6 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

You were given the context.

 

pants on fire

"And on Pahlavi, taking the first ten search engine results for reza pahlavi (exc wikipedia/ brittanica and revapahlavi.org) over the past four days," followed by a list o' quotes. that ain't context and it is all you said.

6 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

The trend about Pahlavi's coverage is clear as it's also clear that he's the only Iranian opposition leader that has had any appreciable coverage at all.

well, the underlined part is true. he is getting almost no meaningful coverage whatsoever. iran+protests yields no pahlavi returns for lede or headline from the first 120 results. even when iranian tv gots shut down by hackers who support him, or when he gave an hour long news conferences, you wouldn't know about such unless you were active already looking for pahlavi. furthermore, fact that pahlavi is the only opposition leader who has received appreciable coverage doesn't mean he is getting the "embiggen" treatment from western media. after all, pahlavi is the only opposition leader getting appreciable coverage from non-wester media as well.

duh.

as already observed, as with blm and hong kong, these movements don't need leaders. pahalavi gets coverage (dwindling and pathetic as 'posed to an effort to embiggen,) 'cause there aren't other options. the coverage he is getting (as evidenced in the articles you failed to link and attribute) is equivocal and ambivalent about pahlavi's real relevance to the current iranian movement, a reality you purposeful and deceitful ignored... a fact  apparent if you bothered to read the articles you generated with your search. so, lazy or liar?

and around we go.

6 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Whatever is provided I know you'd just go off on a tangent and end up repeating the same thing over and over in the hope I'll give up; so it's a waste of time.

HA!

coming from the clown who has been focused on your idiotic (and objective wrong) lede and summary definitions schtick for how many posts? 

serious, this is always entertaining, even if the returns diminish quick. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 26Jan 26 by Gromnir

https://www.salon.com/2026/01/25/those-rights-dont-count-bovino-says-pretti-forfeited-2nd-amendment-rights-in-fatal-shooting/

Wish someone would ask Bovino what's with his cosplay.

 

6 hours ago, Gorth said:

This!

Some years ago, I watched the occasional Fox news articles and some Fox youtube videos (to avoid the echo chamber thing). I seriously thought at first, that I was watching some surreal satire in the comments sections until I realized those people actually believed what they wrote. Made me despair for the state of the world.

possible more terrible than when we first began recommending boardies read fox story comments more than five years past, the maga movement has shifted distinctly... we were 'bout to say "right," but the truth is the direction taken is unhinged. fox remains the most popular news source for the US populace. period. however, much o' maga and other trump supporters consider fox too woke. most candice owns and nick fuentes content is too extreme for fox. benny johnson and matt walsh is fact-free and controversial enough so that their being given regular gigs on fox is current impossible. and, God help us, am wondering how many young trump voters is more influenced by the tate brothers than brett baier.

in 2026, fox is the relative safe space for people attempting to gauge what maga believes as 'posed to what might be gleaned from polls. even so, at least once a week, or whenever something terrible happens (daily?) we go to fox and read stories. we then scroll through the comments following those stories to see how the issues is resonating with people who follow news at the country's most popular news outlet.

disquieting.

npr and pbs stories is all fake news and anybody who quotes those sources is sheeple... though am suspecting sheeple is now a boomer shibboleth. anybody know what is the genz version o' sheeple? 

HA! Good Fun!

37 minutes ago, Malcador said:

https://www.salon.com/2026/01/25/those-rights-dont-count-bovino-says-pretti-forfeited-2nd-amendment-rights-in-fatal-shooting/

Wish someone would ask Bovino what's with his cosplay.

 

the point is to trigger the libs. if you comment, then they laugh at you being owned. maga exists because trump gave people an outlet for their outrage and grievance. maga doesn't need grocery prices lowered or reasonable health care anywhere near as much as they want their neighbor's cow to die and for libs to be owned.

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

I'm glad to hear impeachment calls are starting to come out for Kristi Noem. I mean she is just throwing around the domestic terrorist label at every protester in the country, so maybe she isn't fit to be the director of Homeland Security. I'd imagine messing up her coffee order can get you on a watchlist.

8 hours ago, Gromnir said:

pants on fire

"And on Pahlavi, taking the first ten search engine results for reza pahlavi (exc wikipedia/ brittanica and revapahlavi.org) over the past four days," followed by a list o' quotes. that ain't context and it is all you said.

If you're wondering why I cannot be bothered arguing with you, this is the reason. Happens every time.

It's obvious to anyone that isn't being willfully obtuse that you've decided to take that, well, out of context, as a single line. Big difference, in this case it's as a deliberate effort to obfuscate. To remind you, and far more effort than you deserve:

Quote

 

Far more that the three letter acronyms want the Shah- and, of course, and quite possibly more importantly, SAVAK- back; and the western media is laundering their opinions. It's basically like me calling for a mass demonstration at Eden Park and the press saying how important I am for getting 50k people out (having picked the day of a NZ/ South Africa rugby match, or an Ed Sheeran concert).

Very, very far from the first time media has laundered such preferences too. 

Indeed, picking someone who is deeply flawed and will divide a country is a tried and true formula for making sure a country stays stuffed up, while exonerating yourself from the blame. Doesn't matter what Iranians may or may not want- and it's pretty clear they don't want the Pahlavis, they got rid of them twice- it's far more important to get someone pro west and pro Israel in there who can be relied upon to crush dissent and sell out natural resources to the US.

 

This was the post I made immediately beforehand, and which you took issue with. The context of the list is establishing a pattern, the quotes were taken from what every source agrees is where the authors' 'important facts' (/opinions) are located and thus establish that. All you have done is suggest I do things that actually would be stupid. Like do a general search- iran + protests, lest we forget- for establishing a pattern about a specific person. Literally the only reason you want me to do that is because it would be stupid and let you 'win'.

Firefighter, extinguish thine own pants.

Quote

furthermore, fact that pahlavi is the only opposition leader who has received appreciable coverage doesn't mean he is getting the "embiggen" treatment from western media. after all, pahlavi is the only opposition leader getting appreciable coverage from non-wester media as well.

Literal lol. No, merely getting coverage doesn't mean he's getting embiggened. It's the disproportionately positive coverage that shows the embiggening.

Hence the quotes you've spent the past week objecting to.

Sheesh man. If you're wondering why I cannot be bothered expending any actual effort on you, this is the reason. Happens every time.

(for extra lol, the al jazeera article I originally linked to did mention a bunch of other Iranian opposition figures. ho hum) 

Interesting take on why the old rapist president probably stepped down from the Greenland threats: https://www.logicofwar.com/why-trump-retreated-on-greenland/

10 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

I'm glad to hear impeachment calls are starting to come out for Kristi Noem. I mean she is just throwing around the domestic terrorist label at every protester in the country, so maybe she isn't fit to be the director of Homeland Security. I'd imagine messing up her coffee order can get you on a watchlist.

I get the sense that ICE has rapidly ramped up their personnel, bringing in people who are inadequately trained, inexperienced, and trigger happy. The (ICE) can't fix this problem in the short term, so more citizens are going to die and the administration will continue to emit evil lies in the face of clear evidence. 🫤 Impeaching Noem to force her resignation would be a start; bring in somebody who actually has experience in domestic security in urban areas, rather than a lying politician from rural South Dakota.

Nobody with experience would take the job. However I am sure Trump would be willing to sacrifice Noem and then call it a resounding victory, then pull back ICE to try and regain a bit of public support going into the midterms. 

44 minutes ago, Hurlshort said:

Nobody with experience would take the job. However I am sure Trump would be willing to sacrifice Noem and then call it a resounding victory, then pull back ICE to try and regain a bit of public support going into the midterms. 

I don't think so, not in the sense that Trump will not sacrifice Noem, but in the sense that he'd back down. This is what Magats want, to see "blue" cities and states conquered by Trump's paramilitary (****, you can scratch off the para) and occupied to bring them in line. The killings of "antifa supersoldier domestic terrorists" is an intrinsic part of this, not an unfortunate accident, and if you look at what the magats are saying to each other they do view this as part of "taking the country back".

Trump and the Republicans are almost certain to get bulldozed in the midterms, but you have to keep in mind that Trump is a dementia-addled omegaboomer who consumes almost exclusively Fox News and Truth Social posts so he probably thinks this is the most popular thing in the history of our country. To boot, whoever is in the room at any given time is effectively the president and that seems to mostly be Stephen Miller.

what about the 100 percent tariff usa threaten to put on canada

maybe it will be implemented in 1 week

maybe it will be walk back

maybe most would forget this happened in 1 week

 

 

7 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Firefighter, extinguish thine own pants.

*chuckle*

how many posts did you make going on and on about your search engine efforts (methodology. HA!) and the inherent definition o' ledes as providing the context for your list o' quotes?  now, somehow an earlier and unreferenced post which is offering no more insight than providing a restatement o' your embiggen  conclusions, is s'posed to enlighten a reader about the specific context o' the quotes you did not link or attribute? the context o' how those specific quotes were actual used in the story is limited to: 

 

7 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

And on Pahlavi, taking the first ten search engine results for reza pahlavi (exc wikipedia/ brittanica and revapahlavi.org) over the past four days

the previous post in no way resurrects the moldering corpse o' your original ignorant, deceptive and lazy list o' quotes proof.

regardless, it is difficult to take you serious about your sophistry complaint given just how deep down the rabbit hole am having been chasing you. 

7 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

No, merely getting coverage doesn't mean he's getting embiggened. It's the disproportionately positive coverage that shows the embiggening.

again, we showed that many o' the  quotes you shared in your rando list were from stories, stories you purposeful did not attribute nor link, that when read did not embiggen but were instead equivocal and ambivalent regarding pahlavi's influence. we had previous posted more than a half dozen western stories, linked and attributed, that expressed similar suspicion regarding pahlavi relevance. pahlavi, in spite o' a news conference and iranian tv being hacked and shut down in his name, is getting hardly any meaningful attention from western media, and as already shown, the attention he is getting is not overwhelming positive but is ambivalent at best. 

is it possible to find overwhelming positive stories about pahlavi? you ain't provided any, but we would be shocked if it were not true. of course there is gonna be somebody cheering for pahlavi and making him seem more relevant than he is.

duh.

'course it wouldn't much matter if you did find such  'cause Gromnir has provided a whole bunch o' not positive western stories from prominent western sources, the existence o' which knee-caps considerable your generalization that western media as a whole is attempting to embiggen pahalavi.

for funsies, from a today search specific for pahlavi, two returns from the first ten (none o' which is less than 2 days old btw, so...)

"While some Iranians perceived Pahlavi as an opposition leader, others considered him an opportunistic figure with monarchical designs and a mixed track record." (a paragraph 3 lede)

the concluding opinions and summary portion o' the article

For the last 15 years, Pahlavi has intensified his efforts to unify the political opposition and gain greater exposure, culminating in him emerging as a central figure in the latest protests.

Yet there remain questions about whether he is viable as an opposition leader or is simply an opportunist.

His message about a democratic future for Iran has been largely consistent. However, his father’s repressive and imperial legacy, combined with his own royal pedigree and American and Israeli proximity, prevent him from finding favor with Iranians who oppose monarchy and prioritize sovereignty.

Now, the prospect of Iranians across the country rallying around Pahlavi remains as much of an open question as whether they will succeed in creating the conditions for his return by toppling the regime.

also,

Reza Pahlavi says Iran is undergoing a revolution

again, the summary and concluding opinions is equivocal at best.

The man who would be king

Diplomats fear the collapse of another Middle Eastern state. Democrats aspire to a constitutional assembly and wonder why they should trade one supreme leader for another. “Death to the satemgar (tyrant)," goes another chant in Tehran, “whether Pahlavi or the rahbar (leader)." Mr Pahlavi wants a perch above others, not a place beside them, says an academic who tried but failed to include him in a coalition.

In our interview Mr Pahlavi emphasises that Iran’s fate is in the hands of Iranians: “Iran’s destiny is not sealed by what any other country does... Our fighting will not stop." From afar, he sounds confident that this is a revolution. But what his role will be remains unclear.

already posted npr article remains a top ten return after weeks

Who is Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince encouraging demonstrations across Iran?

summary and concluding opinions?

 

A leader for a future Iran?

Pahlavi's efforts to position himself as a leader for a future Iran have prompted sometimes heated debates inside and outside the country. And while protesters have shouted in support of the shah in some protests, it is not clear whether that is support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

His public support of Israel has prompted significant criticism in the past from ordinary Iranians and other members of opposition groups, particularly after the 12-day war launched by Israel in June 2025.

He has sought to have a voice through social media videos, and Farsi-language news channels such as Iran International have highlighted his calls for protests. In press interviews, Pahlavi has repeatedly raised the idea of a constitutional monarchy, perhaps with an elected rather than a hereditary ruler, but has also stated it is up to Iranians to choose.

An exiled crown prince says he can lead Iran to democracy, but Trump hasn't endorsed him

concluding opinions

Some opposition activists are wary of forging ties with Pahlavi due to what they say is the fanaticism of some of his followers. But other activists say there is no room for internal feuding at a moment when the regime appears so weak and adrift, and that Pahlavi has to be part of any opposition coalition.

Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, head of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, a think tank that studies Iranian politics, said there’s no doubt Pahlavi “is the most recognized leader within the opposition.”

But he said Pahlavi, who has not set foot in Iran since his family was pushed into exile in 1979, lacked a genuine political organization inside Iran “that is able to provide leadership for the protests, not just on social media, but actually at the street level.”

Such an organization would ensure that the protests are disciplined and sustainable over time, Batmanghelidj said.

The way that Pahlavi and other opposition activists have approached the protests “raises questions about their readiness to really lead a political movement.”

He drew a comparison to Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who despite years of experience mobilizing resistance to authoritarian rule could not secure President Trump’s support.

“If Machado, with her deep organizing experience, couldn’t win the trust of the Trump administration, how can Pahlavi?”

etc.

perhaps you are dragging this bit o' zor intransigence and deceit out for so long 'cause you are hopeful a day will come when pahlavi sudden does gain relevance in western sources? maybe is not true today or yesterday, but the ever optimistic zor is waiting for his pure and beautiful tomorrow?

7 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

The context of the list is establishing a pattern, the quotes were taken from what every source agrees is where the authors' 'important facts' (/opinions) are located and thus establish that.

ok, no source you has provided says such. slip in "opinions" don't make it so. also, you didn't even provide such context that you were taking ledes or summaries. all you did were post the list after saying you did a search... + now we are s'posed to believe your previous posts, which functional is a restatement o' your conclusion that the west is embiggening pahlavi, provides meaningful context to your unattributed and unlinked list o' quotes. we didn't have any idea where in the story those quotes came from or what the stories actual said about pahlavi. your context was, again, 'cause clear you need repetition for this to sink in...

7 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

And on Pahlavi, taking the first ten search engine results for reza pahlavi (exc wikipedia/ brittanica and revapahlavi.org) over the past four days,

followed by a list o' otherwise random quotes that you conclude is revealing the western effort to embiggen pahlavi. you take it as self evident that that 'cause those quotes were provided by search engine efforts and that you personal read 'em as positive depictions o' pahlavi, that they reveal a generalized effort by the western media to embiggen pahlavi... in spite o' the fact same kinda quotes exist in non western media, that pahlavi is yet again nowhere to be seen in the first sixty western media returns for iran + protests, recognizing that numerous western media sources is clear  suspicious o' pahlavi's relevance in spite o' the fact that some iranians is calling out his name, and...

whatever, you never did show support for the contention that western media is providing pahlavi,

7 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

disproportionately positive coverage that shows the embiggening.

other than a list o' out of context quotes from rando stories you failed to link and attribute.

 

could keep going on, but you are just gonna clown yourself.

do it s'more.

HA! Good Fun!

 

1 hour ago, uuuhhii said:

what about the 100 percent tariff usa threaten to put on canada

That was dependent upon Canada reaching a free trade deal with China though, which was never really on the cards. Those sort of things (as opposed to some tariff relief on certain items) take multiple years to work out. 

Carney saying there won't be a free trade deal makes it look like a 'win' for Trump, at least to his supporters.

44 minutes ago, Malcador said:

 

shame is dead... and vance is justifiable becoming the daily hypocrisy punching bag.

recall, vance were a never-trumper a few years past, so there is loads o' vance comments where he did a 180... but it doesn't matter since he had a road to damascus moment on trump and saw the light

any issue where you may frame as us v. them removes reason and accountability from the equation.

HA! Good Fun!

 

4 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

other than a list o' out of context quotes from rando stories you failed to link and attribute.

You had the context. Repeatedly complaining about a lack of citation for a trend is solely being done because it's all you have. Since it's proving a trend the bulk result is important and complaining about lack of individual attributions means nothing when you can replicate the method used.

Fact. 

Quote

could keep going on, but you are just gonna clown yourself.

I mean, you're the one writing dissertations to restate the same thing over and over. At least I'm spending two minutes on it.

Children's entertainer, remove thine own red nose.

38 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

That was dependent upon Canada reaching a free trade deal with China though, which was never really on the cards. Those sort of things (as opposed to some tariff relief on certain items) take multiple years to work out. 

Carney saying there won't be a free trade deal makes it look like a 'win' for Trump, at least to his supporters.

Remarkable how Trump successfully spins nothing as a victory.  

19 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

You had the context.

nope. 

wow, that were ez.

 

8 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

And on Pahlavi, taking the first ten search engine results for reza pahlavi (exc wikipedia/ brittanica and revapahlavi.org) over the past four days,

+ your opinion that the western media were seeking to embiggen pahlavi. is not meaningful context.

also, grammerly explained why links and attributions is essential. your sources were most certainly not clear and given how you simple search-engine slap-jerked a rando list o' quotes sans attribution into your post (a fact we only learned afterwards,) you sure as heck didn't build trust with your audience. the fact that people could go and look up each individual quote source does not in any way diminish the need to link and attribute. why does students, doctors and lawyers need ever attribute quotes when search engines make it possible to look up and verify sources? message board posts didn't require the same academic rigor, but you are the joker who linked Grammarly. in any event, the rational for attributions is the same here as is for one o' hurlshot's students... is particular noteworthy 'cause as shown numerous times now, anybody who went through the actual effort to read your not linked and not attributed articles would realize your offerings did not embiggen pahlavi. is unlikely anybody but Gromnir would go through the effort to read each unlinked article, which am guessing is precise why you did not link or attribute. 

oh and the more we write, the more opportunities there are for you to show ignorance or deceit. as already noted, your lazy search-engine population admission were enlightening and will be remembered. your misunderstanding o' strawman were amusing to us. zor not realizing that 'course doing a targeted search for pahlavi is gonna necessarily result in a link population where pahlavi is disproportional relevant.

duh.

your bizarre lede and summary tangent revealed unbelievable ignorance and yet you did double down at every opportunity; am still baffled by your comical effort to conflate "essential facts" and "summary opinions."

etc.

you are a bottomless well o' ignorance and deception, each new lie and deception you provide us is indeed pathetic entertainment, but entertaining even so.

and so we come to the final zor deflection?  as noted from us continuing to link relevant western stories about pahlavi, Gromnir at least makes an effort to argue your original point o' contention, which you has abandoned in favor o' sophistry, deception and your ordinary practical admission o' ultimate failure where you try and transform your lack o' meaningful response as equating some kinda juvenile owned meme. congrats on staying true to form and repeating the cycle.

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

1 hour ago, Malcador said:

Remarkable how Trump successfully spins nothing as a victory.  

trump's brand is what is important. he can never admit weakness or failure, so every loss is transformed into a kinda win.

literal day two o' the administration were gaslighting about inaugural crowd size. why would somebody double-down about a lie? triple-down? quadruple-down? 

Gromnir laughed, and we weren't alone in our laughter. nobody would buy trump's transparent deceptions, right?

doesn't matter. never admit mistake. never surrender. fight, fight, fight. if the media points out facts, call it fake news or ridicule reporters for focusing on incidental issues when there is an immigration crisis to deal with. 

trump fighting and being outraged is what his base wants from him. beyond all reason, they see him as a warrior who never surrenders, so 'course every capitulation is magical transformed into an unparalleled 4d chess win, and now there is an entire media and political ecosystem which supports trump's gaslighting efforts.

am admitting we gross underestimated trump in 2016... no, that ain't quite right. we overestimated everybody else. we thought more republican politicians would resist. we thought americans were less bigoted and angry than they are. we thought democrats were less o' a keystone cops sh!t show. etc. we saw trump for what he was and the dangers he presented since the day he did his muslim ban bit and the crowd cheered. however, without an intervening war or an economic collapse, we had expected more o' everybody else.

edit:

we ordinary watch markets when they have a guest who is intriguing, but we were interested 'bout the reaction to carney's davos speech.

HA! Good Fun!

 

Edited January 26Jan 26 by Gromnir

3 hours ago, Malcador said:

Remarkable how Trump successfully spins nothing as a victory.  

Well, he certainly ain't alone in that. I'd even give some grudging respect for the strategy, since it's effectively zero risk and will only antagonise Canada and others who already hate him. It's a bit eight year old (hah I told you to keep breathing and you did) but... that's Trump and always has been.

2 hours ago, Gromnir said:

nope. 

You're still wrong, but at least it ain't a dissertation where one word would have sufficed. You certainly weren't getting away from the accusations of throwing words at the screen in the hope the other person gives up previous.

Quote

message board posts didn't require the same academic rigor, but you are the joker who linked Grammarly

I mean lol. You're certainly correct that this isn't an academic discussion, except in the respect that you're getting schooled hoooooooo

I_just_ended_his_whole_career.gif

There's only one reason you want 'academic vigour' here: because it gives you something to complain about. You've already said the transcription of the quotes was accurate (dispute with the bbc one accepted, but it was an accurate quote) and we're talking newspaper articles- hence the grammerly quote- and forum posts, not PNAS/ Science/ Nature. In any case, the correct method for identifying a replicable trend is to give how you found it, not cite the individual data points. I don't ask you to cite the 60 or whatever articles that you said didn't have Pahlavi in them, after all. If I could be bothered I could check myself.

Edited January 26Jan 26 by Zoraptor

1 hour ago, Zoraptor said:

You're still wrong,

am arguing with a five-year old.

and it's understandable you didn't ask for cites to the 60 links, 'cause we didn't quote 'em (duh) and 'cause the population we produced is not gonna be fixed but necessarily changes by the minute as new stories is written. we did link to the singular pahlavi stories which we found in our initial search. would be pointless to cite all sixty non-relevant stories, but if you do an iran + protest search and achieve better results, results that do not undermine your ridiculous pahlavi embiggening contention, we would like to see such. if pahlavi is murdered tomorrow, maybe that happens, but it didn't happen for the past near two weeks, even when tv stations were shut down in his name and he held a news conference... though am suspecting you did such a search and realize the truth o' what am claiming. we already pointed out that a message board don't have same rigorous standards, but the sources for your quote list undermined your conclusion rather than supporting it. grammarly, your link for the complete tangential and irrelevant issue o' ledes, explains why it is essential to link and attribute quotes, and that reasoning applies just as much here as it does to a primary school class assignment or a journal article.  rando quotes, unattributed and unlinked, is not particular persuasive, but in zor's greasy fingers, they is downright fraudulent.

so why not tell us about western media efforts to embiggen pahlavi. invent more lies to cover the old ones and hope for some new deflection to avoid your original blunder o' posting, sans links and attributions, rando quotes from stories which when read undermine your position that western media were seeking to embiggen pahlavi.

...

we used to think you werean ordinary board troll who spoke outta ignorance. took us a while to realize you are pathological deceptive. heck, you even make up nonsense about how ledes is  "summary opinions?"  why? it's taken time, but with each one o' these ridiculous confrontations, am suspecting more people realize just how frequent you invent positions from experts who actual said the opposite, or purposeful misrepresent quoted material or story conclusions. each o' the last half dozen conflicts has revealed your penchant for fibbery on a wide range o' subject matter.

you are pathological. took a while for the locals to come around to the idea that attacking the character o' individuals before relevant facts has had been established all too often makes the accuser look like a fool in hindsight. that sorta behaviour happens less around these parts than it once did. am hopeful these continued exercises have a similar positive effect. most o' us take factual claims made by fellow posters at face value, 'cause who could be bothered to check every link and source, but zor is so utter incapable o' intellectual honesty that it is good practice to search every source and verify every quote... or just ignore you. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 27Jan 27 by Gromnir

9 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

Nobody with experience would take the job. However I am sure Trump would be willing to sacrifice Noem and then call it a resounding victory, then pull back ICE to try and regain a bit of public support going into the midterms. 

some noteworthy support for your position. 

trump is most impacted by the bond market, and am not thinking the minneapolis situation will have too much o' a direct market influence unless protesters across the country do some kinda extended boycott/work walkout... or if a few more white US citizens get murdered?

that said, this is all newish kinda territory for an old dog like ourselves, and so it is possible that if polls look bad enough (needs to include republican defections) and fox coverage becomes more critical o' the administration, trump may claim that all the violent illegal immigrant felons (not that dhs is primarily targeting violent felons,) has already been arrested and so there is no more need for ice and border patrol activities in minneapolis. declare "mission accomplished."

regardless, is increasing signs via fox interviews and wsj opinion pieces which suggest that kristi noem might be the administration's sacrificial lamb... maybe. everything trump related maximizes the chaos, so am constant hedging.

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

17 hours ago, Lexx said:

Interesting take on why the old rapist president probably stepped down from the Greenland threats: https://www.logicofwar.com/why-trump-retreated-on-greenland/

Its a good assessment and he covers much of the sequence of events and outcomes from Trumps rhetoric and comments around Greenland. I still think people jump to certain unnecessary levels of panic and drama around what Trump might do but the article specifically mentions this as well when he says things like 

• "Donald Trump was threatening military invasion. That was quite clear. He was talking about it, and said "we can't rule it out." It came in the context of what happened in Venezuela." 
• "Denmark showed that they would be ready to fight this out. It's afterwards come out that the Danish soldiers in Greenland actually did have orders to use lethal force against an American invasion. That's the level we were at. They had the ammunition and were prepared for any such things. It was not considered likely that this would happen. But if it did, the orders were there about how they should behave."

I often encourage people to try to learn to filter the difference between what Trump is serious about and what is just driven by SM drama and outrage and how Trump loves to trigger the media and get them angry. Because this creates a distraction from other real political issues he is facing domestically like the Epstein files 

But in this case EU leaders were taking the threat of invasion as a possibility so there response was real. Of course Trump was never going to invade Greenland but it doesn't matter 

Good link overall 

 

 

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y29xzjdzvo

US really hard up for security forces apparently 

9 hours ago, BruceVC said:

I often encourage people to try to learn to filter the difference between what Trump is serious about and what is just driven by SM drama and outrage and how Trump loves to trigger the media and get them angry. Because this creates a distraction from other real political issues he is facing domestically like the Epstein files 

I long ago stopped trying to filter out the truth from DJTs constant lie streaming; it's too time consuming and isn't really helpful. At least with most politicians you CAN filter out the political garbage from the facts. But DJT wraps himself in a thick cloak of lies, so your advice isn't really that helpful. I can't trust him to do the right thing, even though very occasionally he does (when it serves his purposes).