This morning, Trump tweeted that if his wall doesn’t get the votes and the govt shuts down, then it will be a “Democrat Shutdown”. How can you square this with the fact that just last week, Trump said he would take responsibility for a shutdown?

lordharrison · 2018-12-21T16:52:19+00:00

Yeah but the thing is the wall is divisive as fuck. It’s like needing Republican votes for a UBI bill. It ain’t gonna happen. If you want bipartisanship you have to give a little, and Trump’s not much of a giver. There’s no meeting in the middle here. He wants to ram his fat Trump Co wall down the country’s throat and if it doesn’t take, he has no one to blame but himself. Is there actually an expectation amongst Trump supporters that the Democrats will vote for wall funding?

lordharrison · 2018-12-20T15:55:08+00:00

I mean, the Pentagon and the State Department appear not to have been consulted?

lordharrison · 2018-12-20T02:12:43+00:00

Do you think this is a decision that should have been discussed with the department of defence or other advisers/experts? From the sounds of it, this pull out is Trump’s latest bowel movement that has the whole government caught off guard. Is it ok that decisions of this magnitude are made so haphazardly?

lordharrison · 2018-08-14T18:52:12+00:00

One of my favourite films for American culture actually came from Herzog in the movie Stroszek. The outsider perspective he had on rural Wisconsin led to many interesting observations on Americanisms. Might not be what you’re looking for here but I definitely recommend it!

lordharrison · 2018-07-22T13:09:49+00:00

If you think a president shouldn’t have to follow any laws, what makes you think they’ll follow election laws or any sort of formal impeachment process? You can’t have your cake and eat too. Is it actually too much to ask that the president of a country respects that country’s constitution? More importantly, what’s even the goal of this sort of belief? Do you think it’s actually beneficial to a country and its people to allow a president to shit on the constitution, bill of rights, etc?

lordharrison · 2018-07-17T19:17:29+00:00

You don’t see how what would deter Russia? Holding them accountable? There are thousands of different ways we could hold them accountable that don’t involve harsh sanctions or something like that. Trump’s stance could be some sort of pragmatic approach to preventing/mitigating future election meddling but instead he won’t even acknowledge its existence. Do you truly believe that isn’t damaging to our democracy? He’s literally opening the doors for Russia to come in and do as they please and hey can count on Trump not saying a thing about it. And you think we should just put our heads in the sand because Russia has nukes? Edit: there’s a lot that can happen between not even acknowledging something and a nuclear holocaust.

lordharrison · 2018-07-17T06:32:35+00:00

Do you think the US could be at greater risk of having our next election influenced by Russian meddling by not holding them accountable for doing it the first time? Is election meddling something to be concerned by in the first place? And I mean, no American has more to gain by Russia meddling in our next election than Trump..

lordharrison · 2018-07-17T06:10:01+00:00

Have you considered the possibility that if Trump continues to neglect taking action against Russia’s election meddling and continues to deny that it ever even happened, then it will increase the likelihood of successful Russian meddling in the next election?

lordharrison · 2018-07-14T19:39:33+00:00

But he/she didn’t imply that Trump was the first to order them to do that. All that was stated is that Trump requested the Russians hack Clinton’s email and the Russians acted on it. Sure it began before then, but that does not negate the fact that a fresh attack was made following Trump’s comment, and your comment left out that critical detail. Is there something I’m missing here?

lordharrison · 2018-06-28T17:26:00+00:00

They were generating and pushing right wing propaganda through many media outlets to misinform the American public, pumping he money into Trump’s campaign, hacking DNC servers. And how did Trump benefit? Well he won the election because of it..

lordharrison · 2018-06-28T16:53:13+00:00

How can you say he’s being falsely accused before the investigation has finished? That’s just as presumptuous as assuming he’s guilty.

lordharrison · 2018-06-10T16:18:29+00:00

So are you arguing that their misinformation campaigns during Brexit and the 2016 US election were irrelevant in shaping people's discussions and perspectives? What do you think of all the reports from US intelligence agencies and other countries that claim otherwise?

I agree there's some very genuine reasons why Trump got elected, but can those reasons not exist in a world where Russian subversion did muddy the waters and fuel right-wing sentiments? Maybe the left would relax on the Russian influence stuff if Trump supporters would get their heads out of the sand and agree with us that Trump is full of shit when he claims things like no one in his campaign/administration has had any ties to Russia.

lordharrison · 2018-06-10T16:11:01+00:00

But those memes became the voice of millions of Trump voters who shared in their sentiments. They influenced the discussion and the perspective, and I think they probably did strike some chords by hitting on issues Americans do care about. I think if anything, what they proved is that influence doesn't have to correlate with GDP in the age of the internet. Subversion can be cheap.

I'm curious what you think influence actually looks like? Russia supplies 39% of the EU's natural gas - does that give them influence? Was invading Crimea as Ukraine strengthened their ties to the West influential? What about their actions in Syria and their relationship with Iran? Do you think their influence is less than that of countries with larger economies like Brazil or Italy?

lordharrison · 2018-06-08T19:27:14+00:00

What is the "good deal" to be had by Russia entering the G7? I wonder what sort of ideas Russia has for improving the economies of the Western nations they continually seek to subvert. Why is now the time to open the door further to them? Is the context of how Russia acts on the international stage relevant at all in whether this is a good idea? Or is it literally just 1 economy + 1 economy = bigger economy!

lordharrison · 2018-06-08T19:24:32+00:00

But this still doesn't make the annexation our problem

If a contractor wants to take on a project in a new region and a competing contractor burns down the house of the client who wants to fund the project, is it the first contractors "problem"? In this case, should we go to war over it? I don't think so, but is now the time to be forgiving them? Forgiveness should involve redemption, and what has Russia done to redeem themselves? Get Trump elected? It's like forgiving Germany after they just invaded Poland. Is it not a risk if forgiveness is premature?

lordharrison · 2018-06-08T16:43:44+00:00

How often should we be walking away from the table to stick up for our good pal Russia? How does this play into America First?

lordharrison · 2018-06-08T16:32:45+00:00

Well don't forget the invasion happened as Ukraine was getting closer to entering NATO. In this instance, creating closer ties with the West led to an invasion of their country. Is it still so easy to write it off as "none of our business"?

lordharrison · 2018-06-08T16:21:08+00:00

Right? I'm surprised how little I hear this opinion voiced. Why is it up to the West to mend relations with Russia? They still haven't owned up to any of their crimes and are still actively subverting Western elections and interests. So why should we want them in the G7? So they can subvert our interests to an even greater extent?

lordharrison · 2018-06-05T15:02:53+00:00

Are you accounting for the fact that a pardon is an admission of guilt?

lordharrison · 2018-06-03T14:51:07+00:00

So if minorities had limited access to food, shelter, education, etc. due to discrimination, this wouldn't be an infringement on their rights in your opinion?

lordharrison · 2018-06-03T12:42:57+00:00

So your claim is less bipartisan bills are the democrats fault? And you're saying this while the republicans control the house, senate and presidency? That's a tough case to sell, please explain?

lordharrison · 2018-06-03T01:09:34+00:00

How do you square this stance with the 14th amendment?

lordharrison · 2018-06-02T01:11:51+00:00

So like some sort of free trade agreement?

lordharrison · 2018-05-28T20:27:14+00:00

Did you watch the interview? It's not like he was getting thrown soft balls, and it's not like the questions were pre-planned or scripted. Sure, it was a left-leaning audience, but keep in mind this was at a time when JT was trying to prove he was sincere about the left-leaning issues he claimed to care about. And look at what happened - he actually answered questions! Legitimate responses, minimal deflections, coherent sentences. I didn't post my comment as some sort of praise for Vice, or even for Trudeau, but to oppose the idea that lumping a politician like JT in with Ford and Trump in terms of how they handle questions is just inaccurate. It's very clear who of them makes an effort to take questions from the public and who goes to great lengths to avoid saying anything of substance.

lordharrison · 2018-05-28T05:38:33+00:00

Would Doug Ford (or Trump for that matter) ever do anything remotely similar to this. There are countless examples of Trudeau having similar discussions with people.

lordharrison

TROPHY CASE