KnightShade

International Labor Day, Spam celebration thread

The fact that American's took the U out of labour is funny or symbolic or something

Talk about (almost) anything.

I'm interested in finding a good book on Nasser. He has become one of my favorite figures of the near-modern middle east.

@Kratesis

Here's an interesting one: goodreads.com/book/show/911064.Nasser?..

Talk about (almost) anything.

<Snipped quote by KnightShade>

Hey, you. Long time no see.

@Sherlock Holmes

Hey you too. You doing alright?

Talk about (almost) anything.

I'm doing some reading before bed, Deborah Lipstadt and Christopher Hitchens, went bowling earlier.

question for the british folk

tækəʊ?

How *I* See Communism: A Discussion of Spamtastic Proportions

It's a riddle. Bear in mind, collectives in the past have not been kind to the differently-abled -- we were offed along with the other undesirables in just about every genocide in history. Frankly we're more trusting than we ought to be, and any disabled person with any kind of experience in social healthcare (be it VA, NHS, or elsewhere) has the scars to prove it.

@mdk

No matter how shitty your experiences with the VA, implying socialised medicine is in anyway comparable to communist genocide is bullshit. I'm disabled and have used the NHS my entire life. I have scars from two life saving operations and one test for a life threatening illness, they were all performed without complications, so while I literally have scars I also have zero complaints. It's also nice not to pay for the medication that stops me having constant seizures. You can also pay for private medicine if you'd prefer here, it's not taken off the table as an option. Surely if you're going to compete with free healthcare it you have to work pretty hard too, which is to the benefit of their patients.

Trump drops the MOAB (artist's rendition)

This twitter feed? He does a lot more than 'fan division.'

@mdk

I'm aware he does other things, are you denying he fans division at all?

I mean there's also convicted terrorists, convicted kidnapper/torturer/murderers, proponents of racial violence, and actual literal nazis. At some point you really have to stop and think.

So do the Neo-Nazi groups that hailed Trump, and Trump's refusal to disavow a leader of the KKK make you the guys? If no then why should this apply to the anti-Trump crowd?

"We can act like shitheads all we want and if you respond at all you're petty" -- wait, who's the troll again?

No, I did not say that. I do not support the behaviour of these groups, in fact I would happily disavow them, something Trump refuses to do again and again when it comes to the bad apples on his side. I also meant pettiness as in they're being petty and he is responding in kind, I was not pointing solely to Trump. He is not simply responding, he insults anyone who disagrees with him and belittles the concerns of the people he is supposed to represent. Obama put up with the crap of the tea party and birthers, and I can't remember him calling people losers via twitter or threatening freedom of the press.

Trump drops the MOAB (artist's rendition)

@mdkI get my information on Trump from his own twitter feed, where he calls anyone who disagrees with him weak, a loser, or fake news/media. How is that anything other than fanning division? The democrats aren't blameless either, and especially not antifascist groups. Antifascists groups have a tendency to assume fascism is inevitable, so anything is justifiable to stop it, leading to them doing shitty things that damage their own cause. But antifascist groups aren't the only ones protesting Trump. And he's the President and they're not. He's supposed to have dignity and rise above pettiness. You can't blame everybody except the President, the buck is supposed to stop with him. I do mostly agree with you on the military points though, I like Trump's deference to generals.

Trump drops the MOAB (artist's rendition)

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That works both ways though. The MOAB drop spread far more effectively across borders too. Also since WW2, the US has vastly (Vaaaaaastly) increased its military superiority to every other nation on earth, so our shows-of-force are more effective than they've ever been (short of nuking).

Non-state actors have been kicking our ass in the information-sharing department for a long time, in no small part because the last two presidents took a vastly different approach. New sheriff, new strategy, and it's a pretty sound one.

@mdk

I agree to some extent with that. I'm not going to pretend to understand fully the distinction between the strategies used, however the repetitive use of drone strikes didn't appear to be accomplishing anything to me. I don't necessarily favour a stronger approach than previously but I do favour a more purposeful one. I know that here in the UK for awhile our government only bothered to bomb ISIS before press releases, it was absurdly passe.

But globalised communications bring the fight home too. No matter how much spending you put into the military they can't fight a war in your own country. If we want to stop terrorism, which is supposedly what this is about, we have to engage in the ideological war at home too. Trump is vastly outgunned in that department. He's a caricature of an American who repeatedly seems incapable of seeing other viewpoints or stringing an argument together. He's done nothing but stir up divisions at home so far.

Trump drops the MOAB (artist's rendition)

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On the contrary, bombs change mindsets all the time. Shit, we're posting in English after all. We didn't win the various world wars because of our superior identity politics.

@mdk

We can't ignore the development of the internet and growth of internationally available mass media. Ideologies now spread far more effectively across borders, with more independence from governments, armies and printed newspapers, than they did during the World Wars.