The United States(!) of A

[ Baby won't you mind my Corona soaked Towel Time Violation ]
Tennis crosses over to World Championship Wrestling Crowd spikes. Boo! Hiss!

Tennis brats throw games & Soggy Corona laced towels at whoever's face!
Pro: "Catch my disease damn you Ball Boy...Wot is yer problem!"
https://www.rt.com/sport/467730-us-open-medvedev-fined-middle-finger/

Petulant Tennis Pro smashes Ball Girl like a Guitar & gets banned from US Open.
https://www.givemesport.com/1597666-us-open-novak-djokovic-has-been-disq...

Kyrgios : (Now the Nice Guy!) Not one of them Fakes plaguing the US Open...(Boo!)
[ Launches Appeal for Soggy diseased Towel Gurlz Rebel Tour ]

Kyrgios: (Punchline!) "Euro Trash Brat should stick to serving up Corona!" Boom!

"cdawg.
Thanks for your post but strawmanning is not, and has never been, "Creating a new argument and goading others to attack that instead of the original one"

It occurs when someone takes another person's argument or point, distorts it or exaggerates it in some kind of extreme way, and then attacks the extreme distortion, as if that is really the claim the first person is making.

I will give you an example. blowin / DSDS argues that I don't read Vic Yemeni's posts because he has dark skin. It's complete BS, but blowin uses the argument to portray me as a racist.

Listing racists and racist organisations is not a strawman argument. Do try and keep up."

Vic - Sorry, I am not able to stay sufficiently active in the forum to reply in a more timely fashion. But I would like to say you are right on the definition, so thanks for the reminder. I would say though that your list was an inflammatory side-step, which was the intent of the strawman point. Perhaps "decoy" would be a better term.

“There is no debate on important matters anymore because people like you can't accept that the world is more nuanced than your arbitrary division of people into different camps suggests.”

"Well actually there is considerably more debate on important matters than ever before. Social media is full of it. Every possible opinion is out there and every possible response to it; on and on ad infinitum. And the most fundamental division here is not at all arbitrary. It is between those who make coherent arguments backed up by evidence from credible sources and the tribe of bullshit merchants who specialise in shooting their mouths of first then, if ever, looking for evidence to support their essentially emotionally driven diatribes."

Blowfly, I would counter that social media has done massive damage to the quality of debate these days, simply accelerating the shift of the world into tribes. What you reference as debate is more often just each side shouting over the other, without any attempt to find the common ground and move forward. Contrary opinions are just not tolerated. Look at the case of Professor Ridd for example, whose scientific research on the reef is treated as blasphemy was in the Middle Ages. Or campaigns to stop advertisers buying slots on media outlets that discuss ideas outside of what the mob deems "correct thinking".

Matt Taibbi in scintillating form:

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-trump-era-sucks-and-needs-to

Except for the headline that is, let's blame the editor for that, but the rest of the article is top notch.

it's a great article.

after I read the hundreds of comments I came to the conclusion that Trump will win in Nov.
It was some of the most sensible and reasoned debate I've ever read.

This comment quoted in the article is particularly relevant to this discussion:

"the Democratic Party’s vision for governing seemed limited to attacking him and calling him a racist, a charge being leveled so constantly that it was having the effect of alienating, instead of persuading, people. "

Funny how that works.

My gut feel is that Trump is in a bit of trouble re military personnel comments.
His true base is a cult, but Trump also needs other voters to get over the line.
The yanks revere their soldiers big time, there's plenty of them, and they have families.
Trump managed to dodge the "pussy grabbing" recording in 2016, but the timing on this is different.
Trump will need to deny the comments for a couple of months. Trump has virtually no chance of winning if someone drops an audio or video file of him saying even something remotely against the troops.
I reckon someone will do an Access Hollywood and drop the big one just before the election.

The comments Trump is alleged to have said about the military are obviously unsubstantiated bullshit designed to instigate disenchantment of Trump within the military . The Democrats are banking on a military coup to remove the Trump after he wins . Biden will refuse to concede , the election results will get dragged out whilst the MSM invites civil unrest . The hope is that Trump can then be deposed militarily.

The attempt to drive a wedge between Trump and the rank and file soldier has less to do about votes than it does about tryin to enlist the services on the side of the coup attempt led by Dems.

My prediction : Increased violence- including the White House being held under siege for 6 weeks as the main stage - and a corresponding manipulation of a stock market plunge with associated mass corporate lay offs to undermine Trump’s claim over share market success. All orchestrated.

Freeride .....why did the comments change your mind on the issue ?

The reason Trump gets away with saying all sorts of things that would ordinarily be expected to derail him is that his supporters like the base elements of his beliefs. Specifically, America first, military superiority and of course, supporting the Police. With regards to these military comments, they know he will fund and support them in a way that the Democrats will not. Historic comments are unlikely to change the view of what he will do in the future, so don't matter to people. He would need to double down on them now for it to be an issue I think.

That's quite a conspiracy theory you've got going there sweetie. Not long now until we hear about the Democratic pedo ring and shape shifting lizard people from you.
I reckon the way Trump treated John McCain shows he history history bad mouthing military personnel.

"even you can see the comments Trump is alleged to have said about the military are obviously unsubstantiated bullshit designed to instigate disenchantment of Trump within the military"

After the amount of deplorable shit that Trump has said, on the record, I have no problem believing he said these things. That said, I think he'll probably win because the U.S is cooked. If you are right about the coup DSDWSDWDS, I'm grabbing some popcorn.

"That's quite a conspiracy theory you've got going there sweetie. Not long now until we hear about the Democratic pedo ring and shape shifting lizard people from you.
I reckon the way Trump treated John McCain shows he history history bad mouthing military personnel."

Wow.

Edit: Sorry, I thought that was in reply to me, Just realised otherwise, but can't delete this comment...

If I’m wrong I’m sure you’ll remind me about it.

Russell Brand has good intuition.

in answer to blow-in, it just provides very clear explanations about why people are voting for him.
explanations I'd never really heard so eloquently put.

I don't believe there is any conspiracy to depose Trump militarily.

but, I've been wrong before.

What do you mean "If I'm wrong"? Sweetie, you're a fantasist.
Talk of a Democrat Party backed military coup is just fucking nuts.
But hey, look on the bright side. This is less offensive than your racist drivel.

Trichotillomaniac (Tricky) Joe's Democratic Pedo Ring...

Me Too...you can creep me out anytime

The Democrats are likely to have manufactured the military comment rumours as Dude says. There has also been a very high level movement against Trump for his entire time in the White House, so who knows what these people fantasise about in private. But yeah, a coup just isn't going to happen unless the country descends into civil war and it's deemed necessary to restore law and order. Unlikely against the "Law and Order President".

Page 17

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7013152/Preventing-a-Disrupte...

Particularly like the prediction that California will secede with a couple of other states and form Cascade .

It’d be funny that the TIP tries to project itself as non-partisan if what they represented wasn’t so dangerous.

The document is a “ wargamed “ simulation of various outcomes to the election and the implications for US society as espoused by many prominent political figures in America. All of whom are Anti Trump.

TRUMP: “Also, I never called John a loser and swear on whatever, or whoever, I was asked to swear on, that I never called our great fallen soldiers anything other than HEROES.” — tweet Thursday.

THE FACTS: He called McCain a loser.

source https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/__trashed-2

And cdawg, the people who confirmed the rumours that trump disrespected US troops are people who worked in the administration.
Trying to pin this on Democrats just doesn't add up. you can expect plenty of former Trump administration officials dumping on the orange nutter in the lead up to the polls.
There will be documents and recordings backing up claims of Trump wrongdoings.
This is how things work. Anonymous source says Trump did XYZ, Trump says it's a lie, documents or recordings prove the original claim is true. Trump will still have his cult members (like Sweetie) cheering him on, but there will be damage at the polls.

Yep.

400 of 'em at a rally in Byron Bay on Sat.

it's a real thing.

I'm surprised Facto your article didn't touch on Nazi's adopting the swastika from Japanese Buddhism. Quite common to see them in Japan. Even the navi system in the car uses the swastika icon to identify where buddhist shrines are.

Btw- interesting article but unsurprising.

pichost

Yep said this quite a few times now when VL has tried to say all these nut cases are far rights guys.

Both extremes seem really prone to all this conspiracy theory stuff, or rebelling against lock downs etc

Lots of non political or central people are too though.

Wow FR.
We had about 10 crackpots in Torquay a couple of years ago crying about a phone tower.
400 in Byron is a serious cluster. A lot of this stuff stems from the content void in the Wellness industry (people who like to dispense medical advice with no actual training).
In 2019, these wellness influencers would write about yoga getaways in Bali, Fiji, Byron etc. They can't keep that going in 2020 so ended up pushing conspiracies. Hopefully they will be back to banging on about healthy juice blends in Ubud soon.

I’ll bet more people under the age of 50 die from having a mobile phone tower falling on them than die from the virus over which you want to lock up 5 million healthy people . I’ll bet more people under the age of 40 die from being hit by a meteor than the virus you insist demands everyone forfeit their lives .

But sure ......they’re the crackpots.

You need to see someone about your fear , bloke.

4 people in Australia who would have died from a normal flu outbreak anyway.

You sound scared too , Comrade Queef . Go hide under the desk in your office if your unnatural fear is making you nervous. Don’t expect healthy people to undergo house arrest to appease your yellow streak.

Definition of hysterical is letting fear steal your freedom. That sounds like you , bloke.

See a shrink .

At least I’ll recognise you if I ever run into you Comrade Queef . You’ll be the one wearing the T Shirt which says:

“ Lock me up....this world is scary ! “

Blowin.....your new user.....its fu(ken seriously bad, really bad could you please change it?

Blowin was really good (I thought) the new one is sounds like some Sepo inspired I don't know what but it ant in any Horstralian eh.

Cheers

Yeah I hate it too. I picked something completely unlike myself so I could throw the stalking clowns off for a few days and get to make some comments without their usual follow up bullshit. It worked for a good while . Some people picked it up surprisingly quickly .

I avowed off Swellnet . Was done with it totally. Canceled my subscription and asked Stu if I could scrub my whole record of contribution. Ben wasn’t into it and blocked access to my old account . Took a spell and wanted to contribute again without the baggage .

Name does suck .

Isn't it from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure?

Or one of those stoner movies?

BTW, don't stop contributing. We need all voices here. That's what makes it interesting. It would suck if we all agreed with each other with endless rounds of backslapping.

I like your contributions Dude/Blowy.

Edit: Even Vic too, he's the most humourless bloke going that I'm actually wondering if he's a comic genius. I find him hilarious.

"The Stalking Clowns"..... good name for a band.

If I ever got a band together, I was going to call us "The Brown Chords".

Catchy don't you think?

To be fair Blowin, Australia is in a unique situation our numbers as we know are super low (bar Victoria)

So it would be crazy to just say FK this and throw restrictions aside at this stage and let everything blow up.

Australia took the right approach we didn't know what we were really dealing with, but if we don't get a vaccine and have to live with this for years then i hope we do revaluate things and maybe take a different approach as it's not sustainable long term. .

"BTW, don't stop contributing. We need all voices here. That's what makes it interesting. It would suck if we all agreed with each other with endless rounds of backslapping.

I like your contributions Dude/Blowy."

+1

We need all voices here
Does that include me Indo "the wife basher excuser" Dreaming?

It wouldn't be a party without you Vic, so of course.

You can get the conga-line going.

Indo...I primarily say that cause Vic Local is such a punishing flog. I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus and I was reluctant to go there as there is so many fine people who are vulnerable such as VelocityJohnno , my brother and the old bloke we look after.

Having said that , I do think that there’s a lot of politics behind the decision making process and we should never relinquish our watchful gaze over the power grabs of our government.

"We need all voices here
Does that include me Indo "the wife basher excuser" Dreaming?"

Im not a fan of yours i dont agree with much you have to say, and i find you aggressive and repetitive, but that said at-least you contribute to the discussion, its not just baiting and trolling, you play the man but you also play the ball.

So that's a reluctant yes.

C'mon big fella- bring it in.

It'll do you good.

On a lighter side of politics in the states,,
A classic scene from a classic movie " I'm gonna git you sucka" ..

tbb want's to say something but doesn't wanna interrupt the flow...
If I don't press comment, no one will know I was actually enjoying that thread!