Politics

[deewayne2003]

As long as you’re willing to be intellectually consistent and not complain when the federal government takes over for local government to enforce a law you don’t like then I can respect your opinion.

That goes for pollution standards, vaccines, gun control, whatever you can think of.

What I don’t like is when people are all for local control until they disagree with what the local government is doing because they’re particularly leader is in the higher office.

I would disagree with you on that, I lived in Austin Texas for a decade and I watched that city make every idiotic decision you can think of and the state of Texas had to continually step in and save the city residents from the idiocy of the city council.

Examples:

Austin City council votes to allow "camping" on city property - Over night Austin turns into a shanty town with tents and garbage everywhere; human waste and dirty needles piling up and the city of Austin was providing these people with free outdoor toilets, trash collection, water and shower stations and still it looked like a hell hole.

The state stepped in and stopped it and then had to spend MILLIONS cleaning up all the hazardous waste left behind.

DEFUND THE POLICE - The best example, Austin city council wanted to defund the police and Governor Abbott stepped in and said.......

"If they defund the police, Austin residents do not have to pay property taxes"

Problem solved and the city council shut their mouth!

You'll often find that local government is the most corrupt government and my experience is that the more liberal they are the more liberty they deny the citizens.

 

[wesheltonj]

I would disagree with you on that, I lived in Austin Texas for a decade and I watched that city make every idiotic decision you can think of and the state of Texas had to continually step in and save the city residents from the idiocy of the city council.

Examples:

Austin City council votes to allow "camping" on city property - Over night Austin turns into a shanty town with tents and garbage everywhere; human waste and dirty needles piling up and the city of Austin was providing these people with free outdoor toilets, trash collection, water and shower stations and still it looked like a hell hole.

The state stepped in and stopped it and then had to spend MILLIONS cleaning up all the hazardous waste left behind.

DEFUND THE POLICE - The best example, Austin city council wanted to defund the police and Governor Abbott stepped in and said.......

"If they defund the police, Austin residents do not have to pay property taxes"

Problem solved and the city council shut their mouth!

You'll often find that local government is the most corrupt government and my experience is that the more liberal they are the more liberty they deny the citizens.

Austin has always been "left wing" crazy. However, today's version of "left wing" is just lunacy. Too many underemployed Ph.D's, California crazies and others. When it was just the underemployed Ph.D.'s it was not so band they were generally too busy smoking weed.

 

[Scott CWO]

I would say playing into putins hands again......

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/world/europe/trump-putin-alaska-summit.html

This is my fear but I’m hoping not this time.

 

[John Wasmuth]

…

 

[deewayne2003]

Austin has always been "left wing" crazy. However, today's version of "left wing" is just lunacy. Too many underemployed Ph.D's, California crazies and others. When it was just the underemployed Ph.D.'s it was not so band they were generally too busy smoking weed.

Agreed, While in college during the early 2000's I would visit friends at UT and and it wasn't that bad and I enjoyed it.

2012 I moved to Austin for a job opportunity and loved it in the beginning; the new quickly wore off as I found my self surrounded by more and more Californians who were hell bent on turning the city into their vision of social justice greatness - you even saw the average Texan Democrat morph into Marxist worshiping idiots and then COVID hit.

My god COVID made these people loose their minds and I whole heartedly believe that if Biden had ordered the unvaccinated to be rounded up and put on cattle cars the populous would have been more than happy to take part in it.

By the time I left in 2022 that city had become a nightmare to live in.

Funny you should mention Ph.D.'s - I knew several bartenders in Austin that were Ph.D.'s(liberal arts) and were tending bar while their wealthy parents paid their rent...... Funny how people who live off their parents are the most vocal about how the government should spend money.

 

[Vashper]

This is my fear but I’m hoping not this time.

It looks strange, from the point of view of an outsider, when the media a priori consider their president an idiot.

 

[Brent in Az]

It's the New York Times. A newspaper who's only value is to line the bottom of a Monkey cage.

 

[Wheels]

I would say playing into putins hands again......

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/world/europe/trump-putin-alaska-summit.html

Lest we forget, this provides a bit of background on how DNI Clapper and the Mueller Special Council undermined the first Trump/Putin meeting in Helsinki.

If the 2018 meeting had been allowed to run its course without interference by the American intelligence community and law fare would there have even been a Ukraine war and would Russia have been pushed into closer ties with China.

Bombshell DNI Emails Expose Fraud That Sabotaged 2018 Trump-Putin Summit

The new release by Gabbard is a vindication for Trump, who stood alone in 2018, and strengthens his position ahead of the upcoming summit.

thefederalist.com

 

[Altitude sickness]

^^^^ now we all understand why the FBI never confiscated the “hacked” DNC server. Which at the time seemed very odd.

 

[Wheels]

As I recall the speed of the download of the DNC servers could not have been done remotely. It had to be done directly with something like a thumb drive.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

"Look, he's a smart guy. He's been doing it for a long time, but so have I," Trump told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One to Alaska. "We get along. It's a good respect level on both sides. And I think, you know, something is going to come up."

 

[deewayne2003]

"Look, he's a smart guy. He's been doing it for a long time, but so have I," Trump told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One to Alaska. "We get along. It's a good respect level on both sides. And I think, you know, something is going to come up."

Would you prefer for him to talk endless shit about the man he's about to negotiate with?

Look how that worked out for Biden and the Saudi crown prince.....

 

[Tundra Tiger]

Would you prefer for him to talk endless shit about the man he's about to negotiate with?

Look how that worked out for Biden and the Saudi crown prince.....

Did Churchill or Roosevelt say about Hitler "He's a smart guy. We get along. Good respect."

I view Putin in the same vein. Do I want Trump to talk shit? No. But I think there is ground between there and kissing his ass.

 

[Tanks]

I would disagree with you on that, I lived in Austin Texas for a decade and I watched that city make every idiotic decision you can think of and the state of Texas had to continually step in and save the city residents from the idiocy of the city council.

Examples:

Austin City council votes to allow "camping" on city property - Over night Austin turns into a shanty town with tents and garbage everywhere; human waste and dirty needles piling up and the city of Austin was providing these people with free outdoor toilets, trash collection, water and shower stations and still it looked like a hell hole.

The state stepped in and stopped it and then had to spend MILLIONS cleaning up all the hazardous waste left behind.

DEFUND THE POLICE - The best example, Austin city council wanted to defund the police and Governor Abbott stepped in and said.......

"If they defund the police, Austin residents do not have to pay property taxes"

Problem solved and the city council shut their mouth!

You'll often find that local government is the most corrupt government and my experience is that the more liberal they are the more liberty they deny the citizens.

It is still the local government. State vs Federal is what is in question here.

 

[Altitude sickness]

The left still has not reconciled that Trump was correct in his claim that Russia was not behind the big FBI lie.

If we are being completely honest, this FBI and CIA derailing of Trump in the beginning of his first term was a huge national security issue and the distraction most likely allowed Putin the distraction and cover to attack Ukraine
During Bidens term

Trump sides with Russia against FBI at Helsinki summit - BBC News

The US president contradicts intelligence agencies over claims of interference in the US election.

www.bbc.com

 

[deewayne2003]

Did Churchill or Roosevelt say about Hitler "He's a smart guy. We get along. Good respect."

I view Putin in the same vein. Do I want Trump to talk shit? No. But I think there is ground between there and kissing his ass.

No they didn't..... They waited until the situation was in world war and even then they didn't go around publicly running their mouth about leaders; in fact they snuggled up to Stalin who had signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which I also believe Roosevelt did nothing about.

Even after the war was won and peace treaties were signed they didn't antagonize their opponent.

But then again as the resent revelations about the Helsinki summit being torpedoed it could possibly never happened.... but we'll never know.

It is still the local government. State vs Federal is what is in question here.

Exactly.... DC is a Federal district, not a state the DC residents are not granted full voting representation in congress; so seems pretty clear that DC would be under federal jurisdiction if the local municipality can't govern it's own affairs; which has been blatant for a few decades.

 

[spike.t]

As Trump splits from India, is the US abandoning its pivot to Asia?

US partners in Asia, such as India, might consider their own shifts in response to Trump’s moves. But it won’t be easy.

www.aljazeera.com

 

[Altitude sickness]

The patron saint of the left sitting next to Stalin. Stalin is on Hitlers level of genocide.

 

[Wheels]

As Trump splits from India, is the US abandoning its pivot to Asia?

US partners in Asia, such as India, might consider their own shifts in response to Trump’s moves. But it won’t be easy.

www.aljazeera.com

America is rebalancing trade with everyone. Friend and foe. Some countries have already worked out agreements and have better deals. Some are slow to act.

Exports are a big part of Indias financial growth. Other than the EU, who can they trade with to continue their export machine. Africa? Asia? South America?

India has a two part problem with America. One is rebalancing trade. The second is the purchase and the purchase resale of Russian oil. America has placed tariffs on India for each. If the Trump Putin meetings work out over the next few weeks perhaps India only has the rebalancing of trade to deal with.

America and India are friends. One has to question friendships that are one sided however. When one friend has fairly open markets and the other has large trade barriers making the relationship one sided, are they truly friends or just useful partners when dealing with countries like China, Pakistan, or Somali pirates.

 

[Altitude sickness]

If you want a good laugh. Turn on CNN.

Complete buffoonery. I guess they think none of us can remember that their guys Obama and Biden caused this debacle and if their guy Biden was still in charge Putin would not be at the table because Blinken and Biden has zero dialogue with the Kremlin.

now they’re complaining about every single move Trump makes.
Nothing Trump is doing is correct.

CNN would actually prefer Blinken and Biden