer next time? You got what you wanted, Kal. America absolutely has learned to hate again. The country's rotten with it.

As a result, Trump is hated even when he does the correct thing - because even in the process of doing the correct thing, he cannot control his nasty, cruel habit of tweeting hatred at anyone and everyone who doesn't do exactly what he wants to do. He's already crapped on Mattis for leaving ("What did he ever do for me?"), and indicated that he doesn't give two shits about the 800,000 Federal employees who are going to work but not getting paid. Grandstanding for his base over the wall seems to be more important than stewarding the country and its people, which is why there's human waste overflowing in Joshua Tree park bathrooms right now and why the Oval Office switchboard greets people with "Sorry, we can't take your call right now due to the shutdown."

I understand that Donald Trump is practically your spirit animal - a lying, wealthy, corrupt, mob-tied realtor made President has to be inspiring to you in all the wrong ways - but as it stands this grand experiment in ugliness that you and his other supporters have foisted onto the nation is going to be remembered as one of the worst Presidencies of all time.

That is largely because Trump has abdicated his responsibility to remember that the President is not just head of the Executive Branch and Commander-in-Chief but also the nation's de facto top diplomat and ambassador and public relations official.

His nastiness has been like corrosive poison spewed out over the entire world.

Soo...ummm.. you agree?

I agree that bringing the troops home is the right thing to do; I've been advocating for it for years.

I certainly don't agree that Trump's doing it in any kind of way that's going to stick, or produce a lasting peace.

In particular, the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is going to destabilize the region for years to come, if not decades. It has essentially obliterated any shreds of America's remaining 20th-century credibility as a peacemaker - and even though the Afghanistan War, Iraq War, Libyan "intervention", and fostering of the Syrian "civil war" did that long ago with anyone who has been paying attention, such symbolic gestures still matter a lot to any future peace process attempts.

Please don't ask for my support or agreement that Trump is some grand peacemaker when he has sucked up to the rotten corruption of the Israeli-Saudi hegemony for the entire rest of his Presidency. He's no hero to the peace movement - not after spitting in the eye of the peace process by attempting to remove Jerusalem's status as an international city, and "pardoning" Mohammed bin Salman for the brutal, disgusting murder of a journalist. Peace is impossible where the Israeli-Saudi petro-hegemony is. They don't care. Both of those countries are ruled by violent criminal oil-funded mobsters as murderous as any country we have ever invaded - but it's still taboo to say so in America, sad to say.

So you agree but don't want to admit it. And you still hate jews. I got it.

And you can blame anyone you want for the dems refusing to provide the 5b Trump demanded. A fence is OK but a wall is evil. How dare Trump follow through on his promises to half the country. "Experts" say walls don't work, but everyone in DHS, CBP, etc says it is absolutely needed and will work...

I love observing the lunacy required to blame Trump for the shutdown and paint his demand as unreasonable. It takes some really neat mental gymnastics. Want to end the shutdown today -- give Trump the 5b. Or hell, negotiate even.

Dems will lose this one. They are putting advocating for non-citizens, criminals and obstructing Trump ahead of public safety and national security. That's a losing recipe.

Redacted giant angry response to nonsensical trolling. See, I do learn eventually.

I do not "hate Jews", nor will that smear ever stick. However, there's no point in feeding the troll under your bridge.

I think the next post serves just as well on its own. You can go dig through the redactions if you feel like it; or not, I could care less.

It's a lot more than just the $5b, Kal. I quite agree - the cost is nothing, at least relative to the financial resources of the U.S. government.

But the wall is an international symbol. It will fundamentally alter our immigration policies - and thus our diplomatic relationships with every other nation on Earth.

That's why it requires an act of Congress to build - as it should.

Want to build it? Then surely you will have no problem acquiring the support of Congress. That's how America works.

You can go dig through the redactions if you feel like it; or not, I could care less.

It doesnt work that way. Im sure it would have been a hilarious read though.

But the wall is an international symbol. It will fundamentally alter our immigration policies - and thus our diplomatic relationships with every other nation on Earth.

Nothing you said here is supported by facts and it becomes rather silly on consideration. How is a wall an international symbol and what is it a symbol of? How would a wall "fundamentally" alter immigration policy (other than help enforcement of existing policy) and in what way would it do so differently from a fence?

And then all that aside, why shouldnt "diplomatic relations" change? America has been pissing away their futures and that of their children for decades now...

Doesnt matter to me, since as you know I am a billionaire...but geeze....you'd think you would care.

kali o. wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 05, 2019 12:58 am

You can go dig through the redactions if you feel like it; or not, I could care less.

It doesnt work that way. Im sure it would have been a hilarious read though.

It used to work that way. Either you're shit at computers or the board changed, and I really don't care either way.

kali o. wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 05, 2019 12:58 am

But the wall is an international symbol. It will fundamentally alter our immigration policies - and thus our diplomatic relationships with every other nation on Earth.

Nothing you said here is supported by facts and it becomes rather silly on consideration. How is a wall an international symbol and what is it a symbol of? How would a wall "fundamentally" alter immigration policy (other than help enforcement of existing policy) and in what way would it do so differently from a fence?

You've gotta be kidding me. "How is a wall an international symbol"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China

kali o. wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 05, 2019 12:58 am

And then all that aside, why shouldnt "diplomatic relations" change? America has been pissing away their futures and that of their children for decades now...

Yeah - by listening to takers like you, Kal - men who think they are untouchable because they have gained great wealth by brutalizing others.

We've collectively learned to worship money, evict the poor and fear those who are different, and piss on compassion and decency.

You have advocated for nativism successfully in the United States in one way, though - I'm *thrilled* that as a foreign-born, corrupt real estate baron, you could never run for President here under our current laws.

kali o. wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 05, 2019 12:58 am

Doesnt matter to me, since as you know I am a billionaire...but geeze....you'd think you would care.

An *actual* billionaire! Have you been putting more people out of their homes lately?

Just remember, as you keep reminding me - this is the *Internet*.

Pics (or news articles, what-have-you) or it didn't happen!

It used to work that way. Either you're shit at computers or the board changed, and I really don't care either way.

Actually has never worked that way. Not even when you were briefly a mod. Just fyi.

You've gotta be kidding me. "How is a wall an international symbol"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China

I hate to point this out, but you didnt actually answer anything with wiki links to random famous walls you could think of...

But to play along, you think the border wall is bad because its a symbol synonymous with national wonder that protected China from nomadic raiders ~2500 years ago....?

Or...

A border wall is bad because it symbolizes another wall you heard of, built to split Germany internally as a means to impliment socialism...

Well, alrighty then.

All sorts of walls around you. Even Norway has a border fence.

Whatever you say. Go get that Congressional approval. While you were real estate baron'ing it up and playing RDR, I and others were out getting some people elected to Congress this year to put checks and balances on the national altright nightmare. Ain't America grand?

Does it bother you that with all your alleged wealth and power, you - and Trump - can't just make it happen with the wave of a hand? He's sure trying to get around Congress on it all, but it's unlikely to work.

The wall is more akin to the Great Wall of China in purpose no doubt - but because your contingent has acquired a rather justifiable reputation for cruelty and racism, it's being viewed more akin to the Berlin Wall. That's why you're getting resistance. I'm not even nearly as opposed to the wall as most people I know are, for what it's worth. I've heard the stories about people who live directly on the border, and the trash and the danger from the migrant routes - and I don't feel the way things are happening now is a utopia, that's for sure.

So I'd let you build it - contingent on part of the money being used to establish medical facilities and genuine immigration processing stations along it, not just ICE wet-dream indefinite detention centers. A little Statue of Liberty every few miles in every office. A copy of "The New Colossus" in every lobby.

How about it?

Hey, I have another idea, Flintheart! You've got the moola in spades...or so you claim but will never actually verify, which is another thing you have in common with our orange emperor.

Why not go back the FUCKING GOFUNDME for the wall?

They've got $19m (of a $1b goal)! If you're really a billionaire, you could *put them over the top*, Kal.

Just imagine the publicity for your empire. You could be an alt-right legend.

https://abc13.com/politics/wall-gofundm ... y/4960029/

Looks like the public's totally on your side with this one, World's Second-Richest Duck. Really.

https://splinternews.com/hes-just-gonna ... 1831429823
https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn ... 37920.html
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/03/walls-dont-work/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... legitimate
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/ob ... y-forever/

Oops, wait! All those people are against you! Must be something wrong here.

Even Gavin McInnes can't seem to marshal his journalistic troops properly.

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/pa5 ... epublicans

But hey, never fear. You've got friends in Rockefeller Center...as usual.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/walls-work-s ... rder-fence
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump- ... an-ortagus

Hmmm...3 long rambling posts just to call Trump, me (lol) and an inanimate object racist and alt right.

Yup. Solid logic and arguements

Forgive me. I also forgot that like our orange friend, you don't really like to read.

In that case, let's shorten it up here. Let me be the first to apologize to you for impugning the current Administration and its strong commitment to the condemnation and prosecution of foreign murderers!



Oops! Wrong photo. Let's try again.



Hmmm. Oh dear.

I don't really see why the US administration should particularly care when some terrorist sympathizing "journalist" is killed on foreign soil. Congress can pass whatever condemnation they see fit. What are you even talking about anyway -- you are all over the place...focus Mental, focus.

kali o. wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 05, 2019 4:48 pm

I don't really see why the US administration should particularly care when some terrorist sympathizing "journalist" is killed on foreign soil. Congress can pass whatever condemnation they see fit. What are you even talking about anyway -- you are all over the place...focus Mental, focus.

Well, that would be why nobody else trusts you to protect us from foreign murderers, and why a lot of the country thinks you can go fuck yourself when it comes to the wall.

But hey, don't worry - you're a far better advocate for your xenophobic policies than you think.

Every time I talk to you I'm convinced our country has a problem with criminal and murderous immigrants who don't share my values and shouldn't be allowed in America.

At least one of them, anyway.