Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick; You Will Go Far

[Ronson]

Theodore Roosevelt's philosophy that is completely abandoned today by idiot politicians and candidates who are more concerned with impressing their colleagues than dealing with despots. IOW, "virtue signaling." Public condemnation achieves nothing, except making the speaker feel good and impressing his friends.

Why did Putin say he'd rather have Biden as president than Trump? Because Biden is predictable. Biden will now rush to the podium and spew his condemnations about Navalny and crank up world tensions. What is Trump thinking? Only Trump knows, Putin certainly doesn't. So, does Putin want to start pushing Lithuania around? He knows how much he can get away with with Biden. I doubt he will test Trump again.* Respect comes through strength and reservation, and not through empty boasts and condemnations.


* BTW, it was during Trump's presidency that Putin was humiliated. So much so that Putin disavowed his elite mercenaries (who he now has fighting in Ukraine).
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/w...ies-syria.html

[seanD]

I find it disturbing that this POC is more concerned about what Russians did to another Russian than the death of an American citizen in a Ukrainian prison. I guess I can't blame Biden because he's a braindead vegetable. But it offends me as an American that Americans care more about a Russian than another American.

[Sparko]

Theodore Roosevelt's philosophy that is completely abandoned today by idiot politicians and candidates who are more concerned with impressing their colleagues than dealing with despots. IOW, "virtue signaling." Public condemnation achieves nothing, except making the speaker feel good and impressing his friends.

Why did Putin say he'd rather have Biden as president than Trump? Because Biden is predictable. Biden will now rush to the podium and spew his condemnations about Navalny and crank up world tensions. What is Trump thinking? Only Trump knows, Putin certainly doesn't. So, does Putin want to start pushing Lithuania around? He knows how much he can get away with with Biden. I doubt he will test Trump again.* Respect comes through strength and reservation, and not through empty boasts and condemnations.


* BTW, it was during Trump's presidency that Putin was humiliated. So much so that Putin disavowed his elite mercenaries (who he now has fighting in Ukraine).
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/w...ies-syria.html

I agree with the stuff about Biden, but Trump is not known for keeping his mouth shut.

The problem is not him keeping mum, but can you actually trust what he says? For example, he just said that if a NATO country doesn't pay their fees, he thinks Russia should do what they want and he won't intervene. I am pretty sure the TDS crowd believes that is true, but it is most likely just Trump mouthing off, acting like the US is running NATO like some sort of protection racket, "Youse gotta pay up or bad things might happen to youse" - but I seriously doubt that would be the case. But who knows? Putin sure doesn't. Trump is a loose cannon and that is what makes him unpredictable and dangerous. Not keeping quiet.

[Sparko]

I find it disturbing that this POC is more concerned about what Russians did to another Russian than the death of an American citizen in a Ukrainian prison. I guess I can't blame Biden because he's a braindead vegetable. But it offends me as an American that Americans care more about a Russian than another American.

Yeah, considering that Biden and the Democrats are trying to do the same thing to Trump: Put him in prison to eliminate him as a rival to Biden in the upcoming election.

[CivilDiscourse]

I agree with the stuff about Biden, but Trump is not known for keeping his mouth shut.

The problem is not him keeping mum, but can you actually trust what he says? For example, he just said that if a NATO country doesn't pay their fees, he thinks Russia should do what they want and he won't intervene. I am pretty sure the TDS crowd believes that is true, but it is most likely just Trump mouthing off, acting like the US is running NATO like some sort of protection racket, "Youse gotta pay up or bad things might happen to youse" - but I seriously doubt that would be the case. But who knows? Putin sure doesn't. Trump is a loose cannon and that is what makes him unpredictable and dangerous. Not keeping quiet.

Well, trump's a lying liar who can't be trusted to tell you the sky is blue. Unless he says something 'scary' at which point he's a truthsayer and you best believe every word that comes out of his mouth.

[Ronson]

I agree with the stuff about Biden, but Trump is not known for keeping his mouth shut.

The problem is not him keeping mum, but can you actually trust what he says? For example, he just said that if a NATO country doesn't pay their fees, he thinks Russia should do what they want and he won't intervene. I am pretty sure the TDS crowd believes that is true, but it is most likely just Trump mouthing off, acting like the US is running NATO like some sort of protection racket, "Youse gotta pay up or bad things might happen to youse" - but I seriously doubt that would be the case. But who knows? Putin sure doesn't. Trump is a loose cannon and that is what makes him unpredictable and dangerous. Not keeping quiet.

Trump does tend to get personal when he's attacked, especially in the domestic arena. The guy is a big baby that way. But when it comes to despots and other world leaders, he tends to be more complimentary. Those are people a POTUS has to work with and it's best not to needlessly tick them off. Public condemnations tick people off, as we've seen with Biden and Prince Salman (the latter refusing to even take his phone calls). Virtue signaling is a dangerous game that really has no benefits.

[Sparko]

Well, trump's a lying liar who can't be trusted to tell you the sky is blue. Unless he says something 'scary' at which point he's a truthsayer and you best believe every word that comes out of his mouth.

Yup.

[rogue06]

I find it disturbing that this POC is more concerned about what Russians did to another Russian than the death of an American citizen in a Ukrainian prison. I guess I can't blame Biden because he's a braindead vegetable. But it offends me as an American that Americans care more about a Russian than another American.

C'monman! He wasn't a bitter black lesbian basketball player so he doesn't actually count. No lie.

[Juvenal]

Yup.

Laughing too soon.

Trump has a long history of lying about the weather.
.

Claim 1: "The crowd was unbelievable today. I looked at the rain, which just never came, you know, we finished the speech, went inside, it poured then we came outside," he said. "The helicopter scene was an incredible scene, and then, amazingly it rained—like God was looking down on us."

Reality: The rain started as Mr Trump began his inauguration speech, as he acknowledged the next day during a speech at CIA headquarters.

In fact, he's so inured to lying about the weather, he doesn't even try to keep his lies straight.
.

Claim 4: "The rain should have scared them away. But God looked down and he said, 'We’re not going to let it rain on your speech.' In fact, when I first started I said, "Oh no." First line, I got hit by a couple of drops. And I said, 'Oh, this is, this is too bad, but we’ll go right through it.' But the truth is that it stopped immediately. It was amazing. And then it became really sunny, and then I walked off and it poured right after I left."

Reality: The rain did not stop immediately, leading former President George W Bush to don a plastic poncho. The sun remained behind the clouds following Mr Trump's speech.

When he says the sky is blue, you really should check it out.

But when he says Biden stole the election you should believe that.

Lke the rest of the crowd that stormed the capital and a majority of today's Republicans, despite 60 failed court cases and the advice and testimony of his own attorney general.

Now, you can laugh.

[Sparko]

Laughing too soon.

Trump has a long history of lying about the weather.
.

Claim 1: "The crowd was unbelievable today. I looked at the rain, which just never came, you know, we finished the speech, went inside, it poured then we came outside," he said. "The helicopter scene was an incredible scene, and then, amazingly it rained—like God was looking down on us."

Reality: The rain started as Mr Trump began his inauguration speech, as he acknowledged the next day during a speech at CIA headquarters.

In fact, he's so inured to lying about the weather, he doesn't even try to keep his lies straight.
.

Claim 4: "The rain should have scared them away. But God looked down and he said, 'We’re not going to let it rain on your speech.' In fact, when I first started I said, "Oh no." First line, I got hit by a couple of drops. And I said, 'Oh, this is, this is too bad, but we’ll go right through it.' But the truth is that it stopped immediately. It was amazing. And then it became really sunny, and then I walked off and it poured right after I left."

Reality: The rain did not stop immediately, leading former President George W Bush to don a plastic poncho. The sun remained behind the clouds following Mr Trump's speech.

When he says the sky is blue, you really should check it out.

But when he says Biden stole the election you should believe that.

Lke the rest of the crowd that stormed the capital and a majority of today's Republicans, despite 60 failed court cases and the advice and testimony of his own attorney general.

Now, you can laugh.

This is the sort of petty nonsense that the liberals "fact check" and call lies. It makes their claims about Trump lying that less credible. <-- Me laughing at the libs.

[Juvenal]

This is the sort of petty nonsense that the liberals "fact check" and call lies. It makes their claims about Trump lying that less credible. <-- Me laughing at the libs.

Lumping Bill Barr in with the "liberal" fact checkers.

That dark space your head is in right now would be immediately alleviated if you yanked your head south about a foot or so.

[Sparko]

Lumping Bill Barr in with the "liberal" fact checkers.

That dark space your head is in right now would be immediately alleviated if you yanked your head south about a foot or so.

I wasn't the one who was pointing out idiotic fact checks that Trump was lying about the rain. You were.

[rogue06]

This is the sort of petty nonsense that the liberals "fact check" and call lies. It makes their claims about Trump lying that less credible. <-- Me laughing at the libs.

Like when they "fact checked" Trump during a SOTU speech where he declared that a third ("one in three") of the women and girls illegally crossing the border end up getting sexually assaulted. Now according to Amnesty International the number is closer to 60% and one study even puts the number as high as 80%, but WaPo (and some others) cited statistics indicating that the number is 31% so that they could call the claim false.

Talk about your nitpicking. It is almost a given that every past president and every politician has used "one-third" or "one-half" rather than a specific fraction or percentage, and walked away without being fact-checked, but with Trump rounding off like that gets called another lie.


Furthermore, a huge portion of Trump's lies listed by the WaPo were his denying Russian collusion.^[1] Now we know he was right and they weren't lies.

Perhaps the second largest batch relates to his claim that the government was spying on him. That too has been shown to be true so again, not a lie.

I don't think the WaPo has removed these false accusations from their list.




1. Interestingly, every time Trump would deny it that was listed as a separate lie. Yet when Hillary got caught telling a whooper repeatedly they declared that it only counts as a single lie.

[Juvenal]

Like when they "fact checked" Trump during a SOTU speech where he declared that a third ("one in three") of the women and girls illegally crossing the border end up getting sexually assaulted. Now according to Amnesty International the number is closer to 60% and one study even puts the number as high as 80%, but WaPo (and some others) cited statistics indicating that the number is 31% so that they could call the claim false.

You've got an equally long history of telling easily disprovable lies, too.
.

Trump’s statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. We rate it Half True.

[Juvenal]

I wasn't the one who was pointing out idiotic fact checks that Trump was lying about the rain. You were.

When it turns out he actually does lie about the weather, bleating insults is pretty much all you've got left.

‘What I said was accurate!’: Trump stays fixated on his Alabama error as hurricane pounds the Carolinas
.

Trump’s fixation on his erroneous Dorian warnings underscores a long history of defending inaccurate claims — from the crowd size at his inaugural address to false claims of voter fraud in 2016 to fictional “unknown Middle Easterners” streaming across the southern border in migrant caravans.

Do us all a favor and wipe up that drool before the next doof comes along and slips on it.