Unbelievable

This thread is amazing to me on many levels.

Taking them randomly in no particular order. How the heck does anyone take a universal mocking of the French and turn it into a Republican thing? Universal? you ask. Yes. So universal that when I was playing chess with a polish person that was losing the game, he apologized to me for not resigning by saying "you know we Polish, we fight to the very end. We aren't like the French who might resign after the first move" Or David Letterman who once quipped when the reunification was announced that "the sound you hear are the French tearing up their bed sheets to make surrender flags" It goes on and on. It has no basis in any US party. Sheesh. It is as if you WANT there to be something at every turn.

"I wrote "Fox News et al," to include ALL negative contributors. I have read two of Hillary's books and have done fairly extensive research on what has been proven to be false news about her; therefore what I think about her is not based on others' opinions."

Wow two books BY the person you are defending as proof at how wonderful that person might be. No bias there. Nope none at all. And then you went further to look for things that "proves" accusations to be false. Not like you are just finding sources that merely promote your point of view and ignoring anything to the contrary. Nope not at all.

"Your habit of selective reading makes me wonder about your comprehension skills" This appears to go both ways, in my opinion.

"That's false. Who should we believe---a very left leaning newspaper report or the White House National Security adviser?" It is hard to believe anything this current administration says. It has been shown over and over that they are so busy trying to control the spin after the President does something outrageous, that I find it hard to believe they have any real time to do their jobs. They are so new on the job, so distracted, that I doubt they have the slightest grip on what is going on.

I really don't get what is gained from these types of threads where both sides are clearly biased against the other and will in no way whatsoever change the others view. Is it an attempt to feel better about oneself.

Meanwhile we have a President doing this www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-de...y7?OCID=ansmsnnews11

Are you freakin' kidding me? The information can infer the source and compromise future endeavors and he just gives it away? And so I pose a new thread not asking if the President has the right. Not attacking him. But discussing whether or not a President, any President, who has information that might stop a terrorist attack should share that information with a foreign government (either friendly or hostile) in order to save lives when it might compromise future operations. I will post it in a separate thread. I assume that this will turn into a typical discussion here, but have a hope that perhaps the nuances can be discussed without it turning into a yelling match

and mostly ignoring the insanity that flies around politics. Specially in the area where I live which is all politics all the time. But thanks for asking.

As for this being a Democracy?!?! I think you mean an open forum for discussion and that is not Democracy which is a system of government. Open forums are essential to Democracy, but this is not Democracy, like that or not.

So you go back to Freedom Fries over a decade ago to make your assumption about folks who have been joking about the French for centuries? That seems like a pretty hard stretch and I gave an example about it being universal and not just a US thing. The French are easy to make fun of on many levels. Mostly for their arrogance at having done little other than to surrender a lot. It has absolutely nothing to do with which side of the aisle you are on. Nothing. This is just silliness, but feel free to believe anything you want based on your suppositions. Just don't expect for others to take that stuff seriously or believe that it adds any credibility to your statements.

As a companion bit of mocking and ridicule, today, a lot of folks around the world now make fun of Americans for their arrogance and bravado as we slip from the world stage as a leader and elect buffoons. Has nothing to do with their political bent. It just has to do how we "ugly Americans" behave and present ourselves on the world stage.

And yes I have noticed you and Allen bickering and the you and Doc versus Allen and Boulder. Pretty hard to miss really. But in all the years have either of you or any one of the four of you gained anything from it all? Has anyone's position been changed? Has anyone taken the other side's presentation and actually thought it might have a valid point or two? As far as I can tell, it is just a bunch of folks patting themselves on the back saying good job, you showed them. I tried to participate here and quite frankly found it pretty awful, so I just faded more and more away. Now I just pop in once in a while and hit the boards for a couple of days and then get back out in the real world more. Besides, last I recall, you don't want to hear anything I had to say anyway. Too condescending I think was the term. So I figured you were happy with my not being around.

I don't think anyone would ever think you have accepted the President as yours. But I have to ask, given how you feel about President Trump and putting the personality issues aside for a bit, let's assume that beyond his being an utter buffoon that you have problems with his policies as well. Is it safe to say that perhaps those that opposed Obama might have had an equally strong opinion about his policies and that their view might have been valid just like yours is? Just wondering if that now the shoe is on the other foot, as they say, you can see that sometimes people actually oppose the policies of a President as well as the Party and that it isn't always due to superficial things.

I was attacking the premise of ANY party promulgating the mocking of the French.

I was questioning the premise of redundantly posting the same attacks by BOTH sides when it appears that it is to no gain.

Not upset by the tone of your posts, but often baffled by the logic of them and or what I see to be hypocrisy. The same often goes for Allen, by the way.

I am not angry. I don't really have a temper here. I am often frustrated and bewildered, but I cannot say I have ever truly been angry over a message board.

As to who I am... I am sarcastic. I will often mirror a tone of a post and to be honest, I am not certain why other than if I find a post to be off the rails, I guess I think mirroring the post will show that the original post was off the rail too. It rarely ever works as people focus on others more than themselves. I have found humor in this at times.

I am not prone to support either party as I do not believe they are prone to support anything other than their own party over the people they claim to represent. I have been that way for over 40 years. I am prone to question the media as I feel they are more interested in making the news over reporting the news. I have been that way for over 30 years. I am loyal to a fault. I am giving and believe in charities that require effort on the part of the recipient if they can give effort (Habitat for Humanity is a good example of this). I am very pro environment. I am very suspicious of anything that requires that everyone agree. I respect any opinion where you can understand how that opinion was formed, even if it differs from myself. I can get heated in an discussion/argument, but that isn't anger, it is generally passion about the topic.

I find negativity and bickering to be exhausting and counter productive. I don't believe in the power of positive thinking, but have seen the power of negative thinking and it is destructive. I am not a glass half empty person. I am not a glass half full person. I believe that no matter how full the glass is, you will probably spill the drink.

Hope that helps.

I often pose or defend opposing view points just so that things are not unanimous. I tend to defend others who are being bullied. I can't stand bigotry or racism and there is a difference between the two words.

I believe that words have meaning, even though I often butcher the language myself. Which is why I often as what a person means by something to make certain we are on the same page.