1

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: Today at 06:20:45 AM »

Please stop lying. The jury ruled that he didn't rape E. Jean Caroll, and the leftists here were in shambles over it.

Aww, bless. You don’t understand the difference between adjudicated and convicted, do you? Trump is a convicted felon and an adjudicated rapist.

If a jury says someone is not guilty that doesn’t actually mean they’re saying the person didn’t do it. It just means they don’t believe the evidence is good enough to establish beyond reasonable doubt that they did. For good reason there is a high bar for conviction, and rape cases have a notoriously low level of conviction.

But the judge clearly believed Trump did it

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/07/donald-trump-rape-language-e-jean-carroll

That’s the trade off with the high bar for conviction. You don’t want innocent people being locked up but you do end up with a lot of people, like Trump, who are most likely rapists walking free.

2

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: July 08, 2025, 08:06:45 PM »

Is someone who has an affair logically more or less likely to cut taxes? To pursue foreign intervention? To support gay marriage? It doesn't really make sense.

Remember who you’re talking to.
I’ve literally no idea what Action is talking about. Clinton had an affair with an intern and therefore he’s left wing seems to be the implication.

It’s a “if she floats then she’s made of wood and therefore a witch” level of logic.

Trump has had multiple affairs. He’s been adjudicated to be a rapist. So what does that make him? Is that more or less left wing than Clinton? Just utter nonsense

3

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: July 06, 2025, 10:01:14 PM »

I partly agree with Tom

I do too, it's just a weird boast that they're actively enjoying this level of corruption, self-enrichment and cruelty to the poorest and most vulnerable in society.

4

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: July 04, 2025, 05:23:09 AM »

Welp, it passes the house without issue.

So Trump got what he wanted.

I'd day good luck America but honestly?  I hope you reap what you sow and if it's bad (it will be), you all suffer and know it's your own fault.

It’ll be fine. It only affects the poor and the vulnerable and fuck those guys, amirite?

5

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: July 02, 2025, 08:40:45 AM »

It's fairly absurd by any measure to claim that a billionaire is not a good businessman. Even the claim that he received a jumpstart through millions from his father just means that both Trump and his father are good business men.

His father?  Yes.
But you'd be amazed how far you can get riding on someone else's coat tails.

Indeed

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2016/live-updates/general-election/real-time-fact-checking-and-analysis-of-the-final-2016-presidential-debate/fact-check-trumps-claim-that-he-built-his-company-with-1-million-loan/

6

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: July 01, 2025, 06:00:49 PM »

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that whoever bought a copy of The Art Of The Deal should demand a refund?

He didn’t even write it.
Fairly likely he’s never read it.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all

7

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 29, 2025, 07:43:02 AM »

Sounds like obliterate means “cause a few months delay”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c79qeqg89g2o

8

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 26, 2025, 06:53:05 AM »

I don't agree with the people giving even grudging credit to Trump over this. Trump clearly said that there was a ceasefire, and Israel and Iran clearly disregarded him and continued their war. The fact that at a later time Israel and Iran really did agree on a ceasefire doesn't somehow ripple back through time and imbue Trump's impotent declaration with retroactive relevance. No, Trump was bullshitting, because he's a thoroughly stupid man and a habitual liar, and he almost certainly played a very limited role (at best) in the actual ceasefire.

I dunno. While I certainly agree that orange man bad, it's not like he announced a ceasefire, then the war continued for another few weeks and then there was a ceasefire. After Trump announced the ceasefire there were some subsequent skirmishes, he yelled at them both and since then the ceasefire has held. Whether it will continue to hold remains to be seen of course. And of course like always he's massively exaggerating how effective everything he does is. But the timing is such that I don't think you can entirely detach the current ceasefire from his actions.
Don't get me wrong, this wasn't some brilliant strategic move from Trump. He operates entirely by gut feel. So if he did get this right it was more luck than judgement. But there are some tentative signs that he might have got it right.

9

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 25, 2025, 09:02:47 AM »

Whisper it quietly, but he might have got this one right.
The ceasefire is holding, for now. Early days yet of course.
And naturally he's going "laa laa laa, can't hear you" at all the intelligence indicating the striker might have not been quite as effective at obliterating the Iranian nuclear sites as he's claiming.

I wonder what is wrong with him that he has to always claim the superlative, always be so absolute. All the "they said this was the greatest..." stuff. Who are "they"? And was it the greatest? (That's just an example, not referring to anything specific, just generally the way he talks such utter bollocks all the time.)

10

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 24, 2025, 08:22:04 AM »

"Israel defence minister accuses Iran of violating ceasefire and orders ‘powerful strikes’ on Tehran"

From the BBC.

Well that went very well.

11

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 24, 2025, 07:39:03 AM »

Not sure he's being honest here.

He said he'd sort out the Ukraine thing very easily in a day and he did that*, so surely he wouldn't lie about this?

*lol

12

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 20, 2025, 04:06:06 PM »

So your criticism isn't criticism.  You just wanted more Trump.  Markjo's point stands: you have no criticism.  No questioning thoughts.  No disliked action.

I knew what his answer would be.
It’s like one of those answers to the “what would you say is your biggest weakness!” Interview questions.
“I think I’m too much of a workaholic and too committed to my employer”
 

As for Trump’s approval rating…

https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker

13

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 16, 2025, 09:45:43 AM »

It's a dishonest tactic, and one that I'm not going to indulge in myself.

Somewhat guilty as charged, I was partly fishing a bit to see if Tom would bite - he rarely disappoints.
But I still think the way Trump phrased it was odd - why would Russia being our ally in WWII have any influence on how the West views Putin who famously wasn't alive at the time. And Trump's lack of understanding of how we could be a country's ally 80 years ago and not now is somewhat baffling.

Trump is every bit as senile as Biden was, if not more.

I'm not sure about that. Trump rambles, but he's always done that.
You look at transcripts of his speeches from 10 years ago and they make as little sense as the ones today. This from 2016, for example:

https://x.com/StigAbell/status/763075178926596096

Trump isn't sharp or lucid, but by comparison he comes across as much less of a senile old man than Biden. Some of that is energy and confidence, but some of it is I think Trump is in a better cognitive place than Biden is. Obviously he's not as going to be as sharp as he was 30 years ago, no-one is as sharp in their 70s as their 40s, but I don't have big concerns about his cognitive abilities in terms of senility. My bigger issues with him are I completely disagree with his politics, he makes decisions based on gut feel rather than data and he's very transactional and easy to manipulate by flattery. He rails against "fake news" while believing and parroting right wing demonstrably false propaganda about immigrants eating pets. It's the age old trick - blame the minority group and pretend that it's those people who are causing your problems to distract you from what is actually causing the problems. He's a wannabe dictator. I think he's picked the wrong country to try it in but it beggars belief that after January 6th he managed to get elected a second time.

Fuck the Republicans for kowtowing to him rather than reigning him in.
And Fuck the Democrats for sticking with Biden for so long, lying about his clear senility and being in such a mess that there's no credible alternative to Trump right now.

14

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 15, 2025, 08:45:11 PM »

This is a terrible argument.

I'm not making an argument. I'm simply highlighting your clear pattern of behaviour. Your assessment of actions and words depends entirely on who did or said them rather than on their own merits. Which renders honest discussion impossible. I'm uncertain whether you are being dishonest with us (and therefore trolling) or with yourself (and simply deluded)

You come to us with a constant stream of lies

A claim which cannot be taken seriously given the above and your last accusation of me lying was a response to my quoting Trump verbatim.
Now, I don't think Trump really believes Putin fought in World War II - I thought his phrasing was odd, but I know what he was trying to say. But even what he was trying to say was pretty dumb - he was basically saying it's odd that Russia was our ally in WWII and now people don't like them. How could that be? How about because of the EIGHTY YEARS of geopolitics since then.

I do have criticisms about Trump

No, you don't. Because you're in his cult and you cannot bear to hear any criticism of him. The mental backflips you do to defend him and his cronies are ridiculous. But OK, prove me wrong - what are your criticism of him? Come on, this is a safe space, Trump won't read this.

15

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 15, 2025, 04:06:31 PM »

And how do you think Tom would have interpreted it had Biden said it?

I probably wouldn't have commented.

Past experience of your posts after every misspeak by Biden tells me different. Or, at the very least, if someone else had brought it up you’d have piled on. That isn’t speculation, there’s a clear pattern in your posting.
Any slight misstep from the people you like and it’s defend and deny. If it’s someone on the other side then it’s all out attack.

I’m not particularly defending Biden, he clearly was mentally unfit for office. But Trump is unfit for office too - in a different way - but because he is your guy the mental backflips you will do to find no fault in him and defend everything he says and does are ridiculous. It’s intellectually dishonest. You must at some level acknowledge that Trump is human and therefore fallible. And yet I don’t recall ever seeing you criticise or condemn anything he says or does. And it’s that which makes you appear like a cult member who is so far gone they can find no fault in their glorious leader. And that’s what makes any honest conversation with you impossible.

16

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 14, 2025, 08:03:41 PM »

I think Tom's interpretation is fair.

And how do you think Tom would have interpreted it had Biden said it?
And this is the issue with Tom and the MAGA lot in general. The ones deep in the cult don't care what happens or what is said, they only care who did it. If it's Trump or Vance or one of the other MAGA then it's ThisIsFine.jpg, no matter how egregious what is said or done is. If it's Biden or any other Democrat then it's interpreted in the most unkind and malicious way possible.
It's a level of delusion and intellectual dishonestly which makes debate impossible.

17

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 14, 2025, 08:24:42 AM »

So... "Trump fought in WW2 and was very helpful in securing it." - is something you'd understand as USA?

He'll understand it whatever way his cult leader tells him to.
Imagine being an "independent thinker" and having such a slavish devotion to a narcissist's whims.
I like to think Tom is just trolling but I have a feeling he really is this much of a sheep.

18

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 13, 2025, 05:32:47 PM »

"I talked to Putin. He lost 51 million people (in WWII) and he did fight… He fought with us in World War II and everybody hates him.”
- Trump

Is that the Putin who was born in 1952?

19

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 12, 2025, 03:29:36 PM »

When the famous billionaire owner is coming from out of town and appears in front of the building with his limo, obviously everyone will know about it.

Of course people would have known he was there, that doesn't mean they would have expected him to come barging in to their dressing room while they were getting changed.

It appears to me that you are repeating liberal falsities.

I'm repeating Trump:

“You know they’re standing there with no clothes. Is everybody OK? And you see these incredible looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.”

What's there to "get away with" if that's OK?

Obviously your tactic to keep defending the perversions of your cult leader is deny, deny, deny. Whatever helps you cope I guess.

20

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: June 07, 2025, 09:39:08 AM »

Actually they were once friends, but Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-lago for being a pedophile.

Why would he have done that? Trump loves that sort of thing

Four women who competed in the 1997 Miss Teen USA beauty pageant also said the Republican used to walk in. Some of the girls were as young as 15.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-former-miss-arizona-tasha-dixon-naked-undressed-backstage-howard-stern-a7357866.html#

Trump has openly boasted about doing this and sexually assaulting women. He has been adjudicated as a rapist.

The lengths you have to go to in order to defend him are increasingly desperate