Cory1848

So you're one of those people who "does his own research." Don't make me laugh.

I'm just repeating your own words back to you, dude.

You praised the interview, you congratulated Tucker Carlson, you evidently believe Putin’s statements (by saying that he “confirmed” what you already “knew”), and you say that Putin “only” wants Ukraine as though that were a positive thing. If you truly dislike wars, you should condemn Putin as a liar, a demagogue, and a warmonger rather than praise interviews that he grants to fanboys.

I’m not sure where you’re coming from here, but you seem to be saying, if a country wants their neighbor’s resources, you’re cool with that country stealing them, while slaughtering people who stand in their way and laying waste to their towns and cities. Sounds pretty medieval to me. Remind me never to be your neighbor.

What you and other Putin trolls don’t seem to accept is that the hundred million plus people who actually live in the swath of territory between the Baltic and the Balkans have their own agency. They had all, at some point in history, been oppressed by Russian imperialism, and given a brief window of Russian dormancy in the 1990s, they clamored to join Western institutions, primarily the EU and NATO, as they saw that their best future was there. Did the US and western Europe encourage them? Sure, if they qualified for membership, and for some it took longer than others, but it was entirely at the initiative of the applicant countries, who sought security against future Russian revanchism (and rightly so, as it turns out). Try reading some history, and some actual news reportage out of Ukraine and elsewhere in eastern Europe. Clearly your sources of information are leading you down the wrong rabbit hole.

Exactly. But, as I understand it, Merrick Garland had the power to excise Hur’s “editorializing” before the report was released, and he chose not to, not wanting to appear partisan (thinking of Bill Barr’s flagrant mishandling of the Mueller Report during the previous administration). When one side cheats at every opportunity and the other bends over backward trying to play fair, this is going to happen; Garland may have made a good Supreme Court justice, but he’s a weak attorney general.

Hur did not give a professional analysis; he's a lawyer, not a psychiatrist.

I’m not sure why Harris gets such a bad rap; maybe she should have been attorney general (a job the incumbent is clearly not qualified for), which would have given her more opportunity to establish a record that she could have run on later for higher office if she wanted.

Right, the US and the West pushed Russia so far as to force it to brutally invade a sovereign country, murder tens of thousands of its civilians, destroy its cities, and lay plans to erase its ethnic identity. You have no clue what you’re talking about.

Nothing says democracy like locking up criminals.

What’s wrong with teenage pop music? (putting aside the argument about what kind of music Taylor Swift actually creates). It’s a lot more fun than sitting in some bar on a beach in Phuket or Samui listening to “Hotel California” for like the billionth time, played by a mediocre house band.

Jon Voight, whose career highlight was starring in the movie “Deliverance” in 1972, these days is only famous for being Angelina Jolie’s father. The two have had a “fraught relationship.”

I completely agree with you (he also won the Nobel Peace Prize) and was just making a rhetorical point that being a musician is no different from being in any other profession with respect to the right to voice a political opinion (and advance to the presidency). In my examples I may be guilty of both-sidesism, which I did not intend. You’re completely right: the other two clowns can’t hold a candle to Carter.

Michael Douglas (or his scriptwriter) summed it up precisely in a speech he gave toward the end of a movie in which he played the US president -- his party affiliation is never specified, but he’s clearly a Democrat. “My opponent [the Republican] only cares about two things: making you afraid of it, and telling you who’s to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections.” The movie came out in 1995 -- during Bill Clinton’s first term.

You’re looking at it the wrong way. She is talking politics (occasionally) despite her popularity. She doesn’t care if she’s attacked for doing so. I am not a fan of her music (and as a Broncos fan I am not rooting for her Chiefs), but I find her genuinely sincere. The whole point here is not that she’s just being a normal person voicing her opinion, but that Trump fans have gone into hysterics about it.

Why would anyone take political advice from a TV game show host/B-movie actor/peanut farmer? I don’t think that Taylor Swift is so much offering political advice as simply on occasion voicing her opinion, and from the clips I’ve seen, she’s quite sincere. She has as much right to do that as you do; in fact, if America is truly the citizens’ republic that it purports to be, one can argue that she has a duty to call out flaws in her leaders, and to engage in debate. And if she just happens to have a bigger megaphone than you do, deal with it ...

Right, entertainment celebrities, including TV game show hosts. Oh, wait, one became president.

Wow, did you eat some bad fish last night, or what?

I’ve seen lots of criticism of backpackers on this forum, most of it from old men who are simply jealous of youth and the carefree spirit that comes with it. I spent six months backpacking through Europe with a friend in the early 1980s, and we often received favors from strangers; it was all good; I would encourage any young person with a bit of time and curiosity to just head out. The Thai food vendor giving a free meal to a farang is a small demonstration of international amity, which is sadly lacking among “adults” throughout much of the world. Plus, young people who have a good experience traveling in Thailand on a budget are likely to return later in life when they have more money to spend. People who find fault with this are just cantankerous old fools as far as I’m concerned.

As the New Yorker cartoon goes, <On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog!>

You’re right, I do have a strong dislike of the kind of chest-beating misogyny that you’re exhibiting in spades.

And how do you know these things about E. Jean Carroll? You don’t. You’re just bloviating. The only true statement you make is that “of course” you’re not a woman, and you state that so emphatically that I wonder how comfortable you are with it ... I have only one cat, and I enjoy his company very much, thank you.

Are you a woman? Do you have any idea what’s at stake for a woman when she brings rape charges against a wealthy and powerful man? Have you read any of the countless articles on just this topic, presented from a woman’s point of view? Didn’t think so ...

I can’t speak for Boris’s intelligence in general. I can say, however, that his statements in support of Trump are incoherent.

I would hope for a little more intelligence and a little less charisma from a national leader.