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Posted

Is this all just a hyped up propaganda game by the media and governments? Has anyone actually heard KJU say the things he has been accused of saying? I see things in the media all the time showing some outdated North Korean news shows, but they look like library images and videos rather than actual evidence. While I do believe they are testing their nuclear ability, im not so sure I buy into this talk of NK striking the US. I think the US are deliberately trying to raise tensions in the area and are provoking an attack. However If it is true though, then either he is as mad as some say he is, or he is trying to push test the US patience. One thing that has always been for sure though is the US can be unpredictable. Even more so with Trump.

 

As others have said though, I think a war would distract the US citizens from what is going on in their own country. Bush’s ratings were at their highest level after 9/11 and the Iraq/Afghan invasions, so we know for sure that they can raise popularity of struggling presidents. The trouble with another Korean War is that this one involves a nuclear armed ‘enemy’. A pre-emptive strike on NK will likely lead to the NK nuking another country. The issue with NK is that unlike Russia and China it is unstable, struggling, has no place on the world stage to negotiate anything, Its reclusive, starving and has completely isolated itself. It stands to lose everything, but has nothing to lose at the same time and its own citizens live in fear of both its own government and the lies fed to them that the US and South Korea want to attack them.

 

Do I think a war with the north is likely? Yes I think that its inevitable eventually. The rhetoric can only continue for so long and someone has to back down eventually. Trump and KJU are both people who don’t like to admit defeat or are likely to back down. It could just continue to be a game of words, but with NK struggling with having further sanctions imposed on it even by its closest ally China, and with the US becoming a hotbed on its own doorstep and being ran by a struggling president, something is likely to give soon enough.

 

Posted

It's definitely a crazy country. I'm 44, moved here full time when I was 22 and been coming here since 19. I also studied philosophy of education in college and am a firm believer that too much freedom creates problems, plus it's a capatilist nation that doesn't overly promote morals and ethics. It's definitely the land of opportunity here that I've been lucky to live in and I've met amazing and wonderful people here, but you certainly get from one very end of the spectrum to the other.

 

I'm not a citizen and can't vote but couldn't have voted for Clinton or Trump. Politics are terrible here and both parties are really messed up, just in different ways. You also don't get news here, just biased opinion and reporting and I don't know what's true and who to believe. Don't see how things improve unless something really bad happens and change is pretty much forced. The left gets more left and the right is moving further to the right, and there's no common sense happy medium in the middle. After 9/11 you saw a change for the better but things are back to the way they were, if not more so. That's my opinion anyway......

 

I've done a lot of backpacker travelling about in the US. Various states, and different insights. But thing that always gets me and sticks out culturally is the overriding in your face consumerism.

 

Levels of customer service offered in daft places (service station) are very high but it's all linked into selling, selling, selling.

 

This assistant at a gas station said to all customers: "Thank you, sir, may your day be good sir and may God bless you, sir".  Like a robot.

 

One example.  Got a bus between Miami and Atlanta.  On that trip must have passed at least 10 'Steak and Milk Shake' bars, 20 x McDonald's and hundreds of crispy creme doughnut type service stations.  In addition, the gas service stations were loaded with staff filling shelves with huge bags of crisps, huge bags of sweets and the whole place was littered with adverts for food, products.

 

In addition, must have counted at least 5 or 6 stops on that bus trip where it stopped near motels and there were loads of hookers hanging about outside waiting for truck drivers or car drivers.  More or less in your face sex for sale that you would not see in Amsterdam.

 

I felt more chilled in US than anywhere.  Miami South Beach was great, San Francisco was great but it becomes exhausting with all the consumerism.

 

Europe is place to be. Society is much more sane.

 

 

Posted

I've been in the US for 7 years now, all in the Chicago suburbs. Taught in some Chicago charter schools (never again!) which were like war zones. Was a weekly occurrence to have emails from the principal's office about student(s) that would be absent as they'd been shot, had family members killed or were getting banged-up.

 

Where I live is pretty decent, no nightly shootings or drive-bys and the neighbours are great, but I wouldn't like to live (or even go back to work) in the City.

 

The news is very agenda driven, which is why I try to watch several different versions (when I can be bothered (also some decent eye-candy)). Most of my new I get via the interweb from site I believe I can at least trust to deliver some truth.

 

It's very different to growing up in Caithness, chiels, that I can tell you, but I am happy here with my family (happy enough that I'm seriously considering citizenship). The country is, however, pretty fucked-up in a lot of ways. Personal opinion is that it's no longer "one nation" but a conglomerate of different ethnic and regional "countries" that would all like to be independent of each other but are too financially dependent on sucking the teet of federal funding to actually do anything about it.

 

Anyway I better do some work and keep living the American dream  :thumbsup:

 

 

Posted

 

Just cannot fathom how hes still alive. That statement is utterly disgusting, good people on both sides? Fuck off you bigoted hun cunt. I'm all for opposing views but nazis, kkk and all that shite can get fucked. There is no alt-right, you're just a racist arsehole and don't deserve the light of day. Pure and simple. How a president, let alone the US president can condone such behaviour? Fucksake America. Get your shit together.

 

Posted

It's really intriguing. The problem is that people keep feeding the troll. He's right about the statue thing (sort of), it just didn't need to happen. You educate people and educate people and then when everyone understands you quietly remove the statue without fanfare or complaint. The Saddamesque toppling of the statue - that's been there for a bit of time - just gives folk like Trump the opportunity to act like a fucker. The slightest gap to slide his veiled bigotry through. Racism won't stop because you throw people in jail or tape their mouths up, it happens through time and education. People like Trump are narcissistic and will jump on any cause to further themselves, you just reduce the number of people who listen to him.

 

The other issue is what next? With self-righteous indignation across the board at anything Trump says or does (let's be honest, not all of it is justified), we're heading straight back to a Clinton or Obama. A bought and paid for corporate shill. The American got the fact that something wasn't right, they just chose the wrong option to fix it (or more correctly, they weren't given another option). Until there's another option, then perhaps the Americans are best served by the mentalist in the white house. He might just force something better out of the works.

Posted

It's really intriguing. The problem is that people keep feeding the troll. He's right about the statue thing (sort of), it just didn't need to happen. You educate people and educate people and then when everyone understands you quietly remove the statue without fanfare or complaint. The Saddamesque toppling of the statue - that's been there for a bit of time - just gives folk like Trump the opportunity to act like a fucker. The slightest gap to slide his veiled bigotry through. Racism won't stop because you throw people in jail or tape their mouths up, it happens through time and education. People like Trump are narcissistic and will jump on any cause to further themselves, you just reduce the number of people who listen to him.

 

The other issue is what next? With self-righteous indignation across the board at anything Trump says or does (let's be honest, not all of it is justified), we're heading straight back to a Clinton or Obama. A bought and paid for corporate shill. The American got the fact that something wasn't right, they just chose the wrong option to fix it (or more correctly, they weren't given another option). Until there's another option, then perhaps the Americans are best served by the mentalist in the white house. He might just force something better out of the works.

 

Good post  :thumbsup:  I think thats the hope we have to have, but what may be good for the yanks isn't whats good for the rest of us.  Trump is a walking disaster that scarily has power to really fuck things up on a global scale.  The yanks have brought this upon themselves, hard to see without something major such as serious civil unrest (which I think LA Don mentioned) happening, nothing will change.  They'll go back to a corporate wankstain after this.  American politics is shit, we complain about the state of our politics but the yanks, they really have it bad.  There was no option in the last election, both were the wrong one.

 

Just hope it is all posturing and no substance on a global level.

 

On a domestic level, the problem is they have never really moved on from the slave trade era. You're right to point out as education being the key but they've left themselves with such a task I'm not sure how they'd manage.  The South still holds the confederate flag as their own along with all the white attitudes that went along with it, without removing that cancerous mentality, it'll continue.

 

As a side note, the amount of weaponry that guy had scared the fuck out of me.  Shows how fucked up of a country it is if you can legally own some of that crap.

 

Edit: I'll also say that Trumps recent statements will have given fuel to them, they'll feel that they've been justified in their actions and validated by the administration.  That in itself is incredibly dangerous.

Posted

Aye, you're right. We have a terrible system here too, but it's hard to get a grasp on the yanks' mentality. Especially the breadth of that mentality, where huge numbers of people have entirely opposing views that can't possibly reconciled, but are too popular to be ignored (like we can ignore the EDL here for example... or the Lib Dems). I think the yanks could do with being a little less united states and a bit more independent states. Force some change through that way. Brexit for Dakota I say.

Posted

Aye, you're right. We have a terrible system here too, but it's hard to get a grasp on the yanks' mentality. Especially the breadth of that mentality, where huge numbers of people have entirely opposing views that can't possibly reconciled, but are too popular to be ignored (like we can ignore the EDL here for example... or the Lib Dems). I think the yanks could do with being a little less united states and a bit more independent states. Force some change through that way. Brexit for Dakota I say.

 

The right to bear arms will be the undoing of the US and a civil war is not entirely unrealistic. Independent states may seem like something out of an alternative history book, but its heading towards an implosion. This is a country that has suffered at the hands of racism since the colonial era, right through to the civil rights movement. Despite advances since then, it is still a country divided by race and many still somehow believe that both black power and white power are the same thing.

 

Far Right views are nothing new, but globally its on the rise again and the US is still a hot bed for both racial and xenophobic tensions that can spill over into something bigger. What happened in Charlottesville is a small glimpse of what could happen up and down the country in coming weeks and months. Having an unstable government and one that doesnt openly condemn white supremacism only adds to the far rights belief that it can achieve its goals. Trump is a nightmare for the US in terms of stability and one way or another, America is going to face some huge problems pretty soon.

Posted

Did anyone catch Trumps speech in Phoenix? The man is delusional at best, slating the media that he claims misinterpreted his previous rant.

 

Previously, Trump said live on air that "both sides were to blame" for what happened in Charlottesville, yet in the Phoenix speech yesterday he ranted that the media lied and is trying to make him look bad. Everyone heard him say those words, so how can he deny it? He spent over 20 minutes slating the press, veering from the speech written for him.

 

Those around him looked uneasy and you have to wonder if invoking the 25th isn't all that far away. If there is one thing i have said about Trump, he is a international crisis waiting to happen with all of his public rants and going off on tangents. We cant be too far away from a speech that spells the end of his presidency.

Posted

Some commentator yesterday pointed out that Trump doesn't read, uses TV as his information source and believes whatever the last adviser tells him. He's basically another very stupid American but in that position, a very dangerous one.

 

My wife reckons the even bigger danger is Mike Pence. Just like Islam has its fanatic nutjobs, so does Christianity.

Posted

Some commentator yesterday pointed out that Trump doesn't read, uses TV as his information source and believes whatever the last adviser tells him. He's basically another very stupid American but in that position, a very dangerous one.

 

My wife reckons the even bigger danger is Mike Pence. Just like Islam has its fanatic nutjobs, so does Christianity.

 

Mike Pence is the greater danger because he is also educated. I read somewhere that experts done an analysis on Trump and he communicates verbally at the same level as a 7 year old. Of course he has a 'big mouth' but i have always thought presidents were just the face for those behind the scenes. If that is the case, then Trump adds in the extra worry that he has his own mind and can share his thoughts internationally at any time.

Posted

If you look to Trump's funding in the campaign, the big money started to come in when Pence came on board. He's the one that they actually wanted, but no fucker would vote for the little rat. The method of getting Trump has worked a treat, the audiences loved him. That's not to say that they want him gone, the time is clearly not right. Did anyone hear about the latest sanctions (gas) on Russia? No? That's because Trump was behaving like a tool while the bi-partisan senate passed it (Trump was then forced to sign it). He's a handy smokescreen. With still no evidence produced on the Russian hacking either - because it probably didn't happen - there'll be no impeachment of Trump; being a dick isn't reason enough (un)fortunately. It's too easy to get drawn in to the maniac rantings of the prick, whilst ignoring the actual things happening on the ground. The gerrymandering, the voter suppression (remember the criminals voting against Trump in the election?) etc. that's all happening now in time for the next Republican victory at the next GE.

Posted

I always thought the president's role was to deflect attention from those actually making the decision (going back to Carter and Reagan). Scary thing is, whilst they might have been figureheads that knew their "role" I think Trump(et) believes his own hype and is dangerously thinking he's right 100% of the time (hence why there's been so much upheaval in the WH since he arrived)

 

Pence is dangerous as well because he has such strong backing from the party and is quite extreme in some of his views. I suspect he's already lining up to be the boss.....

Posted

I always thought the president's role was to deflect attention from those actually making the decision (going back to Carter and Reagan). Scary thing is, whilst they might have been figureheads that knew their "role" I think Trump(et) believes his own hype and is dangerously thinking he's right 100% of the time (hence why there's been so much upheaval in the WH since he arrived)

 

Pence is dangerous as well because he has such strong backing from the party and is quite extreme in some of his views. I suspect he's already lining up to be the boss.....

 

A quick bullet to Trumps head will likely be the easiest way for Pence to gain his presidency, then the real bad shit begins. Of course, I am purely speculating that this is the planned end game (Pence as president), but as rightly stated by Rico, the big money came in once Pence was on board and these financial backers will at the very least want Pence's influence to shape the WH. Is Trump the face that represents Pence or is he a hindrance to what the republicans and their financial backers really want to achieve.

 

I take what CNN says with a pinch of salt but here is a link to Trump's 57 most outrageous quotes from his Arizona speech... some crackers in there and shows the man for how thick he really is.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/23/politics/donald-trump-arizona/index.html

 

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Posted

So today is the day that trump is supposed to state that jerusalem is the capital of Israel. What a fucking idiot. Playing right into the hands of those right wing nut jobs. How this can end up anything other than mass death and war is beyond me. This guy is causing serious problems around the world. Someone needs to do the honourable thing.

 

What they should do is remove the city from ownership to both the Israelis and Palestinians and make it an occupied UN zone. Neither of those pricks can be trusted so take it away from them.

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