President Donald Trump

as we both know it's not about agreement and i never said they agreed - i honestly have no idea if they agreed or not - just that it was not uncommon for otherwise stellar students to be held back (or not be able to walk with their class until they rewrote their thesis) so had i just been derping about with bOtH siDeS BaD then it certainly wouldn't have passed

i just think it's rather juvenile and reductive to simply convey someone saying both parties suck is driven out of ego and desire to appear smart

frankly, if you look at my posting outside of politcis, i think you'd be hard pressed to find generic contrarism - that's just the only part of this forum you tend to inhabit so that's the only slice of me you ever interact with

most of my interactions here on politics are stuff i've spent years studying or actively living and am discussing it with people just pumping out some educated guess or reacting to some post they saw on twitter so i tend to spend more time pointing out how such and such statement is incorrect - much the same way you do in any legal discussion here - i'm sure if we just looked at only snippets of you pumping out legal stuff it'd mostly be "contrarian" simply by the virtue of being one of the few people in the room who actually knows the subject that a lot of lay people are pretending to be knowledgeable upon

agreed, our education system is a joke and one of the big things it emphasizes of "USA is the best at everything" removes incentive to push for more/better because most people already think it's the best here

most people don't have a problem with trump the same way you never had a problem with biden - they think that you just need to not have a psycho in charge and that'll fix it - trump is not being voted in because people like him or because people think he's smart or a good president - they are voting for him because he's the only one who promotes himself as tackling issues they care about like immigration

line up all the stats on biden/obama deportations you want - people don't pay attention to that, they pay attention to the rhetoric and figure USA is #1 anyway and will always be that way no matter what so may as well focus on things that are more visceral to their lives

same reason you were ok with biden - because while he was clearly not mentally functional anymore, you trusted his administration still held the same cultural values as yourself - so whether or not the executive in chief was mentally present or not wasn't an important issue for you

objectively speaking, outside of generating wealth through tech and finance or spending more than the rest of the world combined on arms - we are middle or the road or pretty sucky

Three things. First, my comment wasn't specifically about you. Second, if you aren't actually contrarian but merely seem that way because you are mostly talking to idiots, then I guess my observation doesn't really apply to you. Third, although there are definitely some uniformed people here, I would be hesitant about assuming that you are more knowledgeable generally than most people here. You probably are on some topics and not on others. You certainly are not the only person here who majored in political science. For reasons that you probably can figure out, I am 100% certain about that last point.

Do you really think a group of Republicans would go to Trump, tell him it's over and that he would be removed? Things that happened 50 years or 160 years ago with regard to impeachment have no relevance on the current party above country at all times environment.

Maybe I was sloppy with my previous wording. I was talking about the chances of a President ever being removed in the present day.

Simhowvi suspect if there's ever a lefty president then the chances of impeachment will soar.

Mong is a pol sci major? Huge if true!

again, my college major was <10% of why i understand things better than others

i read heavily, mostly historical nonfiction - you name the historical figure or event and i've very likely read at least one book on it - today i'm very excited to start reading a book by one of 2p2's own called barbary entanglements 😀

i've lived abroad for almost 2 decades - this gives me a lot of perspective not only to compare and contrast the us with other parts of the world but also to be one of the more informed posters here when we're discussing anything foreign as there's a good chance i've spent extensive time traveling or even living in that region or amongst the people in question

i've worked as a journalist covering economics, social issues and politics of china

i've worked as a researcher on economic issues in china

those 4 are the biggest areas where i jump in with "ackshually" - it doesn't happen much elsewhere

and as for what jump started this - i'm also probably on the spectrum - so i'm unaffected by whether or not a wanted criminal was arrested while attempting to board a flight to visit family - i just don't get soft spot in my heart and that is irrelevant as far as i'm concerned

had bb snipped or commented on whether or not the person should have been deported or whether or not due process was carried out would have been a much better argument that i would not have responded to negatively, in fact i would have likely agreed with him and do - as stated those who ignored the court order should be relieved of duty asap and prosecuted - and there's very strong merit for considering letting someone slide who for all intents and purposes is american and by all appearances seems to be otherwise law abiding and part of society

but... i'm not going to ever see a post of "these a-hole police were so cruel that they arrested the wanted fugitive as they were visiting their sick grandma" and say "yeah that's awful" instead it'll be "sounds like they did their job"

just look at how awful cops are

Rick, why do you feel the need to embed at least one youtube video in every post? I'm not complaining, just curious.

lol you are talking just like the cockwomble here.

OK. I wasn't following that discussion, and my post had nothing to do with that discussion.

rick has a better handle on everyday culture in certain foreign countries than most people here, which isn't irrelevant to interpreting the poliics of those countries. We all are more knowledgeable in certain areas than we are in others. I like to think I am decent on the practical realities of U.S. party politics and political theory, but a guy like tame deuces can run laps around me on topics like military stuff and realpolitik as seen through the eyes of the Kremlin. Tons of people here understand British and Canadian politics better than I do.

If we are going to jerk ourselves off I (objectively) have the best prediction track record currently on the forum.

Rick, you almost exclusively disagree with me when you post in P&S

Thus, logically, you don't understand things better than everyone. You don't even understand things better than me

Rick probably is on the spectrum

It’s a good prediction on his part

and where did i say i had the best perspective or knew everything?

this is a simple straw man attack based solely upon the fact that i think both biden and trump were awful presidents (trump to a much greater degree)

i don't think we disagree all that often - even the one big thing you really disagree with me upon, we still agree on 99% of it and our differences are very slight in my honest opinion

You have the weirdest habit of interpreting posts that are not attacks as attacks. It's truly bizarre.

I absolutely do NOT think that would happen unless either party had 60+ senators.

Thanks for clarifying.

Maybe BobtheSlob a polisci guy, too.

I wouldn't be surprised if I have the worst prediction track record.

Prolly lots of us in this forum are.

I 'outed' myself about this some time ago.

I didn't see any attack either. Must be some reading comprehension thingy.

My theory is that everyone left posting on 2p2 has some sort of mental thing going on. Mainly the auts

Why else would you commit to the most antiquated form of internet communication for decade(s)