#121
Post rating: ~

cars posted:

How is it at all confusing that the U.S. government fired John Bolton but remains belligerent toward Iran? It's not like he invented that, and the current government has been like that the entire time



chill, just trying to start a discussion.

#122
Post rating: +
I think he's being honest here. Another likely reason is that Bolton was probably at least a little more cautious and reserved in regards to foreign policy.
#123
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: +
For someone who must have taken a famously ill-defined job with the idea he could run roughshod over an empty-chair Oval Office, the object of his wet dreams since the glory days of Reagan, Bolton was probably disappointed to discover that, tottering in the center of an iron triangle of Washington ethics, snowballing senility and a metastasized, fossilized case of the 2000s CEO philosophy his TV show helped define, Trump never does anything without saying he won't do it first, either because someone else got to Trump after Bolton and before the daily allotment of 1-hit-to-10-miss memories solidified in the president's cheese-hole brain, or because Trump knows deep down he can't really say or do absolutely anything he wants without getting shot but can't stifle the compulsion to try to convince himself otherwise. Also Bolton's probably real mad over the Taliban meeting and North Korea or whatever piddling little dead-end shit he thought he was brought in to stop from even being spoken aloud to the President, let alone posted on Twitter by an account he'd planned to turn into his personal sockpuppet.
#124
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: +

dimashq posted:

chill, just trying to start a discussion.



i'd take the W then

#125
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: ~
The lesson here is, never underestimate how much fat you can pack into the swollen head of a United States politician. At whatever level they operate, from town council slob to president slob, they all need to believe they could take each other out at a moment's notice, and if they start getting grumpy with each other, they feel the need to remind each other of it. That can be just a bunch of semi-subtle whining and undermining until the clock runs out, it happens a lot and then Bernstein writes the book, but Trump got second-wind famous in the U.S. for exactly one phrase.
#126
Post rating: ~
The meetings with the Taliban also seem like meetings with a different group of Taliban than the ones sniping Green Berets in Afghanistan. I think RWN said something along the lines of these guys in Qatar being the Beach Talibs who have been out of the game for awhile, with some of the top guys having been imprisoned in Gitmo before being released in prisoner exchanges. But if you've been out of the game for a decade you can't just come back and expect to pick up the ball. Athletes can get commentary jobs working for ESPN but it's not like they're in any condition to get out there and play pro basketball again like in their glory days.
#127
UNUSUALY COOL
Post rating: ~
The thing about Dolan and Ames is, they like telling reporters they have a story wrong more than they like getting one right themselves, and the guests they bring on reflect that. I wouldn't want them any other way, those big beautiful men of mine
#128
Post rating: +


Ehh well I dunno. I just start with the assumption that everyone is running a scam and these Taliban are the fat old guys / former CIA assets hanging out on the beach who retired after the 2001-2002 season but don't really run anything anymore. Keeping up negotiations keeps up the mutual grift though with U.S. administrations which also want to score a "peace in our time" deal that'll look good for their next election. But everyone is still making money.

Edited by trakfactri ()

#129
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