The Real timschochet

I’m going to give you the same answer I gave the MAGA folks: it’s a lot more complicated. Just like @Strike on the opposite side from you on this, you’re trying to simplify things. For example: contrary to what you implied in your post, black people in South Africa weren’t there before the white people showed up. They came there AFTER the white people. Prior to the 1700s the furthest south black tribes traveled was to Zimbabwe, well north of the South African border. So this notion that the land was stolen from them isn’t true. (It was stolen from the bushmen who don’t exist anymore.)

Trump would say “I made a deal with Mexico and Canada!”

I didn’t say they didn’t send them. I said that they’ve sent them before, were planning to send them anyhow, and would have been willing to send a lot more. It was a meaningless offer and Trump grabbed it, because he was looking for a way out. It wasn’t an achievement.

I can’t speak for anyone else but for me that’s an easy answer: because I believe the two most important keys to bringing prices down are global stability and free trade, and currently the Democratic Party is much more about pursuing these two items than the Republican Party. It didn’t used to be that way but it’s that way now. Combine these two items to the fact that undocumented immigrants to this country also help keep prices low, and currently the Republicans are all about trying to get rid of undocumented immigrants, then it’s a pretty easy choice as to whom I prefer on this issue.

Your position isn’t unreasonable. The problem is that Trump is pursuing policies that are almost guaranteed to make prices higher, not lower.

I’m saying that he gained nothing. Trump surrendered.

If we’re talking about the MAGA folks I agree. But most of those who voted for Trump, IMO, are not MAGA types; they just figured (wrongly IMO) that he’d do a better job bringing down prices and getting the border under control. These are reasonable folks; I just think they’re wrong. No doubt they think I’m wrong. In the next election some will vote for Republicans again, and some for Democrats. I just want to get through the next four years without too much suffering.

One of the very few instances in my life where I saw the TV show or movie first, then read the books, and the books didn’t live up to the show. DNF

OK. Please explain the reasonable terms that Trump got from Mexico and Canada, which were not agreed to by those countries before the tariffs.

I kind of look upon Trump as if my sports team just hired a coach I can’t stand and want fired. I’m still going to go to the games and root for the team, even though I know that a losing streak would ensure the coach getting axed. Because it’s my team.

I’m not going to rip you the way these other guys are (because most of them are horrible hypocrites who were positively gleeful whenever anything went wrong for President Biden). But I do strongly disagree with you. I also want Trump to fail to carry through most of his ideas, but I don’t want this country to suffer even for the moment as a result; that’s not worth it to me. Yesterday was the perfect outcome: Trump tries out his horrible tariff plan, gets pushback from the other countries and the stock market, Trump backs off before anyone is seriously harmed. All good.

I’ve taken some of those writing classes too and I’ve always heard that show vs tell thing. But it’s not always true. I’m currently reading The Boys from Bixoli by John Grisham and he’s a big “tell” guy. And for him it works.

You may contemplate writing that, but I guarantee you Trump won’t. To steal an old Yogi Berra joke about Mickey Mantle, Donald Trump is one of those very few people who has written more books than he’s read.

That’s part of it. Another part is that the warlike tribes, like the Comanche, were great warriors and really hard to fight. So the militia had to show they were doing SOMETHING. Incidentally, this same story was repeated almost verbatim during our war in Vietnam: the VietCong would strike our troops, then disappear, then we would raid a village in retaliation, not knowing who was who…you get the picture.

Lol. Of course it doesn’t

If you ever read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee it’s filled with tragic examples of this. Over and over again- peace loving Indian tribe lives next to warlike tribe. The warlike tribe has young braves who raid a white settler, kill the men, rape the women, kidnap the children. The white militia responds by attacking the peaceful tribe and slaughtering dozens of innocent people, men women and children alike. Rinse and repeat.

I promise to draft a meaningless executive order to end a department I have no power to end! You’re right; he’s keeping his promise. Damn impressive. My only question from the story is, what do you mean “begun drafting”? How much time does this take? “I, President Trump, hereby order the Department of Education ended as of today!” What’s wrong with that?

I asked you specific questions to back up your assertion. I don’t think that’s the behavior of a troll. On the other hand, your response…

I don’t believe most people are awful. I may be naive about that I know. But I think most people have good intentions. The bad guys are numerous however, and usually louder.

Again mostly agreed. (Damn twice in one morning.) My only issue is when you write “the colonists weren’t good people either.” Some were. Some were extremely well meaning. Others were awful. There’s generally good people in every grouping.

Please link to me ever rooting for China. Please link to me ever rooting against America. Otherwise GFY

You wrote “American settlers didn’t go out and pick fights with Indians.” How could you write something so false and so stupid? Where did you get this? Have you read a single book on this subject? Name it. Can you list a single historian who will back you up on this claim? Name him.

It’s not that simple, as I keep trying to point out. Let’s assume that the white settlers got the land originally by stealing and murdering, conquering, etc. once they got it the ancestors of the current owners worked it, labored for years, and made it profitable. And did this for centuries. That needs to be taken into account. Another issue that needs to be taken into account is that the bulk of the black population of South Africa weren’t there originally; they came down south as a result of the economic opportunities provided by the white settlers. The blacks aren’t the original occupants; that was the bushmen, mostly gone now. The two largest black tribes, the Zulu and the Xhosa, are very different peoples with different competing concerns. Then there are the colored people of South Africa, and Indians (from India) all with different cultures and concerns. And even the whites are basically two different cultures, Afrikaner and British descended, with all that this entails. Complicated. Not an easy question to solve.

And THIS is complete bullsh!t. You appear to have gotten your history from 1950s Hollywood.

For once I agree with you 100%. This is an absolutely correct take on history.