jonottawa

Now we're pushing the narrative that Obama was a deficit hawk? Seriously? I don't know whether people are just brainwashed or trolling sometimes. Obama inherited a mess. Trump has inherited a much BIGGER mess. Let's be honest about that. $19.8 TRILLION. $61,000 for EVERY citizen or $165,000 for EVERY taxpayer. http://www.usdebtclock.org/ We can all agree that Dubya was BY FAR the worst President since LBJ. We should also be able to agree that Obama was the 2nd worst, if we measure presidencies by comparing how they got it & how they left it. As for likability, Trump has always been perceived as likable until he ran for president, and then like all Republican presidential hopefuls before him he got branded as an evil racist fascist misogynist lunatic because he thinks a nation should have borders & a government should put its citizens first. As for surrounding themselves with smart people, I don't care how smart people are if they're evil. Dubya was a mediocre intellect and an alcoholic who surrounded himself with evil & corrupt people. Trump is a very intelligent guy, and a workaholic, who doesn't drink & who surrounds himself with smart people who love America. My ONE concern in that respect is that he might give his children (who he clearly is devoted to) political power & that might well cost him dearly in the future (remember you read it here first.) I urge many of you folks to turn off your TV's and radios and to stop reading the newspaper. War is NOT Peace. Freedom is NOT Slavery. Ignorance is NOT Strength.

You sound like the type of person who loses a club game & then recalculates the score at IMPs, only to declare victory! Bush-Gore 2000 had a much tighter EV (271-266,) it had a slightly larger popular vote gap, and it had a probable steal in Florida where the margin was razor thin (as opposed to this year where the closest state was a Hillary win in NH.) And yet nobody rioted. Nor did EITHER party make it a priority to legislate a change to a popular vote winner system, which would entail a completely different campaign strategy. ... This is hilarious, but only if you get the musical reference: https://twitter.com/BreitbartNews/status/796814556429426688 https://twitter.com/B_Ingram13i/status/796486803582660608

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtlzPUtyBnI ^^^(This was (when I originally posted it) a video showing a woman abusing her 8-year oldish child for 'voting' for Trump at school.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUy8RZ_M5No Speaking of hoaxes ... https://twitter.com/jonottawa/status/796858866877267968

I prefer stories that AREN'T hoaxes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfJenokrmb4 ^^^^ Why am I not surprised that YouTube censors a video showing a 17-year old girl who supports Trump being attacked violently & viciously? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgAbumRUNy0 I'd say more, but if I said what ought to be said I'd probably be banned.

Saved from economic ruin. Saved from unnecessary wars. Saved from a tyrannical government that serves the donor class to the detriment of everyone else. Saved from limits on free speech. Saved from a North-Korean type media (& social media.) Saved from pervasive corruption & nepotism. Saved from a Supreme Court that completely disregards the constitution. Among other things. Anyway, y'all won't be convinced by me & I CERTAINLY won't be drinking your Koolaid so hopefully we can agree to disagree & at some point in the future you can send me a private note commending me for my wisdom and foresight.

Very well said, except that Hillary actually LOST! The ONE blemish on this otherwise glorious event is that all the Americans who savagely attacked (& continue to do so) Trump & his supporters will end up being saved by a Trump presidency along with those of us who were his staunchest supporters. If there were any justice, they'd be sent to a country that shares their nihilistic worldview like Brazil or Sweden or here to Canada.

I wonder if the MSM is still making it seem close just to avoid looking so foolish or because they want people to keep watching. The fat lady has sung. http://www.nytimes.com/elections/forecast/president

Hope everyone else is enjoying this glorious evening as much as I am!

If you've read the most interesting/incriminating Wikileaks & watched the Clinton Cash documentary & the Veritas tapes & have concluded that Hillary and the Democrats are not corrupt, I can't help you. You're willfully blind. If you haven't watched them, you are failing in your duty as a citizen, imo. America is on the brink of becoming a banana republic. It's hanging by a thread. What the Democrats (& the Clinton Crime Family in particular) have done in the last 8 years make the 2nd worst president in history, Dubya, who made my blood boil with his (& Turd Blossom's) corrupt schemes, look like a piker. If you've always dreamt that America would become a one-party communist 3rd world country, with a government run media, with rigged elections, with a completely dysfunctional/amoral society, with an educational system run like a propaganda arm of the government & with party-sanctioned violence against political opposition and law enforcement then by all means vote Hillary. And Kaitlyn, fwiw I'm disgusted by the vitriol being hurled in here against you. Shows the true character of those people. https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/795707580576333829 https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/795347635976671232 https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/795015403596562432 https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/794887145509056513 https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/793535781231026176 https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/793520599566053376 https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/793448846567337989 https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/793170116955418624 https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/792384291565166593 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVYI9HO6aF0

Yes, let's hope that the most corrupt candidate in history, who has turned the MSM into her sockpuppets, who is owned by big banks & sleazy billionaires, who took bribes to influence policy & who will put the final nail in America's coffin wins against the people's choice who thinks that America was pretty great ca 1950. I've heard that if Trump wins he will Make BBO Great Again & roll back the decision to discontinue the Windows version. C/D?

re: anchor babies First, I consider this issue to be a 'yuge' distraction. The rest of the plan is great WITHOUT that provision. Debating that issue ad infinitum is a waste of time. If it passes, it will be challenged. If it is challenged, it will be found constitutional OR NOT. But including that provision lets people (like MikeH) who want to seem 'less extreme' than the Donald find something they would moderate about his plan. That's probably a good thing. It's not recommended to go into a negotiation with an offer that is the minimum you're willing to accept. Propose a plan that includes decitizening anchor babies & then compromise on the same plan without that provision. And to those who contend that particular issue shows how EXTREME the plan is, the fact remains that the vast majority of countries do NOT blanketly allow 'birthright citizenship' as it is indeed quite a nutty policy (at least to those of us who aren't one-world-government cultural Marxists) in the case of a mother who is in the country illegally.

I'm sensing a great deal of cognitive dissonance. Could I actually be getting through? "You don't seem to be very logical here." I'll take that as politespeak for "You're an idiot." So I'll disregard it. "Of course overpopulation is a big problem. ..." THE BIGGEST PROBLEM. But like the climate, at least you're getting warmer. Bill Gates is spending most of his billions accelerating that overpopulation. He's succeeded in doubling the population of Africa in the last ~25 years, in spite of the AIDS epidemic there. Are we better off because of it? Is that what we're here to do, cram as many homo sapiens as we possibly can on this little green ball before it all goes poof? When was the last CBC documentary on global overpopulation? "Freak cold events ..." I don't dispute any of that. To me, pollution & mass extinctions are a huge problem. I don't think 'climate science' is a very exact science but we're definitely polluting too much & non 1st world countries are breeding too much in a world where over 1 billion people who are ALREADY HERE get by on less than $1/day. "As for my solution being unlimited immigration: no, not at all. But the Trump plan lacks, shall we say, nuance. ..." In other words you agree with 90% of the plan. But you'd rather see someone with an amnesty plan that you agree 10% with become President. You want the United States nuclear arsenal to be in the hands of a 3rd world country? And I'M the 'not very logical' one. A nation without borders is not a nation. A nation without laws is not a nation. A nation that doesn't serve the interests of its citizens is not a nation. That's the essence of the Trump plan. Incidentally, it's virtually identical to the plan they have in Israel. It's nothing more than a (long, LONG overdue) return to sanity. I swear, if the Baby Boomer generation were a president, they'd be George W. Bush. "We got gay marriage! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!"

Here's a great response after Megyn Kelly's inappropriate line of questions (for which she was suspended) to the Donald at the first debate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io6B3AfG2HA

See, even Mikeh, one of the most brilliant people I know, has been brainwashed by decades of CBC Koolaid. That's why it's fruitless for me to try to debate the issue. Since I like Mike so much, I'll give it a go: First, 'global warming' became 'climate change' when there were freak cold events and people used those freak cold events to ridicule 'global warming.' So it's not about mealy-mouthed, it was a case of the Al Gores of the world covering their butts. Second, if you believe pollution & mass extinction are huge problems (& I do, I would also wager I have a significantly smaller carbon footprint than 99% of the people on this forum, including you.) then it is only logical to investigate the cause of these problems. In a word, what's the cause? Overpopulation. You'd never know that if you get all your information from the MSM, but if you stop & think about it for 5 minutes, it's self-evident. Sustainable development with zero population growth should be the goal of any sane individual who cares about the future of our planet & the people who will populate it. The first world has been very responsible with respect to solving the problem, maintaining very low (in some cases sub-replacement) birth rates. The rest of the world hasn't. Your solution is to let all the countries of the first world be flooded with 3rd world immigrants until they become 3rd world countries with 1st world carbon appetites & with NO appetite for curbing global warming. I would call that solution bizarre. tl;dr If you don't understand the connection between immigration & climate change, I suggest you turn off the CBC for a few days & have an independent think. Here's a neat article about what happened to the Crocodile Hunter's daughter when she sent an essay to Hillary about overpopulation. A brief excerpt from Bindi's essay: "I believe that most problems in the world today, such as climate change, stem from one immense problem which seems to be the 'elephant in the room' that no-one wants to talk about. This problem is our ever expanding human population. We are experiencing Earth's sixth mass extinction right now. ..." Here's a cool nature video. See if you can identify its relevancy to this discussion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO1WccH2_YM Or this ad: https://vimeo.com/11212514

Whether the 14th amendment applies to anchor babies or not is an open question. But even if it does, the rest of the plan on its own is still leaps & bounds better than what we have now and it's far more likely that someone who isn't owned by his corporate/billionaire donors will get it done than that anybody else will. The Democratic party, Republican party & MSM have become a farce, a sideshow of corporate funded propaganda, mismanagement & cultural marxism, owned and paid for by a select few. - FTFY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ4SSvVbhLw (George Carlin, a couple of F-bombs if you're at work.) For a more in-depth look at immigration, I recommend this. FWIU Senator Sessions collaborated with the Donald on his plan. Anyway, I understand that 40+years of brainwashing has worked so I'm not going to go back-and-forth here. Have a nice day! Edit: Oh alright, here's a nice jpg for Cherdano! http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1437455537l/25437276.jpg

Trump is right on the most important issue of our time, illegal immigration. His policy is spot-on: Trump's Immigration Plan He also isn't bought & paid for like the rest of the corporate-media-supported candidates. As for the rest, who knows & who cares. If he's got a 5% chance of turning America around, I'll take that over the 0% chance that Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton have.

David Hooks, murdered by police in Georgia.

I really liked this 6+ minute video and I'd be curious to hear what others think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE

As expected ... Glad that's sorted.

It would probably be quicker if I told you what I like about my country and right now I like this (NSFW - George Carlin) I don't like pledges of allegiance. I don't like strong centralized governments. I don't like 2-party systems. I don't like theistic religions, though if people keep their religious beliefs to themselves I don't much care. I don't like monarchies. I don't like unelected political bodies (though to be fair, I think democracy is overrated, and benevolent dictatorships have their advantages, as long as I get to be the benevolent dictator (stealing from Dubya, I know, terrible.)) I don't like being told what natural substances I can or can't ingest. I don't think governments should be in the marriage business. I don't think a place called 'The Beer Store' should exist. I don't like vast, ever-widening, wealth disparity between the rich and poor. I think inheritance taxes and carbon taxes are awesome and should account for a far greater % of revenue than they do currently. I wish every year, we held a competition for public school kids to write an essay entitled 'What I dislike about my country' (and not reward those who say 'nothing' or who instead list all of our virtues) and have the best essays (with the authors identities hidden until after judging of course) awarded prizes and be given 15 minutes of fame.

I'm sorry my 'pro-Israel' shorthand bothered some people. I should have said 'pro-Israeli women's bridge team getting whatever they requested in this instance' but that seemed cumbersome and I'm lazy and prefer to keep my posts brief if at all possible. My dang. Had the Israeli women been denied visas, which is what was implied in the original thread, and which is why I was in the thread in the first place, I would have been totally behind them (including moving the event if Indonesia hadn't eventually agreed to offer them visas) BUT I would want to see an ironclad precedent established that is clearly written and agreed upon for future host countries as to what degree of visa-denial will or won't be tolerated (and it must not name specific countries/religions, etc.) I'd still like to see that agreed upon even though the original (perhaps merely strongly implied) assertion turned out to be completely false. Aside: The post you reference had no merit to it whatsoever, but to discuss it at length would probably not be productive and certainly not on-topic. If you truly believe it does have merit, I'd be curious as to hearing your reasoning privately.

What caused the Bridge Winners thread to degenerate: 1. Misleading assertions by the pro-Israel side. (denied visas, banned from Bali, etc.) 2. Misleading arguments by the pro-Israel side. (excluded/barred from competing -- Yes, but could you also mention that it is by their own government that they are excluded/barred from competing?) 3. The completely unjustified and ludicrous use of nasty epithets by the pro-Israel side, even after being asked to stop by the moderator there. (calling Roy Welland an anti-Semite, accusing me of hate speech, etc.) 4. The exclusion of exculpatory evidence (or whatever you want to call it, I think you get what I mean) by the pro-Israel side. (the fact that their security guys were on strike, for instance.) Essentially the pro-Israel side made it personal, and so I responded in kind (albeit without the epithets or misleading arguments and assertions, but with my own unique blend of humor and charm.) Anyway, I think Migry's post says it very well, and I'm delighted to see that there's at least one person on the other side who's as fed up with that side's shenanigans as I am: “Is it also the moderator's job to check the facts when there is a controversial posting before long, uncivil threads even start? Thought to mention it as a few days ago someone posted that I was denied a visa to Bali, which was completely untrue and unverified with me or the USBF/WBF. I did not enjoy being the “celebrity of the day” nor the fact that while the right people are making all the efforts to get me one (through the proper channels and bridgewinners is not one of them), 248 comments (most of them not even to the point) found their way into the thread.” FWIW, I share Art's stated wish that this thread remain relatively free of melodrama. I think one of the best ways to achieve that is to not make it personal.

Enough with the Munich references already, please. You speak of absurdly misleading comparisons and then you make one of the biggest we've seen in this discussion. A bridge tournament is far closer to an academic conference than to the olympic games. You may wish it weren't so, but it is. If someone insisted that all Israeli players had psychological evaluations or background checks performed on them before being allowed to play in a particular tournament to ensure that they have never been associated with Kach and aren't the next Baruch Goldstein, we would all rightly find that deplorable and absurd. Even though that incident occurred much more recently and involved a far greater number of casualties than what transpired in Munich. Cave of the Patriarchs massacre

It apparently happened to a couple of dozen people (from primarily muslim nations?) when the WC was in Philadelphia and will surely happen again the next time the US hosts the WC, no? I think an in-depth discussion of the way Israel is perceived in the world and the reasons for that is too hot a topic for this forum (at least it is for this poster) but I'll just say that imo the South Africa comparison is a much closer fit than the Falklands (<3,000 people live there) comparison.

It's sad that some people only seem to care (or at least care enough to raise a ruckus) when it's Israel that is affected. If some other country is affected, we get crickets. People whose attitude is (or seems to be) 'As long as I'm okay, screw everybody else' don't deserve much sympathy imo. That being said, on visas, Indonesia seems to be as good a host as most. If there is a little extra red tape for this country or that country, that's far preferable to having the US host and having people being flatly turned away in significant numbers. I'm still curious whether the English ladies are going to end up getting shafted or not. It's nice to see that thread on BW gaining so much steam (oh wait, there is no such thread.) Any news on that front?