Harming the Iranian economy and “having an impact” are not the same thing. There’s no evidence sanctions will change Iran’s behavior, and quite a bit of evidence that they will reinforce the regime. The hardliners are doing better, Rouhani is weaker, the IRGC thrives when sanctions harm legitimate businesses that are…

This is a normal pre-planned ship movement that Bolton is trying to spin as pressure on Iran. It’s actually incredibly pathetic. The Trump administration has no real results from their “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran and from tearing up the JCPOA, and so they’re trying to distract by playing macho.

I try to keep myself from “old man yells at cloud” takes on music, cause I’m definitely prone to them (though not that old) but I still think stuff like this is pretty amusing as long as you don’t take it too seriously. I’ve hated pretty much every pop/pop-rock act since 2004, especially the ones that got labeled as…

This guy got all of Jabotinksy’s fascism without any of his intelligence. Which pretty much puts him in line with the Israeli far-right he’s so close to.

There’s definitely that, though I also suspect Trump’s advisers buy into the theory that Biden could pull white support away from Trump, and pretty much all he has is white support. It’s not clear he can win with the support he has now, but if he sheds a few percentage points of non-college whites he’d be even worse…

You know, I don’t want either of them to win, but there is some utility to a lot of this primary fighting. Biden makes Trump crazy for some reason, and there’s some evidence Trump’s crazy behavior does hurt him outside his base. Sanders has pushed the party forward and helped create real energy, though in actual…

I did a genetic health test when doing one of those mostly pointless ancestry ones, since I’ve already got some health issues and other stuff runs in my family. One random bit of information? I’ve got the variation of a gene that a lot of top athletes have. It has something to do with muscle mass. I am not, I should…

This is literally insane. The rhetoric is naked 1920 racism, this all hinges on the widely discredited and debunked “Clash of Civilizations”, which even Huntington has walked back or revised pretty significantly, and this person is in a significant position of authority.

I don’t watch CNN.

Thank you for so clearly proving my point. You two have discredited yourselves so quickly. It’s very satisfying to watch.

I’ll put my knowledge base up against yours any day of the week you contemptible troll. 

Just like the other one, the minute your meager knowledge fails you turn into another smarmy troll and start tossing out smears. 

That person and their allies here have more than enough comments here illustrating that my categorization was precisely on the mark. So much strange apologia for the Maduro regime while they’ve literally sent the military to target protesters. If you want to defend them, it’s your folly. 

Wait? He has a nose ring? Gods, I almost want to take mine out now...

I’m not blind. This thread is about Venezuela, hence I’m talking about the topic. My record of comments is pretty consistent on human rights abuses within US borders. This is the second bad faith troll comment you’ve left trying to smear me as not caring about rights issues within the US. I will not respond to a…

You are incredibly stupid and dishonest. Thank you for so clearly illustrating that to anyone who reads this.

US troops at the border are a complete waste of time and money and was done as a bit of propaganda, but US troops also weren’t targeting civilians with live fire, so that’s not really a 1-to-1 comparison. I assume you’re referring to the tear gas event? That was the Border Patrol not military, and it was a pointless…

Quod erat demonstrandrum. Do you really think this demonstrates you are knowledgeable? All you’ve done here is calling me a Trump supporter, which is false, and accuse me of supporting the Iraq war, which is also false.

The countries aligned with Maduro include; Cuba, Iran, China, Russia, Turkey, Nicaragua, and Bolivia. Quite a few of those are well known systemic human rights abusers and their interest in propping up Maduro stems in a large part from their authoritarian character. So do you really think that is a laudable list, or…

The recognition of a significant number of international states is legitimacy. Disputed, yes, as Maduro has supporting states as well. Both have questionable legitimacy. Acting as if one is inherently and legally sound and the other not is not factual.