*** The Official MAGAposting thread ***

[boost]

It's good to hear from you, boost. I hope you're doing well.

I'm well. You're a lot slicker with your persuasion tricks, btw. It's kinda creepy, but it's also fascinating to have seen the evolution.

[wufwugy]

I'm well.

Noice.

it's also fascinating to have seen the evolution.

This is an enormous compliment for me.

[oskar]

Is that what it is?
I thought he got vaccinated or sumthin'.

[wufwugy]

Is that what it is?
I thought he got vaccinated or sumthin'.

Cleared the polio right up.

[Poopadoop]

In b4 boost goes FULL MAGA!!

[OngBonga]

Is America great again yet?

[oskar]

Wuf... how do you rate this on the persuasion scale?

[Poopadoop]

See? It worked.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-50080737

[wufwugy]

Wuf... how do you rate this on the persuasion scale?

It's not as good as he could've done.

[oskar]

Vice picked a great part of the Michael Cohen hearings as a send of to Elijah Cummings:

[Poopadoop]

Obviously he secretly wanted Ergodan to commit genocide against the Kurds as part of his 3D chess game, so he wrote a letter that sounded like it was written by a 10 year old so E wouldn't take it seriously.

All part of the master plan.

[OngBonga]

It did!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-50091305

[oskar]

This sounds more like a surrender of the YPG. So this is good in the sense that it halts the genocide, but it's a massive win for Turkey. The "safety zone" they're establishing is as much a safety zone as bombing children and potentially freeing thousands of Isis fighters was in any way a "peace spring". It includes three of the largest cities that side of Syria. That's not a safety zone, that's an invasion.

A letter is one way to do it. Me personally, I would have just sent them a bound photo album of the last days of Saddam Hussein, but I'm not a genius negotiator, so what do I know!

[Poopadoop]

So this Sondland guy donates $1m to Trump's inagauration, then they push out the ambassador to Ukraine with 30 years diplomatic experience and a spotless record, and put in Sondland with 0 experience and yeah, nothing fishy going on there. Just another day at the office of POTUS 45.

[Jack Sawyer]

[oskar]

Seems like the reasonable choice... but based on 2016, I'd put my money on: DNC nominates Hillary again, and Tulsi Gabbard runs on a 3rd party ticket, handing Trump a narrow electoral college victory with a record low popular vote.

[wufwugy]

Seems like the reasonable choice... but based on 2016, I'd put my money on: DNC nominates Hillary again, and Tulsi Gabbard runs on a 3rd party ticket, handing Trump a narrow electoral college victory with a record low popular vote.

I'm super interested in what AOC's presidency will look like.

[Poopadoop]

I'm super interested in what AOC's presidency will look like.

I think Guiliani as POTUS would be more interesting myself.

[wufwugy]

I think Guiliani as POTUS would be more interesting myself.

How come?

[Poopadoop]

Have you ever seen him being interviewed?

[wufwugy]

Probably some.

[Poopadoop]

You don't find him entertaining?

[boost]

He'd def be a better anti-hero/villain than Trump. Case in point:

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN: Did you ask the Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden?

RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP ATTORNEY: No, actually I didn't. I asked Ukraine to investigate the allegations that there was interference in the election of 2016 by the Ukrainians for the benefit of Hillary Clinton for which there already --

CUOMO: So you did ask Ukraine to look into Joe Biden?

GIULIANI: Of course I did.


See, I never just did things just to do them. Come on, what am I gonna do? Just all of a sudden jump up and grind my feet on somebody's couch like it's something to do? Come on. I got a little more sense then that.
...Yeah, I remember grinding my feet on Eddie's couch.
-Rick James

[Poopadoop]

Come on, how could you not vote for this face?

rudy.jpg

Edit: Only the best people.

[oskar]

This is hysterical:

[wufwugy]

Can you imagine how badly Trump would get stomped if Buttigieg is the nominee?

[Poopadoop]

Apparently, Hillary is seriously considering a rematch. Please for the love of God, no.

[wufwugy]

Hopefully not. She'd win if she noticed the Midwest is a thing this time.

[Poopadoop]

Hopefully not. She'd win if she noticed the Midwest is a thing this time.

What about her emails?

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

[Poopadoop]

Who do you think Trump has the best chance against?

[wufwugy]

Now that's a good question.

I'll pick from those polling somewhat well:

Sanders.

Sanders' brand is socialist enough that a sizable portion of people who vote for traditional Democrats might not turn out.

He also has the lowest level of identity cred. Identity being the focal component of the Democrats' marketing, Sanders not ticking the right identity boxes could hurt him too much.

[Poopadoop]

I'm fairly sure a doorknob could beat Trump if the election were held today. I mainly don't want to see Hillary run just so I don't have to hear her screeching voice and watch her eyes bug out when she sees balloons again.

[wufwugy]

I'm fairly sure a doorknob could beat Trump if the election were held today.

Very well could. The media has transformed reality enough that he might not beat anything.

[Poopadoop]

Still would be preferable to four years of this:



I'm sticking with Guiliana for pres.

[Poopadoop]

Well I'm not going to argue reality with you, but I've never liked Trump and the sum total of his actions in the last 3 years hasn't changed my mind.

[wufwugy]

Well I'm not going to argue reality with you, but I've never liked Trump and the sum total of his actions in the last 3 years hasn't changed my mind.

I'm curious, what would you say is his worst action?

[Poopadoop]

There are three that top the charts imo, and several that are also pretty bad

The child separation policy with immigrants was extremely callous.

The Ukraine extortion to try to get dirt on Biden was extremely greasy and corrupt.

Giving Turkey the green light to move into Syria and kill Kurds was basically allowing genocide to happen.


Then there's the more 'minor' ones:

Hiring his son-in-law and daughter.

Hiring other unqualified people who have no clue what they're doing to the point where they can't answer simple questions about their job (e.g., Betsy DeVos, Ben Carson).

The revolving door of top officials, most of whom seem like they can't wait to get out of there.

The basic inappropriateness of much of his behaviour.


All I can think of for now.

[wufwugy]

There are three that top the charts imo, and several that are also pretty bad

The child separation policy with immigrants was extremely callous.

The Ukraine extortion to try to get dirt on Biden was extremely greasy and corrupt.

Giving Turkey the green light to move into Syria and kill Kurds was basically allowing genocide to happen.


Then there's the more 'minor' ones:

Hiring his son-in-law and daughter.

Hiring other unqualified people who have no clue what they're doing to the point where they can't answer simple questions about their job (e.g., Betsy DeVos, Ben Carson).

The revolving door of top officials, most of whom seem like they can't wait to get out of there.

The basic inappropriateness of much of his behaviour.


All I can think of for now.

Thank you.

[oskar]

I think the Ukraine scandal is both wider in scope and stupidity than anyone really understands right now. There's something I almost overread in the Trump-Zelensky phonecall: Trump asking Zelensky to find the email server "because people say it's in the ukraine." I have made fun of him in the past for insisting people "find" the physical server the emails were stored on, but apparently he really thinks that people somehow smuggled it to ukraine to store it in a warehouse somewhere - ark of the covenant style, and that it's important to find it and to strongly look at all the microchips and transistors... or does he think hacking means to literally hack the server out of the server room with a hatchet and make a run for it? The intensity of his stupidity is beyond comprehension. It is relentless, unending, overwhelming stupidity.

Ukraine has been in an ongoing military conflict with Russia for a long time and relies on US assistance to fight back encroaching russian tanks at their border. If Ukraine gets annexed by russia, it opens up a new era of russian expansionism. If Ukraine falls to russia, it opens up a path to mainland europe and for a military conflict of unprecedented scope. The military aid the US is providing is an insurance policy for the entire western world against russian oligarchy. It is not a charity. This money and military assistance has been appropriated by congress for a reason.

The removal from troops from Syria is a complete and utter clusterfuck. The US is already moving troops back in as of yesterday, in fear of Isis taking over oil fields after they left their only ally in the war against Isis to die, and declared Isis defeated. Trumps removal of the troops and abandoning of the Kurds has been another gift for Russia. I don't think there's a grand conspiracy, I just think Putin and Erdogan recognize Trump for the infantile moron that he is and know how to rub his belly the right way.

[Poopadoop]

I know if Obama did even ONE of the myriad stupid/corrupt things Trump has done, the R's would be losing their shit. So no, I don't think it's the media that's making him look him bad; I think it's the facts that are making him look bad.

[wufwugy]

I know if Obama did even ONE of the myriad stupid/corrupt things Trump has done, the R's would be losing their shit.

1000% right.

So no, I don't think it's the media that's making him look him bad; I think it's the facts that are making him look bad.

Facts are a neat thing. In my experience, people (including myself) tend to only know a certain set of facts.

[wufwugy]

If anybody has a #1 or perhaps a list of top three problems of Trump, I'd love to hear it.

[MadMojoMonkey]

If anybody has a #1 or perhaps a list of top three problems of Trump, I'd love to hear it.

The only thing I think he really screwed us over on was the gov't shutdown a while back over the budget / border wall.

I'm not saying it was exclusively his fault. I see it as a fault in the entirety of Congress and POTUS, so there's that. Still. That was incompetence fueled by childish arrogance and disregard to the consequences that would be felt almost exclusively by federal employees. Shame fingers all 'round.

I haven't heard in a while, so not sure if anything's changed, but didn't he leave a majority of our foreign diplomat appointments unfilled? As in, the US just walked away from our conversations with many foreign nations. IF true, I fear this will allow anti-US sentiment to flourish in places where we could be helping them in a way that would benefit us both, but we aren't even talking to them to know it.
IDK even what to google search for, though. I can find all kinds of stuff about Trump and international appointments. All kinds of stuff about the revolving door of people in his top staff positions, but nothing comparing the number of international diplomats from past administrations to the current.

Credit to him for the US not being in an open war at this time. ~0% chance this would be the case if Clinton had won. That's a lot more than nothing to me.

***
The Syria thing looks a whole lot like he knew full well what would happen if he pulled back the troops, and he pulled back the troops. Does that mean he caused the deaths? No. Definitely not. Even if he knew the deaths might happen, even if he knew that withdrawing our troops would make it happen... he didn't swear an oath to protect and defend the Syrians. That's not what the US military is for. It's great if they can help in that regard, but it's not what we pay them to do.


***
Purely speculative, but ... well ...

If it comes out that there was literally no reason which benefits US taxpayers to move the troops, then we have a big problem. If it comes out that Trump moved the troops to open the door for the invasion, then we have a huge problem.
The problem being that he can probably say something like, "They were mostly rapists, murderers, just the worst people," and his base will buy that. Then he literally gets away with murder because of his use of buzz words. How have we come to this?

[wufwugy]

The only thing I think he really screwed us over on was the gov't shutdown a while back over the budget / border wall.

I'm not saying it was exclusively his fault. I see it as a fault in the entirety of Congress and POTUS, so there's that. Still. That was incompetence fueled by childish arrogance and disregard to the consequences that would be felt almost exclusively by federal employees. Shame fingers all 'round.

I haven't heard in a while, so not sure if anything's changed, but didn't he leave a majority of our foreign diplomat appointments unfilled? As in, the US just walked away from our conversations with many foreign nations. IF true, I fear this will allow anti-US sentiment to flourish in places where we could be helping them in a way that would benefit us both, but we aren't even talking to them to know it.
IDK even what to google search for, though. I can find all kinds of stuff about Trump and international appointments. All kinds of stuff about the revolving door of people in his top staff positions, but nothing comparing the number of international diplomats from past administrations to the current.

Credit to him for the US not being in an open war at this time. ~0% chance this would be the case if Clinton had won. That's a lot more than nothing to me.

***
The Syria thing looks a whole lot like he knew full well what would happen if he pulled back the troops, and he pulled back the troops. Does that mean he caused the deaths? No. Definitely not. Even if he knew the deaths might happen, even if he knew that withdrawing our troops would make it happen... he didn't swear an oath to protect and defend the Syrians. That's not what the US military is for. It's great if they can help in that regard, but it's not what we pay them to do.


***
Purely speculative, but ... well ...

If it comes out that there was literally no reason which benefits US taxpayers to move the troops, then we have a big problem. If it comes out that Trump moved the troops to open the door for the invasion, then we have a huge problem.
The problem being that he can probably say something like, "They were mostly rapists, murderers, just the worst people," and his base will buy that. Then he literally gets away with murder because of his use of buzz words. How have we come to this?

Thank you for your levelheadedness.

[dwarfman3]

FTR is still a community

Is 3 or 4 people sharing Trump propaganda and the like once or twice a day a community?

Black Friday killed this site as an active poker community. 2+2 is still thriving though, so the poker community is still strong.

Ergo, something other than Black Friday contributed to killing FTR (since 2+2 survived it). A community is made by its participants.....

[wufwugy]

On policy, my #1 problem with Trump is that he hasn't done anything on healthcare/retirement.

On politics, my #1 problem is that he has losing frame on some incredibly important issues, and the country is remarkably harmed because of it. The worst of these is that the media runs rampant stoking the flames of race war with little push back. Branding them as Fake News is a big win, but that's only one step of what it will take for the media racism engine to run out of gas.

[OngBonga]

My problem with Trump is he hasn't drained the swamp like he promised.

[dwarfman3]

Given that there's just 3 or 4 active users left on FTR, why isn't the forum/site shuttered and turned into a Discord or something? Would save the server costs, and I can't imagine FTR makes any money at all from affiliate links etc anymore.

[OngBonga]

I have no idea why FTR is still active, it must bring in just enough affiliate money to cover costs. Either that or gmml really, really likes us and doesn't want to shut our little corner of the internet down.

[MadMojoMonkey]

FTR is owned by Eric, not gmml.
At least, last I heard, Eric was the original and current owner of FTR. I haven't actually had even email contact with Eric in years, though, so things could have changed since then.

gmml = givememyleg, for anyone who doesn't know who we're talking about.
He's the guy who does anything about what's posted in the FTR Announcements and Feedback forum (if anyone does anything). He's the guy who updates FTR's spam filter, too. Given the latter point, he's been active in the past years, but he rarely posts in the forums.


This site hasn't been profitable for a long, long time.

Eric never made FTR to be a profit stream. If it was, that's great. If he could employ some people in FTR's name, that's even greater.
It was never the point, though.

The point is and always was to create a community of people. So long as FTR is still a community, I suspect Eric will keep shelling out the moolah to keep it up and running.
I'd be shocked if it costs more than $5 a month to operate.


So here's a big thanks to both Eric and gmml for keeping this dinghy afloat.

[OngBonga]

I'm not even sure I've ever seen Eric post! I always just assumed it was gmml's thing. If Eric is paying, even just five bucks, so we we can talk shit about entropy and Brexit, then that's awesome of him. I figured there must be a trickle of income otherwise he'd just shut it down.

Black Friday killed this site as an active poker community. At first, I assumed the Americans would be back at the tables and things would recover, but sadly that didn't happen. Even now they're back (sort of) things haven't improved. 2+2 is still thriving though, so the poker community is still strong.

[MadMojoMonkey]

Yeah. Me and my gal have been re-watching High Stakes Poker from S1E1 all over again.
It's a good show. It had its technical faults, especially in the early seasons, but pointing a camera at Sammy Farha was always a good idea, among so many other greats.
"Raisy Daisy... You wanna chop it now?"
lol every time.

Gabe Kaplan is an excellent poker host, but there are others with their own styles of excellence.

Bring back TV poker and let us play on Pokerstars, and it's back on. So many gullible college fishies that think they can beat a math game when they don't even like math.

[OngBonga]

I'm getting back into poker. I've been watching a lot of Doug Polk. He annoys me a bit, but he's good. He kind of reminds me of spoon! It's all range and blockers and "sometimes we should raise, sometimes we should fold". I've also starting following courtiebee on youtube, she seems to be doing good. Not sure her channel is bringing in much, but she plays good poker and she's funny. Also been watching a lot of Mike Postle hands. That's an interesting one to look into if you've missed it. Guy is blatantly cheating but can it be proven?
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...post-1753388/?
(I can't see it being a problem linking 2+2!)
Can't wait for that to get to court.

[MadMojoMonkey]

I'm getting back into poker.

Here's another suggestion for YouTube poker.

Finding Equilibrium

I almost forgot about this one. I watched his first few videos a few months ago, but then forgot about them until I read your post.

[OngBonga]

Mojo beat me to it. 2+2 had the numbers to survive. I'm sure BF hit 2+2 too, but it didn't kill it.

Thanks for the rec, mojo, will check that out.

[oskar]

[Poopadoop]

Are they praying he finds his brain?

[oskar]

I am rarely that literally at loss for words. I don't know what they think they're doing, what they think they're accomplishing, why they think this is a good look and why this is then posted on the official whitehouse.gov page.


This one's still bizarre but it's explicable:



They ldo didn't want him in the situation room during the Baghdadi raid, so they organized a photo op to make it look like he did something, and during the photo op he asked an intern to pull the Ethernet cables out of the trunking because he thinks that makes it look more sophisticated. Nobody cared enough to object.

[boost]

I am rarely that literally at loss for words. I don't know what they think they're doing, what they think they're accomplishing, why they think this is a good look and why this is then posted on the official whitehouse.gov page.


This one's still bizarre but it's explicable:



They ldo didn't want him in the situation room during the Baghdadi raid, so they organized a photo op to make it look like he did something, and during the photo op he asked an intern to pull the Ethernet cables out of the trunking because he thinks that makes it look more sophisticated. Nobody cared enough to object.

lol wtf is going on with everyone's eye line? Is there are three ring circus being performed?

[OngBonga]

wtf is an ethernet cable?

Oh wait I remember those.

[CoccoBill]

Hardened laptops aren't allowed to use wifi, so the cables look standard. Seems there's 2 different networks available, probably for two different security classifications.

[Poopadoop]

Nothing says 'hi-tech' more than a bunch of tangled loose cables, everyone knows that.

Trump's laptop is probably showing Call of Duty.

Everyone is looking in a different direction because they're too embarrassed to look at the camera.

[OngBonga]

Poop, do you not think cocco's explanation is credible?

[Poopadoop]

Poop, do you not think cocco's explanation is credible?

Sure it was. I was referring to the idea of having the cables looking like a disorganized mess.

[OngBonga]

Sure it was. I was referring to the idea of having the cables looking like a disorganized mess.

The yellow ones are plugged in. The red ones aren't. Looks pretty organised to me.

[wufwugy]

Throw an irregularity or two into a photo and you sometimes get people thinking past the sale.

[Poopadoop]

Throw an irregularity or two into a photo and you sometimes get people thinking past the sale.

Ah, it's 3D chess again.

[wufwugy]

Ah, it's 3D chess again.

It's a sales technique he uses. I'm not sure how effective it is, and I wouldn't use it the way he does.

[boost]

Throw an irregularity or two into a photo and you sometimes get people thinking past the sale.

Honestly, no one would be going in so hard on the picture if Trump didn't insist on claiming to have one upped Obama. He drew the comparisons, needlessly, and, in turn, being the visual creatures we are, we're shitting on his situation room photo op, because Obama's was objectively so much better. Beyond one just being a better photo, if you chose to read into them, especially when they're side by side, they say a ton about each man, and each man's administration.

[wufwugy]

Honestly, no one would be going in so hard on the picture if Trump didn't insist on claiming to have one upped Obama. He drew the comparisons, needlessly, and, in turn, being the visual creatures we are, we're shitting on his situation room photo op, because Obama's was objectively so much better. Beyond one just being a better photo, if you chose to read into them, especially when they're side by side, they say a ton about each man, and each man's administration.

You're right, they do say a ton about each man. I like Obama's photo much better. Trump's looks very silly.

The sale Trump is thinking past with this photo is likely (1) being imagined as Head of State and (2) associated with deadness of Bagh-Deadi. Obama didn't need sale #1, but Trump needs it big time to survive. It probably would have hurt Obama to hamfist that sale. Obama sitting on the side in casual dress is a great image for him in this situation.

Is Trump's photo a good image for him? The photo is dumb, but it sells him as Head of State because everybody's arguing over the silly details of a photo where the backdrop is Trump looking exactly the way he wants to look.

[boost]

You're right, they do say a ton about each man. I like Obama's photo much better. Trump's looks very silly.

The sale Trump is thinking past with this photo is likely (1) being imagined as Head of State and (2) associated with deadness of Bagh-Deadi. Obama didn't need sale #1, but Trump needs it big time to survive. It probably would have hurt Obama to hamfist that sale. Obama sitting on the side in casual dress is a great image for him in this situation.

Is Trump's photo a good image for him? The photo is dumb, but it sells him as Head of State because everybody's arguing over the silly details of a photo where the backdrop is Trump looking exactly the way he wants to look.

Good analysis. Trump's play here, if intentional, is like a dictator that wears military fatigues with an absurd amount of brass pinned to them-- this always hit me as silly and an illustration of their delusions of grandeur, but you make a good point: there's an audience for everything and they may just be pandering to that audience. And it's not that Obama is immune from this analysis either. To some he probably looks weak and ineffectual off in the corner like that, but to the audience that matters more to him, he comes across as confident and uninterested in self indulgent pomp.

Yet even if we are cynical on both accounts, in this narrow circumstance in a vacuum, I find it hard to not prefer the president who's pretending at higher minded ideals. Nonetheless, your point that doing so may simply not be a viable option for Trump in this moment is not lost on me.

[Poopadoop]

Did you see the part where Trump told them to pull the cables out of the trunking so it'd look more 'sophisticated?'. That's what I'm laughing at.

And do you think it looks 'sophisticated' in your photo op to have a loose cable sitting on top not connected to anything?

[OngBonga]

Did you see the part where Trump told them to pull the cables out of the trunking so it'd look more 'sophisticated?'

No. It doesn't look more sophisticated though, it just looks like they're on the yellow channel, and the red ones are untidy simply because they need to be readily accessible.

If he deliberately did it for the cameras, yeah that's worthy of mockery.

[Poopadoop]

Trump's looks like people gathering for a photo op with no-one knowing where they're supposed to look. Obama's looks like people actually doing work and not just trying to look like they might be doing work.

[OngBonga]

Obama's looks like they're watching Two Girls One Cup. Trump's looks like he's put cardboard cutouts of pretend officials there. The gormless black haired dude looks real, but the others look fake.