41

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 23, 2025, 09:29:12 PM »

While we're on the subject of criticizing avatars, I was deeply hurt to discover that Tom's avatar was not, in fact, a picture of himself, but of a dentist whose name is not Tom Bishop. We trusted you, and you let us down.

42

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 21, 2025, 11:41:03 PM »

(responding to Tom)

Hegseth is known to be an alcoholic based on numerous reports from numerous witnesses, not just one allegation. He also didn't deny that he drank too much at his confirmation hearing, instead only saying that he'd stop drinking if he were confirmed. A weirdly conditional promise like that already raises some major red flags - surely an alcoholic who recognizes their problem and is ready to get better would want to quit drinking regardless of whether or not they were confirmed - but in any case, I don't believe that any alcoholic is going to stop drinking immediately after beginning an extremely stressful new job with an enormous amount of responsibility. So, yeah, I'm confident that Hegseth is still drinking, although of course I can't prove it.

I'm not responsible for any dumb or incorrect thing some guy on Twitter said, and I don't need to defend him or otherwise answer for him. You keep trying to push this weird idea that everyone who criticizes Trump is on the same "team," and shares the responsibility whenever one of them makes a mistake. That's obviously not how this works, and it's an especially dubious strategy given the caliber of many vocal Trump supporters. I don't expect you to answer for Ben Shapiro's idiocy, Matt Walsh's creepiness, or Kanye West's insanity (to give just three examples) simply because they too are Trump supporters and you're therefore responsible for them.

43

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 21, 2025, 04:41:11 PM »

Yes, it's actually a good thing that an unqualified drunk is in charge of the military and regularly shares classified information on unsecured platforms with people who have no security clearance.

44

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 21, 2025, 05:01:03 AM »

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/20/politics/hegseth-second-signal-chat-military-plans/index.html

Whiskeyleaks strikes again!

45

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 19, 2025, 11:49:11 PM »

Just stop. It's easy to find pictures of varying heights, in various conditions.

Again, because Trump often wears shoe lifts. If there's any doubt as to which picture represents his true height, it's only logical to conclude it's the one in which he's shorter. You can wear something that increases your height; you can't wear something that decreases your height. The only possible other explanation for Rodriguez, in a very plain, simple picture in which we can see that they're both standing next to each other with no tricks of perspective, being visibly taller than Trump without him being actually taller is that Rodriguez is the one who wears shoe lifts, which is farcical on the face of it.

And no, I won't stop. Trump is a fat, vain, campy man who doesn't have a shred of the masculinity his followers project onto him, and both he and his followers deserve to be mocked for it.

Or, you know, slight angle discrepancies causing height effects.

It's funny how this is obviously at least part of what's going on in the pictures you've posted of Trump with Ali and Vance. Trump is very clearly in the foreground for some of those pictures. Of course, Trump is still wearing his lifts in those pictures, so it doesn't matter, but it wasn't a great choice of pictures on your part.

46

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 19, 2025, 06:02:31 PM »

Trump is the one who "started" this, so to speak, by lying about his height and weight. If you tell an obvious lie and people call it out, you can't suddenly backtrack by saying it's not important and nobody cares. If it's important enough to lie about, then it's important enough to debunk the lies. I'll agree with Tom that the pictures of Trump with Vance are inconclusive, but the post I made from a few years ago that I just linked to, and I'll quote now for the benefit of anyone who didn't bother clicking the link, leaves no doubt:

I completely missed this, but it looks like Trump's annual physical was finally released a week ago:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/politics/donald-trump-annual-physical/index.html

Supposedly Trump is 6'3 and weighs 244 lbs, just one pound up from last year. I feel bad for Sean Conley, and can only assume that Trump has either implicitly or explicitly threatened to fire him and ensure his career is ended in disgrace if he doesn't say what Trump wants him to, but he is clearly lying. I know I've been talking about this a lot lately, but it deserves emphasis because of how obvious the dishonesty is. Here's Trump next to 6'3 Alex Rodriguez:



Your eyes are not lying to you. Rodriguez is clearly a couple of inches taller than Trump. And here's Trump next to 6'2 Mark Sanchez:



Again, Sanchez is taller. Finally, we have Trump next to 6'1 Obama:



About the same. So Trump is not 6'3, and he's not even 6'2 like he put down on his driver's license. He's (at most) 6'1. The President and his doctor are lying to us about his medical details. Can you imagine the absolute shitstorm that Republicans would have kicked up - and rightfully so - if Obama had done anything like this?

It's impossible to refute the first picture. They're standing right next to each other, and even though he's slightly bent, Rodriguez is towering over Trump. Unlike politicians, professional athletes actually have their heights measured by neutral organizations who don't just take their word for it, so there's no question of it possibly being Rodriguez who's lying. Trump appearing to be taller in other pictures can easily be explained by the shoe lifts he frequently wears.

47

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 18, 2025, 06:11:47 AM »

The same article says that that's not true:

The claim that the NYPD publicly revealed Trump's height and weight is false. Neither the NYPD nor the New York State Police has made any announcement about Trump’s height or weight, nor have they publicly released any booking details following his indictment. HindustanTimes.com didn't find anything on either the NYPD or State Police's websites, Instagram, X, Facebook, or YouTube handles during their verification.

48

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 18, 2025, 04:05:56 AM »

This is relatively minor news given the abducting and exiling of American citizens without due process and the dismantling of both the federal government and the economy, but it's worth noting that Trump is once again lying on his annual physical:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/13/politics/trumps-health-report/index.html

No doctor wrote this. Bragging about Trump's golf victories is a clear indication that this was written by one of Trump's stooges and simply signed off on by a doctor, while the details themselves were obviously simply provided by Trump and not the result of any kind of examination. I've proved before that Trump's claim of being 6'3 is a blatant lie. Weight isn't as easily proved by just looking, but I'm still certain that Trump, with his visible obesity, weighs well over 224 lbs.

49

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 15, 2025, 06:52:12 PM »

Browsing through people's posts that they made fourteen years ago and on a different website so that you can argue that they...said something different fourteen years ago is one of the more bizarre debating strategies I've seen on this website.

50

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Is the UK okay?

« on: April 13, 2025, 02:35:31 PM »

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/police-make-30-arrests-a-day-for-offensive-online-messages-zbv886tqf

They include David Wootton, 40, who is appealing against a conviction for dressing up as the Manchester Arena bomber, Salman Abedi, for a Halloween party last year.

He had posted images on social media showing him wearing an Arabic-style headdress, and the slogan “I love Ariana Grande” on his T-shirt, and carrying a rucksack with “Boom” and “TNT” written on the front. Wootton was arrested and admitted sending an offensive message online. He faces up to two years in prison.

Oh my God, he wore a stupid Halloween costume. Imprison this man immediately!

51

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 10, 2025, 01:11:33 AM »

Like I've said:

Trump's desperate need to be constantly flattered and praised - and the fact that other world leaders have taken note of this and now regularly try to manipulate him with shallow lip service - is a sign of Trump's weakness, not his strength. Strong leaders don't need praise and flattery to feel secure in their decisions and perform their jobs competently, and they certainly don't let it sway their policies and decisions. Only a child would think that all the praise and flattery directed at Trump by world leaders means that they all really do respect and fear Trump far more than any other president before rather than the reality that Trump is simply very easy to manipulate with praise and flattery.

It's not something to be proud of when your preferred president responds so eagerly to obvious appeals to his ego.

52

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 09, 2025, 01:57:39 AM »

In these times of austere cost-cutting and a rapidly plummeting economy, it's nice to know that Trump is revisiting his plans for an extravagant military parade to shore up his manhood:

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/761814/trump-parade-military-dc/

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/07/politics/trump-plans-military-parade-washington/index.html

53

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 06, 2025, 08:05:50 PM »

^ Written as if "praise and flattery," is something ever seen or experienced by Trump.

Tom would disagree with your implication here, as he's repeatedly linked to world leaders praising and flattering Trump and claimed it as evidence of how much they respect and fear Trump and his masterful ways.

54

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 06, 2025, 03:32:58 AM »

This is a funny statement, considering that your Prime Minister is bending the knee to Trump and is agreeing that globalization has failed.

https://twitter.com/LeadingReport/status/1908669880292827179

That's a very disingenuous interpretation of the article this news actually comes from:

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/keir-starmer-to-admit-globalisation-has-failed-as-tariff-war-rages-s00b6wbcj

Starmer has of course yet to make his statement, but judging by this article, it's far from folding or "bending the knee" to Trump. It's simply responding to what Trump has done, with a few lines meant to appease Trump by saying that of course he totally understands why Trump did this and why people support him. And on that subject, as I've said before, Trump's desperate need to be constantly flattered and praised - and the fact that other world leaders have taken note of this and now regularly try to manipulate him with shallow lip service - is a sign of Trump's weakness, not his strength. Strong leaders don't need praise and flattery to feel secure in their decisions and perform their jobs competently, and they certainly don't let it sway their policies and decisions. Only a child would think that all the praise and flattery directed at Trump by world leaders means that they all really do respect and fear Trump far more than any other president before rather than the reality that Trump is simply very easy to manipulate with praise and flattery.

55

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 05, 2025, 03:53:19 AM »

As dopey as it is to even respond to the random MAGA idiot Tom posted, it's worth noting that the quote they're so gleeful about are the words of a Trump supporter trying to boost their boss to the media, not an anguished whistleblower, and certainly not the editorial stance of WaPo. Trump has spent his entire life being extremely sensitive to negative media coverage, and nothing we've seen in this new administration suggests that he suddenly doesn't care about it anymore. Of course he cares. It's too late to rebrand Trump as a manly stoic. He is what he is - obese, covered in makeup, a pampered rich kid who's never done a day of manual labor or faced physical danger in his life, and the least traditionally masculine president this country has ever had and almost certainly will ever have.

56

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: March 30, 2025, 11:12:02 PM »

In all of that I just see leftist references to anonymous sources and random people with military experience as a deployed fighter who say it's classified, but you may as well be querying a homeless veteran.

Anonymous, or, to use the term that you've stressed in the past, confidential sources are a critical part of journalism and have been for centuries. You yourself have accepted this and cited news articles that relied on anonymous sources in the past, and I've no doubt that you'll do so in the future. To casually accuse mainstream news organizations of making up or misrepresenting their sources - a very serious allegation that these organizations investigate thoroughly and usually get to the bottom of quickly - for no better reason than you don't agree with what they're saying is a very weak argument. I can't stop you from making it, but it's a dubious line of attack. I wouldn't even accuse conservative organizations like Fox or the NYP of fabricating or misrepresenting anonymous sources.

An expert in secrecy would be someone with expertise in understanding and communicating military information outside of the military, which none of those people cite.

The people with comparable experience have been queried on the procedure for us, which is exactly as I've stated on previous pages:

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/25/texas-cia-director-group-chat/

Ratcliffe told the hearing that he did not share any classified information in the group chat and that he has not participated in a group chat that included classified material. "To be clear, I haven’t participated in any Signal group messaging that relates to any classified information," Ratcliffe said.

In defending the category of the material that was shared, Ratcliffe seemed to be focusing on the actions of Hegseth, the Pentagon chief. “The Secretary of Defense is the original classification authority," Ratcliffe said, "and my understanding is that um his comments are that any information that he shared was not classified.”

I see you ignored a key part of my post, so I'll rephrase. Ratcliffe is not an expert on intelligence or military matters. He's a politician and a former prosecutor with a long history of lying about his career, and his only relevant experience is his stint as DNI, in which he left no doubt of his inexperience, incompetence, and partisan priorities. Hegseth, in the meantime, as a failed non-profit director and a Fox News talking head, is arguably even less of an expert on intelligence or military matters. Frankly, I suspect I would be a more competent secretary of defense than Hegseth, because at least I'm not an alcoholic. Trump giving these two stooges their current positions does not make them experts. That's not how it works.

57

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: March 29, 2025, 03:44:10 AM »

Numerous articles discussing this scandal have had experts on the subject weigh in and say that yes, these details are absolutely classified:

https://reason.com/2025/03/27/pete-hegseth-says-the-signal-chat-had-no-classified-information-how-is-that-possible/

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/26/politics/the-atlantic-publishes-signal-messages-yemen-strike/index.html

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/27/nx-s1-5341458/pete-hegseth-signal-war-plans

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2025/03/26/obviously-classified-experts-say-hegseth-chat-leaks-invited-danger/

Some of their sources are being kept confidential because they want to avoid adverse consequences. No, it doesn't mean that these journalists just made them up. It just means that they don't want them being promptly retaliated upon by Trump. Also, if you're going to call politicians like Ratcliffe, Gabbard, and Hegseth (who wasn't even a politician, but a Fox News talking head) whom Trump has simply appointed to head up these agencies "experts," than it's only fair that you do the same for the many members of Congress, Republican and Democratic, serving on related committees who have been calling for resignations and/or investigations and take their perspective into account as well.

As for prosecuting, who would even try to initiate a prosecution, let alone carry it through? The Department of Justice answers to Trump. He was coy in his last term in his efforts to lean on prosecutors to protect the people he didn't want touched. He'll be direct this term and promptly fire any federal prosecutor who does something he doesn't approve of, and people like you will defend him with this same might-makes-right logic: "Trump is the head of the executive branch and therefore the head of law enforcement. If he says that someone hasn't broken the law, then they haven't broken the law."

Also, you keep using the term "LARP." I feel like you don't actually know what it means. It really isn't applicable to this discussion, or many discussions on the Internet at all, for that matter. Are you emulating Q? Because I remember Q kept incorrectly using that term as well.

58

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: March 29, 2025, 02:54:38 AM »

Yes, the Trump administration are all agreed that the Trump administration has done nothing wrong, and never will. Hey, if we can't trust the people who are themselves being accused of recklessness and incompetence to assure us that actually they're not reckless and incompetent at all, who can we trust?

59

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: March 28, 2025, 12:17:47 AM »

Pete Hegseth did nothing wrong, according to Pete Hegseth. Nothing to see here, move along.

60

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: March 27, 2025, 02:59:00 PM »

I could have dismissed virtually every criticism of Biden by saying "The people who matter don't care about this." It's a blatant appeal to authority.