mtutiger

So to be clear, for all the celebrating about "freedom and democracy" for the Venezuelan people on the right, their solution is to take out Maduro and to replace Maduro with someone from his own government who, in all likelihood, will be just as repressive as he was to the Venezuelan people. So we killed 40 innocent Venezuelans and burned up taxpayer dollars for.... what exactly?

Another example of it would be their "SCIF" pictures from the raid (clearly trying to cosplay the Obama-OBL raid) where they have three tabs of Twitter open.... We are being led by morons who continually sous vide their brains on social media lol

Uhh, the government is still in tact?

Oil is running ~$60/barrel right now... it'd have to be a lot higher for the oil companies to be enthusiastic about refining Venezuelan crude. But the President is an idiot who doesn't understand economics, so lol

Broader point here but the reality is that when you lie as much as this administration does, it's not surprising when people no longer give you the benefit of the doubt

But other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?

That's very 2003 leadup to Iraq logic as well, isn't it?

A couple of points: 1) It's hard to take this administration's actions today as some sort of gesture toward freedom and democracy when they have continually antagonized a sovereign country defending itself from an unlawful attack (ie. Ukraine) from a corrupt dictator 2) It's hard to take this administration's actions today as some sort of gesture toward freedom and democracy when they have continually taken aim at our own freedom and our own democracy at home 3) Nicolas Maduro is a bad bad leader. But there are many bad bad leaders out there. Why is it in our interests to take *this* one out and not all the others? This administration has not once made the case to the American people as to why this action was necessary... but we're all supposed to be in awe or some **** over it

Shot: Chaser: And that, kids, is why we don't uncritically parrot whatever the President says lol

Well, better go talk to ya boy then

So we're gonna be putting boots on the ground? Isn't this the kinda thing we were reliably told wouldn't be happening during the 2024 campaign?

Setting aside the fact that Trump already tried stealing an election five years ago and guys like Lance Gooden remained silent then (so he can kindly f' off)... What do any of us get as a benefit for this action having been taken? It's clearly not about drugs (after all, this administration just pardoned a former Central American leader who was implicated in drug trafficking), it's probably not about oil given the economics of handling Venezuelan crude, it does nothing to bring stability to the region... If anything it will destabilize over the long run. As far as Maduro is concerned, he obviously terrible, but so is Vladimir Putin... And we all see how our President sucks up to him. So it clearly ain't about freedom or liberty or anything like that. So who benefits? Not any of us, but it provides entertainment for MAGA I guess lol

More "Boob Bait for Bubba" incoming

Case in point

To clarify, I don't think *they* have an endgame. They are more interested in content creation for their siloed base to stew in than figuring out what comes next

It's early and we'll likely learn more, but it kinda appears like they've left the entire rest of the government and military in place, which means they are assuming that they regime will just collapse on it's own? Not sure I'd take that bet. Just as with Iraq, not sure we understand the endgame here exactly.

Did he do an 8 ball before going out there???

Wiles is probably the best thing that's ever happened for Trump's political career post-2020... if she's heading for the exits, yikes

Is Joe McCarthy an acceptable comparison for you, or does that make one afflicted with 'TDS'? Just making sure I have the rules correct

Yeah, there's both quantitative and qualitative evidence that he's slipping. It isn't "echo chamber" stuff IMO.

Reiner, for as strong as his views were, was always someone who was egalitarian about them and would go to bat for those who felt differently. James Woods' comments about how he fought for him to get the part of Byron de la Beckwith in Ghosts of Mississippi is a good example of this... These guys probably agreed on nothing politically, Woods himself is a massive Trumper nowadays, and yet Reiner was there fighting on his behalf anyway. According to Woods, it came at a low point in his career and he feels that it ultimately saved it. Aside from the pure hatred exhibited by the remarks, tend to think this is part of why the backlash is so intense here. He picked someone with a lot of cultural clout with normal Americans, and he also picked someone with a lot of clout across the political spectrum in Hollywood and in elite media circles.

"Trump Derangement Syndrome" has been a useful construct for Trump over the years, but the reality is that there are plenty of legitimate reasons to dislike Donald Trump (as a leader and as a human being) and the construct is often used in a way to delegitimize any of that criticism or dislike for him in a way that doesn't have to address the substance of it. Same with "Orange Man Bad".... a rhetorically clever but cynical and ultimately meaningless phrase that effectively absolves the user from having to deal with any substance behind whatever criticism is being lodged. The reality is that he's just a bad person and always has been... and we're now seeing an even more unfiltered version of him due to the inevitable loss of control that was always going to happen as he got older. And his critics have always had a better read on things than some would like to admit.

This is 100% spot on. People are saying that he's always been this way, which isn't wrong.... but four years ago, something like this would have been worded more carefully, even coming from him. But he's getting sloppier in his old age, this *was* different even if the sentiment isn't hard to believe coming from him.

They point at the book, but if they bothered actually reading it or internalizing many of it's lessons, they wouldn't hold someone like this in such high esteem. Because again, with how he has lead his life and how he comports himself, there's no better avatar for spiritual death among public figures in this country IMO. And Christians wonder why so many Americans take a skeptical view of the Christian faith in this country... when all you do is talk, but then turn around and exalt someone who lives a life that goes against all of what your faith purportedly stands for and goes against all of the things that you judge everyone else for, why wouldn't you expect people to be cynical about it all? It's honestly sad that in such a horrific act that took away someone who created art and added to the culture as Reiner did, we have no choice to address our narcissistic (and addled) President who will stop at nothing to insert himself into the story and make it all about his personal grievances. What a shame.