Walker88

Is America doomed? Ha-sip, ha-sip. But there is always humor in absurdity. Bill Maher killed it last night. His mid-panel discussion skit noted the VPs cold reception in Greenland, with signs saying things like "Yankee Go Home". His joke sign was: "We Know When You're Going to Invade Because You Included Us in a Group Chat" In New Rules he joked, now we know how Hegseth's wives found out he was cheating, as he had them on chat when he messaged his paramours. Where he really hit home was his main New Rules part where he accurately pointed out there is no difference between MAGA Republicans and the sycophancy shown to DPRK Leader Kim Jong-un. Trained seals who would relish sniffing his farts and claim it beats jasmine, lavender, and vanilla. MAGA elected officials have introduced all of these Bills: rename Dulles Airport after POTUS, add him to Mt Rushmore, put him on a postage stamp, make his birthday a National Holiday, repeal the 22nd Amendment so he can run again in 2028. That's some DPRK sucking up. Maher noted how POTUS' sycophants applaud his every move the same way DPRK Generals clap wildly for Kim, how they show up wearing blue suits with long red ties at the courthouse, how they've adopted his two hand jack-off dance, how they accept every lie and every mistake (like "transgender mice" vs "transgenic mice"), how talking heads like Fox' Jesse Watters are now so mad at Canada he favors an invasion, how Steve Bannon showed SC Justice Barrett at the recent full Congress speech over and over, criticizing her facial appearance because "it didn't show admiration" for POTUS. That's all pure North Korea, and a REAL syndrome, not the projected one the cult tosses at rational people. Buying threads from his Georgia booking suit? Please. Maher said so-called tough guy Repubs have no problem "eating the POTUS' a$$". He also noted a truly bizarre press statement from WH spokesman Steven Chung, who justified POTUS naming himself Chair of the Kennedy Center that went: POTUS…."is a virtuoso and his musical choices represent a brilliant palette of vibrant colors when others often paint in pale pastels” Would that be the Village People's YMCA he plays at rallies? If only Beethoven had been as creative! When even Kim Jong-un is jealous of unctuous sycophancy, America may well be doomed.

Looks like we can soon add Israel to Ukraine in the category of Ungrateful.

Absent the horrific collapse of the building in Mo Chit, caught on numerous phone cams, I doubt the earthquake would have made the news in the provincial US, sad as that is. Thailand might be a known quantity, but Myanmar might as well be Narnia to many Americans. Sadly, thousands are likely dead there, as if their lives were pleasant even before yesterday. Question for all: What has been the worst natural disaster in the world since the Asian Tsunami, in terms of lives lost? Answer: Cyclone Nargis in May 2008. More than 180,000 Burmese died. I bet not even 10% of the members here got that answer. Once in a while it's good to be reminded that all human lives---not just a little white girl who fell down a well in Alabama---have value. We're all in this together.

There would be a second front inside the US if POTUS started any bizarre action. If such an absurdity came to pass, I'd have no problem grabbing my own AR-15 (yes, even us "lefties" are armed) and culling me some MAGAs. I would consider them traitors and I'd be doing patriotic work. Any order to attack Canada (or much more likely Greenland) would be an illegal order and no soldier would be obliged to follow it.

Nothing is too stupid for this Administration. SecDef uses teenage emojis like bicep flex and fist pump in a group chat on a commercially available social media platform detailing an attack plan? The guy practicing his Mussolini mien speaks about 'not ruling out the use of military force to take Greenland'. Go back 20 years, put what POTUS et al actually do and say in a script for a TV show, and you'd be laughed out of the production meeting and be working the fry station at a Wendy's by afternoon. Now, it's a reality and has an insane cult following. Fox News (sic) spent months barking about "Hillary's emails", and when the reality of her inappropriate use of a home server came to light, she had received a few cables classified "CONFIDENTIAL" (the lowest classification). The SecDef broadcasts launch orders as the F-18s take off while a journalist is on this platform. Lucky for them it was Goldberg, a responsible adult, and not somebody at MAD magazine, who might instantly Tweet "Hey, look at this attack going down!", so that Iran could alert the Houtis and likely shoot down a few of the F-18s. The SecDef is so reckless and irresponsible he puts his own troops in harm's way.....and Fox got the message out to all his captured Talking Heads: "Nothingburger". But HER EMAILS! So given this abject absurdity that is POTUS47 and his clownshow, maybe it isn't out of the realm of possibility that hostilities would develop between Canada and the US, perhaps in the manner @JAG noted, such as securing a path from WA to Alaska. Nothing is too stupid for this Administration. If anyone suggests otherwise, watch Hegseth say, "Hold my beer".

That's just a Republican Santa Claus. I'm sure you've see the Season's Greetings cards of MTG and that CO female House Rep who delivers HJs to her movie date....even their elementary school spawn have AR-15s. THAT is the true Spirit of Christmas in MAGAstan! And perhaps you missed the updated version of the Three Wise (MAGA) Men. It wasn't frankincense and myrrh; it was 5.56 NATO and Kevlar vests they brought for the baby Jeebus. The Canadian war anthem would be "Don't fire until you see the whites of their butt cracks!"

Yes, law and order...and such concern for those poor, low IQ violent Americans no doubt driven by secret lefty mind control experts....LOL The President said that he is looking into giving compensation to the 6 January terrorists who served time for attacking police officers, sh!tting on the Capitol floor, and threatening to hang the Vice President....because of lost wages during their incarceration. (Out of curiosity, can any MAGA cultist here tell me what is the average wage for a QAnon Shaman? Is it hourly or by the chant or cast spell?) The same folks who made a big deal out of a few far left folks who said "defund the police" are now seeking to compensate people who beat and bear sprayed police.

Silly. Those who fear a dollar collapse are those not members of the MAGA cult and those who know that if anyone can destroy the dollar, it's Mr Six Bankruptcies and the guy who needed daddy to co-sign all his loans and leave him a half trillion inheritance to burn. The debt has always been a concern, but I felt that so long as existing debt was serviced and a decent Fed governor had authority to fine tune, the dollar might survive another few decades. I no longer have that confidence. Alienating the folks who fund 30% of the US deficit and having obvious amateurs at the helm----plus POTUS's desire to have authority over the Fed---made me move into alternate currencies as a hedge. So far, that has paid off. I'll adjust if POTUS shows any degree of competence, but so far competence requires a visa he does not have and is unlikely to get.

Patience, grasshopper. The dollar index is down from under Biden, but it's still early in the game.

You miss the point. Let me point it out: The Houtis would know what ships are within range. Had they had SIGNAL access, or been alerted by Iran (who can hack SIGNAL), they would have known the exact time of F-18 launch, as Hegseth posted it real time. The Houstis know where they themselves are, so they would also know the targets of the F-18. Knowing the source (aircraft carrier), speed of F-18s, and the likely targets, they could have intercepted the incoming jets with anti-aircraft or heat-seeking missiles. Hegseth's incompetence put US forces at risk. If you're an F-18 fighter pilot, and you see what your "boss" did on a non-secure social media app, you say WTF! He is unqualified to run a lemonade stand, much less the US Military.

The New York Times ran an editorial which pretty much sums up this fiasco. "…this is an Administration that actively, proudly, rejects expertise. It casts those who have it as the corrupt old guard, the real enemy, the “Deep State”, and it touts its own refusal to heed them as proof of its legitimacy and righteousness……This is an Administration that makes a weekend Fox News host the leader of the world’s largest military, puts a conspiracy-minded podcaster in charge of the FBI, and has at its pinnacle a reality star turned President. Blunders like this are an inevitable consequence. If you’re running the security directorate of a hostile nation, savor this moment. It’s never been easier to steal secrets from the United States government. Can you even call it stealing when it’s this simple? The Administration has unlocked the vault doors, fired half of the security guards, and asked the rest to roll pennies. Walk right in. Take what you want. This is the golden age."

The US tried to get some Greenland folks to host the Vances for a photo op. Nobody agreed. Nobody had any interest in meeting them. https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-officials-went-door-door-180606208.html

I think both are you are right. The debt is not as much of a problem as its nominal number suggests, as US debt to GDP is less than most Euro nations (except Netherlands) and much below Japan. Provided the debt doesn't grow too quickly, and it gets 'serviced', the debt bomb need not explode for a while. That being said, the current POTUS may well bring about the dollar's demise by his idiocy. DOGE is not bringing spending down much at all. Even its modest claims of 'savings' are proving to be false. Nothing DOGE has done or can do will be anything compared to the damage to the deficit the proposed tax cuts will do. Also, as was seen clearly in his first term, that ta cut not only did not 'trickle down', it did nothing for the economy. Growth under 45 was in the bottom 30% of all Quarters since the end of WWII even before he mishandled Covid. National Debt rose considerably more than US GDP, so even the modest growth was just debt fueled. Now the President is alienating allies. That is a major threat to the dollar, since foreigners still fund 30% of the US deficit. Since his election, about half a trillion dollars of foreign-held debt has been sold. That isn't much, but it may portend a trend, a trend exacerbated by POTUS' policies and alienation of allies. Also, let's not forget POTUS once said live on CNBC he would consider defaulting on foreign-owned debt. People now know that when he says silly things, he eventually does them. If foreigners go on a buyers' strike, or sell USTs they now hold en masse, US rates rise. That will slow growth and hurt the stock market, which would keep foreign money out of the US equity market. If the Fed tries to compensate by printing money and buying up USTs, then all those new USDs are hardly collectors items. The dollar will tumble. The BRICS are not only growing in number, they are moving away from the dollar. China could kill the dollar if it decided to make capital flow into and out of the yuan easier. Yes, it would take time for outsiders to build trust in the CCP, but China could take the long term approach and become more capital friendly. The one thing all can bet on is that if there is a good way to handle trade and economics and a bad way to do it, this President will choose the worst way. He did that as a businessman, relying on his daddy and puffery until saved by Mark Burnett and his Game Show. Absent that, POTUS is the epitome of that old joke: How do you make a small fortune? Answer: Start with a large one. (for POTUS, that was daddy)

What lie? Google can be your friend, even if you lack access to classified intel. Most is all public now, You MAGAs live in a fantasy world.

A month ago the NSA sent at all hands message to the entire intelligence community that SIGNAL can be hacked by Russia, China, Israel, Iran and North Korea. About ten days ago the DCI Ratcliff sent a message to all current and former agency employees who still know classified intel that SIGNAL should not be used if anything currently or formerly classified was to be discussed. Despite that, Waltz, Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliff and Witkoff used SIGNAL to discuss attack plans for Yemen, with Hegseth stating two hours before the attack what was going to be done. Witkoff was using an iPhone in a hotel in Moscow to be part of the chat. Come on, MAGAs, how are you going to spin this eff up?

Typical MAGA response: When faced with reality, plant your flag two standard deviations left of the mean on the IQ Bell Curve, square in the heart of MAGAstan.

So you are welcome to go back to Afghanistan and remove all of that equipment. How many soldiers and contractors would you have been willing to sacrifice to remove that equipment, which would have taken months? The 5000 Taliban jihadis 45 ordered released from prison were some who carried out that airport bombing. They also now run Afghanistan. Just getting out US troops, agency personnel and Afghans who had assisted the US gave some of the released Taliban prisoners the chance to do the suicide bombing. Imagine if Biden decided to spend months removing that $80 billion in equipment. Hundreds, maybe thousands of US troops and contractors killed? Have you no brains?

Kind of like a POTUS who had to be informed by a journalist that 4 US soldiers are missing on the Belarus-Lithuanian border. "I don't know anything about that", said the so-called Commander-in-Chief.

You are obviously not a mil-type or a tactician. Ordering F-18s to take off is a tell, is it not, unless you think F-18s take off from a Boston Whaler or a Riva Yacht or a Dhow? Adversaries like Iran would know where US aircraft carriers are. Even the Houtis have that capability. If aircraft take off, the flight path is pretty much known. The Houstis would know where they themselves are, so they would know both the target and the flight origin. Extrapolating the flight path is pretty easy. Load up the anti-aircraft guns and take out a few khawaja infidels. Anyone hacking SIGNAL would also know the time of take off, as Hegseth specifically ordered it. Adversaries know the speed of F-18s, so would be able to guess where and when they could intercept the aircraft. It's all really easy to understand if one uses his brain, provided he has one in working order.

Would "immaturity" also be astounding if "someone" used names like Pocahontas Warren, Shifty Schiff, Crooked Hillary, Sleepy Joe or maybe Low IQ Waters? Or is that "Executive Privilege"?

You mean the 5000 Taliban jihadis who 45 released from prison who later attacked the airport, and who now rule Afghanistan?

It's difficult when talking to a small child or a turnip, but I'll give it a try..... Attack plans note weapons, participants, targets and timing. Goldberg has now published all of what he got on SIGNAL, and the chat has exactly the attack plan. You can go read it, rather than play three monkeys (no see, no hear, no speak). Not only that, Hegseth notes the start of the attack. Since F-18s have a speed limit that is less than light, that means anyone who was on or had hacked the chat would have had time to alert the Houtis and defend themselves against the incoming attack, which means US forces would be at risk. The SecDef put US forces at risk. He should at least resign, if not commit sepuku.

Since it seems this Administration has decided nothing is classified anymore, would anyone like to know what Putin has on POTUS? I guess I don't need to keep it secret anymore.

Wow, the spinning is getting absurd! The silly Press Secretary thinks it's a big deal where the Atlantic "downgraded" their claims from "war plans" to "attack plans". How stupid is that? Only a MAGA could be fooled. A war is a protracted event where information is not exactly time sensitive. An attack plan is extremely time sensitive and explicit on what weapons and parts of the military will be involved, as well as specific targets. So revealing "attack plans" over a non-secure public social media platform is more dangerous to soldiers than "war plans". Because SIGNAL is hackable by US adversaries like Iran, US forces were unnecessarily put at risk. The POTUS then threw out one of his usual MAGAisms, calling the talk of the gaff a "witchhunt". All MAGA parties are lying and claiming "nothing was classified". Of course it's classified. Also, DCI Ratcliff noted the true name of an agency officer in the chat. The officer would either be an SAC Ground Branch member on the ground in Yemen calling in target coordinates, or maybe it's an ex-Sana Station Chief located in another Middle East country who provided intel. Using a true name is a violation of the law and is classified. Goldberg noted the fact a true name was mentioned by Ratcliff, but did not name the name or location or what intel that CIA officer provided. Goldberg merely noted the violation of law by the DCI. Could these clowns be any more incompetent? And deceitful, as they are covering up their incompetence with lies.

Perhaps I should write Pete Hegseth's resignation letter for him: "I have decided to resign my position as Defense Secretary, in order to spend more time with my family, including Jack Daniels, Johnny Walker, Bud Weiser and Glen Morangie.