I said from the start that Trump is too dumb to actually create a fascist state.

I don't think it was wholly unneeded, since McConnel was largely pulling the strings on the legislative side. I think most of the resistance you describe is made up by conservatives to justify Trump's incompetence though. The deep state that conservatives have created in their mind are mostly fictional. It's bureaucrats. and if you're so incompetent you can't even put up nominations lord knows you aren't going to be able to navigate bureaucracy.

I doubt that Mexican law would allow foreigners to exercise sovereign rights on Mexican territory even if its political leadership wanted to strike such a deal.
It would also defeat the purpose of appeasing the open borders activists in the U.S. As soon as there's footage of American soldiers or security pushing away migrants or shooting rubber bullets at Mexico's southern border, the domestic outrage machine would be in full force.
And last but not least, it would leave the U.S. strategically vulnerable to Mexico itself. Say there's a big economic crisis or civil unrest in Mexico and there is a new wave of unauthorized migrants coming from Mexico, what would be the answer?

Like I said: outsourcing as task as vital as the protection of one's territory is asking for trouble, it's a generally bad idea.

Leaving Afghanistan would've been far more popular among the American people than the tax cuts, the border wall, the so-called Muslim ban, etc.



Presidents get credit or blame for what happens on their watch.

Under Obama troop levels in Afghanistan got as high as 100,000. When he left office, they were at 8,400.

So, had Trump come in and immediately planned to withdraw troops, and perhaps got it done in his first or second year, would you credit Obama with the withdraw? I sure wouldn't. Sure, pointing out the context that Obama was winding down the war is fine. Trump was winding down the war. He struck a deal with the Taliban because he wanted us out... a deal any president would've accomplished if they wanted to leave. But he had 4 years and he failed to deliver on leaving. Biden is president now, he could maintain our troop levels, or increase them initially like Obama and Trump did, or he could leave. He's choosing to end the war. In the history books, ending the Afghanistan war will be one of his accomplishments.

This isn't rocket science.

you act like trump hasn't cultivated, radicalised, mobilised, and emboldened a huge crowd of fascists - like that movement didn't culminate in an insurrection attempt directly incited by him. like his followers didn't storm the capitol, trying to overturn a democratic election and murder representatives opposing trump.
you act like his incompetence to fully implement all of his crazy ideas politically makes rejecting them futile, like resisting fascism is only worth doing if you're 100% certain its final stage is inevitable and imminent - neglecting all historic precedence and common sense.

principiis obsta!

This post was edited by fender on Apr 14 2021 07:32am

Once again, we are talking about situation where the Trump administration negotiated a treaty more than a year in advance, planned a drawdown, and set a firm date for withdrawal. If Obama had been a few months from ending the war, or had negotiated an end to the war, Trump would have received credit commensurate with his contributions, which would have been limited.

By your logic, Obama is to blame for the 2009 deficit because it happened on his watch, but of course that's not the case. Context matters. You can try and justify whatever scorekeeping metric you want, but recognize that it's analysis at the level of your average cable news pundit.

biden was one of those who voted for this nonstop war sorry “nation building” nonsense starting with Iraq. Neither Obama or Trump were in national politics when that travesty occurred. Of course the warmongering thug group of swamp demons and their sycophants want to give credit to one of the originators for delaying the planned exit from that mess

you mean like obama made a historic deal with iran, that stopped their entire nuclear program and normalised relations between them and the west, and trump got all the credit for simply by adhering to it.... OH WAIT, that's not what happened and that's not how this works.

you have to distinguish between things like the economy, something a president can only have a long term and indirect influence on by regulating, stimulating, and generally implementing measures that MIGHT have an impact or not - and mid and short term decisions that can be implemented, executed, and resulting in direct consequences in a reasonably short time frame.

trump's anti-interventionism was nothing but a campaign slogan. he had several chances to prove he actually means it, but squandered every single one. he actually escalated with a major faction for absolutely no reason (except his envy and spite towards obama), manoeuvring america to the brink of a major war. even his little present for putin and erdogan, withdrawing US troops from the neutral zone, betraying and abandoning the ONE reliable ally faction the US has in the middle east, did not result in troops "coming home" - he just re-located them to protect oil fields further east, and support the saudi genocide in yemen.

If Trump were to have adhered to the deal, he would have gotten zero credit. That doesn't really rebut anything that I just said.

The United States was never realistically at danger of war with Iran. Iran would be obliterated in such a war, so the decision to engage was entirely with the United States. Biden will unfortunately have to assume responsibility for squandering the American position in hopes of a "quick win" that will in reality exacerbate tensions in the Middle East.

Like I said, Trump gets credit for what he did, just as Obama gets credit for what he did. Trump inherited an Afghan war that was winding down. He chose to increase troop levels, and couldn't figure out how to end the war in 4 years. He then lowered troop levels and struck a diplomatic deal(that didn't include the Afghan government, and it wasn't a treaty) that any warm body in the Oval Office could've gotten. Sure, maybe Trump would've followed through on pulling out in May, but it doesn't matter, because he lost.

At this point I'm just repeating myself. Biden has no obligation to honor the deal Trump struck. That's not the way foreign policy works between administrations. He could maintain the status quo of the Trump presidency, which is to maintain a residual force. He could increase troop levels. He's ending the war, something Trump failed to do.

i can just explain to you how trump's anti-interventionism was nothing but empty campaign slogans. i can just give you examples and facts about what he actually did. i can't understand it for you.

also, just because iran's military is no direct match for america's, doesn't mean trump didn't do everything in his power to escalate tensions with them. in case you need a reminder: north vietnam's military forces were also hopelessly inferior on paper...