what was the question again?

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Would you go streaking at Darkside's party for $52?

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

depends on weather conditions

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Your family too. Even if you were willing to sacrifice yourself I doubt MANY would be dumb enough to sacrifice their family.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

True enough, but I also have to laugh at Killer V's surprise that Hollywood would be anything less than 100% accurate in movies.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

You don't have to follow an order that is against the law. I would guess shooting an innocent person is against US law, but I'm not sure.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I thought I could get away without a winky face there but apparently not...

You know, I work on a military base....

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The CIA was created in order to break laws in foreign countries.

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Well then I would think you would know that, especially in garrison, orders really are more like suggestions

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

But what I know doesn't fit my narrative!!

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I'd like to agree, but here's the problem. Under Pence it will be WAY easier for the far right to push legislation through without carnival barker in chief making everything more difficult.

Sure, Pence is better tempermentally, avoiding nuclear war, and immigration; but he's worse on gay rights, healthcare, and choice issues. Again, would likely sign more reactionary legislation into law than Drumpf.

If you are seriously concerned about the underlined, then Pence over Trump is a slam dunk.

During the primaries, I always said Cruz would be worse than Trump because he is a religious zealot. I said the same of Pence. I've changed my stance on those things. I think that, under the God-fueled insanity, they each have a more intelligent side. I'm not saying they're smart or even competent... but I think they at least possess the ability to make a connection between actions and consequences and the knowledge to respect how our government works at a basic level. I would take either over Trump at this point.

I think Trump could wind up changing very little because he has zero political acumen or ability or he could wind up a fucking disaster who changes the world order and ruins every relationship the U.S. has. At least I know that Pence or Cruz would likely be bad but not horrifically, embarrassingly, can't-ever-go-back-to-normal bad.

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Look out now. Reporters at the NATO summit in Brussels are asking if they should be listening to him (Pence) or Cheetolini. The leaks slamming him and his role in this fiasco will probably start at 4am since Trump has to feel threatened by him.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

But this is something I've seen you argue with BRick about on many occasions and now you seem like maybe you're on his side of the argument. The point is, the current "normal" simply isn't so great for everyone. I understand that you vehemently dislike Trump as the vehicle for change, but let's get beyond Trump for a moment.

When you look around the world at Western democracies, why do you think they have been so popular? Because people value "freedom"? I don't really believe that's the case. I would argue that it's because they have provided economic prosperity with each generation progressing beyond the previous one. We're now looking at the second successive generation that has largely gone backward. It's not hard to see how that would foster political unrest and dissatisfaction with "normal".

And that's at the crux of these "populist" movements we're seeing across the West. It's lost on people like Hillary Clinton who never talks to anyone who makes less than $500,000 a year. And it's lost on many of the highly educated and very comfortable urban dwellers who have a "let them eat cake" attitude. For example, what is bernstein's directive to Engelwood residents to "Move!" if not a modern equivalent of "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche"? I guarantee dan was a Clinton voter.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Trump is far more dangerous and unhelpful to these people's causes than Hillary by pandering to people's fears.

I understand what you're saying, and I agree about people wanting a change from the "new" normal.

However, while not electing a wealthy, out-of-touch politician, a wealthy, out-of-touch egomaniac was brought in to "fix" things. And he has brought in more wealthy, out-of-touch people to help "fix" the very system that made them wealthy in the first place. The motivation just isn't there.

You might say that Trump turned out to be the better politician for tapping into that sense, but just because his "style" may be different, doesn't mean he's looking out for the common citizen. He's already making a fortune off of his current situation, which is what I believe is his ultimate goal.

The status quo is being shaken, but based on his actions thus far, the results won't be much different, except to the Trump bottom line.

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But you simply can't do that. I can't say I'd like to see drastic change in the area of the distribution of wealth and then cheer a guy like Trump as the "change agent". He hasn't done and won't do anything regarding the plight of poor people. Ranting and raving about NAFTA doesn't accomplish anything. So, all we really have in the White House now is a guy who won't change anything economically but is a loose cannon when it comes to foreign policy or any other issue.

Obviously, I still believe that our current situation isn't so great for everyone, and I think we are heading toward a revolution because of the wealth gap between rich and poor that continues to grow.
That said, let's not act like Western democracy has been all bad. It's been pretty good to most of us and our ancestors. You see people from other countries come to the U.S. who proclaim it to be the greatest country in the history of the world. There's still a lot to like. We aren't at a point where we should throw our hands up and say "just give me ANYBODY different!" We still have the luxury of being specific regarding who we'd like to shake things up, and for me, that definitely isn't Trump.

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I don't disagree with any of that.

I'm not sure what Trump's motivations were/are though. It seems like it may almost have been a case of, "You know how great I am? Watch me get elected president without even really trying." and then it actually happened.

I have read many articles that toss around the word "kleptocracy" and the suggestion that Trump is there simply to enrich himself and his family. But I'm not sure how alienating over half of the country improves the Trump brand. And I also read an article that said that during the campaign Ivanka was pissed and she took Trump aside and said something like, "Okay, I'm not sure where this is going, but it's really bad for business."

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Oh, I don't think he will either. But what he might do is shake up the system enough that someone else can.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Or he'll shake up the system in an idiotic way that no one will ever elect someone who claims they will.

He's going to ruin the concept of an "outsider" candidate.

It's easy to identify problems. He did a great job in his campaign of exploiting people's fears and promising he'll fix their problems.

So far he's done absolutely zero in following through his promises and the preliminary solutions are dreadful.

That's an interesting take. I could see people spending on the Trump brand, wanting to curry favor with him (which would totally work by the way, he was already granted his long-sought trademark in China). But, that might just be a short-term gain, whereas the longer term effects could be negative.

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Yeah, my fear is that he's going to ruin people's courage in voting for an outsider and we will have to return to hearing about how people like Hillary are "pragmatists" and Bernie Sanders is just a dumb Jew who never accomplished anything.

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I don't doubt it happened, but what other family can you think of where the figurehead is elected President of the United States and there is family infighting because it's bad for business?

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That's definitely possible. But I'm more worried about him starting WWIII.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Well, that too.

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But would that be good or bad for business? It sure worked out for Cheney!

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He'll do things that we all like but they'll be trumped by the things that disgust us.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Pence used personal email for state business — and was hacked

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/02/mike-pence-private-email/98637782/

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