You are obviously not interested in explaining what you’re talking about, specifically. I’m done. I’m sure black and white is very comforting. Enjoy it. I envy your ability to live there.

The institution of racial slavery in the United States is a bit unique, historically. You can’t say, “Oh, they outlawed slavery in Britain (for example) without war so they could do it here.” When I referred to slavery, I was referring specifically to the institutionalized, racial, slavery that was in the southern…

I’m definitely not convinced by that assertion with absolutely no historical evidence that the Union could have, unilaterally, taken some action that would have ended slavery by peaceful means. If you have some fact that illustrates how that could have happened, I’d love to see them. However, lacking those, I want to…

In this case, absolutely not. It’s a complete error. There are times that wars are necessary. WWII is often used as an example. It might be, but definitely, there was no choice on the part of the Union other than war in the Civil War. The secession of the south was an existential threat to the country, and it was…

Well... We’re not taking them, obviously. The Cheeto in Chief has made that abundantly clear.

War is awful and bad, but there are times when it is necessary and the best option in a field of truly terrible options. However, it’s vitally important to know what you’re going to do after you win the war. Trump has no damn clue what he’s going to do after this. If you’re going to bomb all of Syria’s airfield, then…

What’s step 2? You bomb the shit out of Syria. Great. That’s fantastic. What do you do next? Because that’s the question no one answered in 2002, and that’s what screwed us over in Iraq. So until you can answer how you win the peace, don’t start the damn war.

Exactly. If you want to improve the nightmare that is the Syrian crisis, the best way is to let in as many refugees as you can. The next option would be to carve out sections of Syria, put US troops in them, guard them, and make them no-fire safe-zones, with the explicit threat that attack on those areas will be seen…

You can’t win a war by bombing (or by drone strike, for that matter). Bombing is how you soften a position for occupation by ground troops. This will piss off some Syrians, let Trump act like he was strong and decisive because he used military force and blew some stuff up, and it will make things tense with Russia. Or…

Russia got more warning about these airstrikes than did Congress. Russia’s Syrian interests are Assad in power, but weakened to the point where he has to rely on them. Eliminating a Syrian air base without damaging Russian materiel or personnel is a win for them, especially since they can turn around and say, “Friend.…

I got that, especially after reading the post script. I had no idea when I first started reading anything about the background. So I was like, “Wow. They must have had some really terrible coverage of her back in the day...” And then... Man. Just. If you know that and can read between the lines, I’m surprised she gave…

Exactly. This is that same nonsense as people who “apologize” by saying, “I’m sorry you were offended.” No. That’s the wrong definition of “sorry” there. That means, “My condolences on the fact that your feelings were hurt.” It’s also a passive blaming of the person who was wronged. In this case, that “given her…

I went into the movie fine with Johansson being the Major, by the time I left it seemed stupid that she wasn’t Japanese

Kinja wouldn’t let me edit my reply, so...

Maybe GitS didn’t do as well at the box office because it was a white actress. Personally, I doubt that. At least, not as a direct “I’m not going to see it because the Major is meant to be Asian,” boycott. There might be an effect from a bunch of critics panning it for the whitewash, thus leading to some poor reviews…

Yeah. Let’s count how the bring up the casting issue...

Pence shouldn’t have dinner with any underling, one on one. It makes it look like favoritism If that is a venue where someone can get face time with the boss and improve their position and chances for promotion, he’s being a jerk by using a flimsy excuse to hold women who work for him back.

Sure, although there’s evidence that suggests that a portion of that had to do with some targeted social engineering on the part of Russia. That’s a part of what’s being investigated by Congress right now (no matter how they drag their feet). On the other hand, fewer of the general electorate identify as Republicans…

Given how close the margins were, anything you’d like to point to can be said to have swung the election. My personal belief is that the biggest thing that swung it was the utter failure by the media to cover this whole Russian angle when it would have been more relevant (like, say, last July and August and September…

If you want to expand the base of the Democratic party, you have to be willing to accept some people from the Republican party. Sometimes, they have to hit rock bottom before they realize that they need to change their affiliation. Trump might be rock bottom for a lot of people.