Nov 8, 2016 - The lesser of two evils?
- Thread starter TX Redman
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beast of the east
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The Saudis rolled out the carpet for him and took him seriously.
Israel was thrilled that he visited them on his first presidential trip - the first president ever to do so.
Unlike Obama, who took every terrorist act as an opportunity to lecture us that Muslims are by and large good people. Trump's mission is to align Arab nations against ISIS and build a coalition of good vs. evil. It's okay to call radical Islamic terrorists for what they are. Rather than believe they are creating jihad of Islamic nations against America and European countries and the crazy idea that Sharia law will rule the world, imagine if Trump was able to successfully engage Arab nations to support a war of good vs. evil to crush Isis with Muslims, Jews, and Gentiles working together. It's incredibly naiive to think this could happen, but if even a semblance of it does, he would deserve the Nobel Peace prize.
If Trump did all of that and found a cure for cancer the left would still despise him. As one former friend said to me "I don't want him to succeed, I hate him!" I used to be an open minded person willing to listen and try to understand differing political positions and viewpoints. Now I just tell my non-republican friends(the few I have left-no pun) "I won't discuss politics with you".
beast of the east
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I've thought in recent years that as hundreds are massed outside of SJU games at CA and sometimes as many as 1 thousand or more are waiting on long lines to get into MSG that a terrorist attack could be perpetrated outside of an arena. This POS waited till the concert was over when thousands are exiting, but I've always felt that the security lines also create a perfect opportunity for an attack they are designed to prevent.
For the life of me, I cannot comprehend how Zuckerberg and Facebook will not work with authorities to unscramble whatsapp messages if it will prevent or solve a terrorist attack (whatsapp is a favorite terrorist communication vehicle), or shut down facebook pages immediately when radical Islamists use it to recruit or spread propaganda. How could otherwise bright people be so twisted as protect radicals. I guarantee you if the rhetoric was directed at certain racial or religious groups, facebook and other outlets would act much quicker to remove those pages and posts
For the life of me, I cannot comprehend how Zuckerberg and Facebook will not work with authorities to unscramble whatsapp messages if it will prevent or solve a terrorist attack (whatsapp is a favorite terrorist communication vehicle), or shut down facebook pages immediately when radical Islamists use it to recruit or spread propaganda. How could otherwise bright people be so twisted as protect radicals. I guarantee you if the rhetoric was directed at certain racial or religious groups, facebook and other outlets would act much quicker to remove those pages and posts
I happen to be sick this morning after reading about all of these young innocent children that were just murdered in the UK. I feel for their parents loss.
My daughter had an internship with Morgan Stanley on the 96th floor of the Towers, which had ended the Friday before the attack. The pain I felt then, even knowing my daughter was safe was so intense that the loss of your child would be so devastating and overwhelming.
All I can say is kiss your children and grandchildren and pray that you never ever experience what just occurred in Manchester.
beast of the east
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I hope so too.
The left are religious zealots and Trump came between them and their goal when they all thought the war was over; Hillary was going to be elected and she was going to be the front for the completion of the US makeover into a 3rd world country with a majority beholding to government handouts for food and health care, ensuring we sink truly into a one party nation, leftist Democrats and Republicans finally as one. Trump threw the all-time monkey wrench into that and you can clearly see the agenda by the left and the sheep in wolfs clothing so-called Republicans, getting rid of him any way possible short of assassination. To hell with the election, to hell with the rule of law, to hell with the Constitution. The idea that the Russians had ANYTHING to do with election results in real terms is ludicrous and insulting to the people who voted for him. Did they attempt to meddle as much as they could, I am sure as they have documented since the 1940's; as Obama meddled directly in the Canadian elections, the Israeli, Brexit, etc. My rambling point is that, as scary and sad as it is, there is no common ground to be found between the left and anyone, they have made their move for complete power and control and they will either be defeated or they will eventually succeed in sinking our republic.
beast of the east
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I've never been to the WTC Memorial, and although my father, who was a construction worker, helped build the WTC, I'd never been there. The memory of the smoldering building visible on the NYC panorama from the crest of the Whitestone bridge was permanently etched into my mind. Still I am angry at the destruction of innocent life, and in a sick way the WTC memorial not only honors the dead, but for a tiny few jihadists is a marker to be celebrated.
NYC remains the holy grail of terrorist targets, and I cannot wait until my kids flee their for the suburbs, although the point of terrorism is that no one is safe anywhere. It's why they need to feel the full force of a military giant awakened - not just the US armed forces, but that of all good nations on a global scale.
beast of the east
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True.
The point of counter-terrorism is to disable terrorists at every point - indoctrination, radicalization, planning, bringing to justice, and if necessary, destroy them. Fortunately, apologizing is no longer part of our strategy to compat terrorism, nor is releasing them from Gitmo.
Except that it isn't and partly because he didn't destroy himself in the process, part of me feels like a win/win with the sick fk in Florida yesterday who was a nazi turned Islamic killer, killed his former nazi cronies who it seemed were themselves planning some sort of domestic attack. The culture is really sick. Seems hopeless from the local idiots, national policies, out of control greed and people are a disposable commodity mentality and total lunatics like this. Unfortunately the nutjobs killing each other off is not an option without a lot of innocent people being destroyed first.
I was in a small, middle of nowhere town in Missouri a few years back and an arab terrorist owned a local motel there. People feel it everywhere. What you see in small towns though that you won't see in big cities is a bunch of locals got out their guns and surrounded the motel. Fortunately or unfortunately the guy had already fled.
stjohnschris
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It's all heavy stuff psychologically, and everyone has their own way and path through 9/11 and how NYC (and the world) changed forever. My kids are 6 & 8, and we made a clear decision to NOT leave the 5 boroughs. We're not making any kind of grand statement or stand, it just feels right to be here. My kids are surrounded by reality, opportunity, and diversity, daily. I don't view NYC as any more or less dangerous than anywhere else. Newtown CT, Charleston SC, San Bernadino CA, Brentwood NY...places you raise a family because it's safer "on paper"? From pre K through grad school, I think NYC offers more than ever right now...just my opinion.
Or perhaps another point of view. I think Khalid Sheik Mohammed (the butcherer of Daniel Pearl) laid out their terrorist strategy in the best, most evil way possible when he said that “We” will win because Americans don’t realize . . . we do not need to defeat "you" militarily; we only need to keep the fight up long enough for you to defeat yourself … because you have softened and you will quit.
Where I think little or no attention is paid, as in the case of the UK and Europe, and particularly the US, is on how the idea of multiculturalism (or identity politics) project has played an integral role in the continued rise of terrorism.
Allow me to elaborate. On the one side it has promoted all kinds of conformity — conformity in ideas, actions and speech - through indoctrination of children, students, teachers, academia, employees, managers and executives on what’s politically correct speech and thought, e.g., you can’t say there are radical Muslims out there and be critical of race, faith, and so on …
On the other side, rather than working as a response to diversity it has become the very means of constraining it. As a result of multiculturalism policies, and we increasingly see this in people in the US. UK and Europe, they define social solidarity not in political or economic terms (conservative or working class) anymore, but rather in terms of ethnicity, culture, or faith. And, also as a result, they are concerned less with determining the kind of society (at the national level or higher) they want to create than with defining the community to which they belong. That is why I put the quotes up for “We” and “you” … what do those identities signify … for the terrorists it is an appeal to faith although their ambitions are purely political, and for Americans, a national identity to me is pretty much lost for say the 1980s.
How identity politics did this for me is attributable to the state, at both the national and the local levels, as they pioneered a strategy of drawing minority communities into the mainstream political process. At its heart, the approach redefined the concepts of racism and equality. Racism now meant not simply the denial of equal rights but also the denial of the right to be “different”. And equality no longer entailed possessing rights that were over and above race, ethnicity, culture, and faith; it meant asserting “different rights” because of them (as Dr. Fun points out a muslim taxi driver need not take a seeing-eye dog of a blind man because he is muslims rights to refuse). These are huge distinctions in dividing people.
Again what is happening is that the intrusive state apparatus (and let's not kid ourselves) diversity has become institutionalized by putting people into ethnic and cultural boxes—into a singular, homogeneous Muslim or Black community, for example—and defining their needs and rights accordingly. For example, that my identity is drawn on religious lines and so specific policies are drawn to cater to my Muslim needs, while emphasizing such homogeneous identities as a key to my entitlements. Such policies, in other words, have helped create the very divisions they were meant to overcome, and so a major reason why we stand so divided, and you have to look no further than yesterday in the UK.
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