Saudi Arabia ... They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much. I make a lot of money from them. They buy all sorts of my stuff. All kinds of toys from Trump. They pay me millions and hundred of millions.

There are a lot of killers. You think our country's so innocent?

- your president

Its even worse than that.It seems he wants to add another body to the total.

Trump administration's consideration of handing a Turkish exile residing in the U.S. to Turkey for certain persecution in a bid to ease pressure on Saudi Arabia over the murder another U.S. resident, Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump aims to placate Turkey to cover Saudis on Khashoggi killing

He's giving a whole new meaning to the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Pardon, that rascal.

President Trump on Wednesday warned members of the anti-fascist movement, commonly referred to as "antifa," that opposition to them could be "tougher" and "much more violent" if their critics decide to "mobilize."

"They better hope that the opposition to antifa decides not to mobilize,” Trump told the conservative outlet The Daily Caller in an interview. "Because if they do, they’re much tougher. Much stronger. Potentially much more violent."

"And antifa’s going to be in big trouble," the president continued. "But so far they haven’t done that and that’s a good thing."

I wonder if the righties realize that that anti-fascist was why we fought WWII

The Anti-Defamation League describes the antifa ideology as "rooted in the assumption that the Nazi party would never have been able to come to power in Germany if people had more aggressively fought them in the streets in the 1920s and 30s."

There are no words...

Trumpy Bear Official Commercial

Ha!
Ha Ha!
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!
Waaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhgggggggg!!!!!!

Oh fuck, you made my day! I love Old Mate, the veteran...It really hits home for the old digger, doesn't it?

That is pants-down awesome! And deeply, deeply weird. Is that on actual TV, or is it just some sad shit drifting around on Youtube? If it's on real TV then I'm calling it; western civilisation is over.

https://adage.com/article/media/trumpy-bear-stuffed-animal-grown-ups/311033/
Its run adds on TV, though I've only seen them, at the super cheap times like between reruns at 3 in the mourning.

"Perhaps most problematic for Khashoggi were his connections to an organization funded by Saudi Arabia’s regional nemesis, Qatar. Text messages between Khashoggi and an executive at Qatar Foundation International show that the executive, Maggie Mitchell Salem, at times shaped the columns he submitted to The Washington Post, proposing topics, drafting material and prodding him to take a harder line against the Saudi government."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/jamal-khashoggis-final-months-an-exile-in-the-long-shadow-of-saudi-arabia/2018/12/21/d6fc68c2-0476-11e9-b6a9-0aa5c2fcc9e4_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9d2d8e336702

You can't possibly believe this shit you spout...and once again I should point out the CIA is an AMERICAN agency working for us. Should be just one more reason to see him behind bars...you dolt.

If he can't possibly believe the shit he spouts, why bother replying to it?

See there is the other end of the stick. He has replied again this time exposing his fever dreams that the CIA doesn't work for us it is the Deep State working against the new Reich...that doesn't need comment.

I'm sorry, but really, who cares?

Maybe you can't see the organized effort to muddy the water with lies attacks on the press or maybe you don't think it is important...me I think it is the most important thing that is happening in our Republic. There is such a thing is objective truth and it is absolutely the most important thing we have in a democracy and it is under attack.

Now you can hide from that fact or say fuck no... I chose fuck no.

Arguing with people who troll you on the internet does not achieve that.

It puts up a counter narrative for whoever might read it. Ignoring it leaves the false narrative to stand...and it is kinda the entire purpose of a site like this to see all points of view...if that is not why you come here...why do you?

It occurs to me that you are trolling me, in a slightly more subtle way.

I was thinking the same about you.. I believe what I am saying so...

Any earnest response you provide to SE trolls is wasted because the trolls don't care and most everyone else here agrees already, and so doesn't care either. If you want to argue with agitators, there may be places in the world that would benefit, but not here. I'm bored with this, and I wish I hadn't broken my rule not ignore troll threads. It was only because ooo[......7 upmodded your original comment, so I could read it.

and most everyone else here agrees already

There is where I disagree. That is why people come to a politics thread...and if you let bullshit stand it can be taken for fact.

And I have made it a personal requirement that when I see somebody trying to carry on a lie like "We are being invaded"..."The Press are the enemy of the people"...."The Deep state", or any of the patent lies that the would be authoritarian regime would use to tear down long held truths and norms...I call bullshit and downvoting it doesn't do that...that just carries on the narrative that they are victims.

People go to political threads to participate in low risk, ritualized, simulated political activism. They're like the karaoke of politics.

I've heard similar arguments from folks deadset on ressurecting Steve Bannon. Because it's better to see him taken down in public and full view instead of fading away. Brilliant idea.

In another setting these heroes of virtue and justice would just install Bannon in a phylactery so good can always triumph over evil.

The folks thirsty to debate Bannon do it for publicity and to burnish their own reputation. You can't have a hero without a foe, and what better foe than Bannon. It's practically a canned hunt. Ditto troll hunting. It's less about taking out the trash and more about flexing and creating a spectacle. It just has a self righteous veneer, so it seems semi normal. But if instead of trolls someone was instead writing back sternly worded letters to junk mail senders you would start getting concerned.

to debate Bannon

You don't have to debate to confront the lies.

You don't have to grandstand either. It's your time, you spend it however you want, but its a dick move to get an attitude when someone gives you a look of disgust for masturbating in public.

*aggressively schlicking* "I'm confronting fascism!" *Gives chase* "Thank me for my service!"

If you had downmodded his dumbass and people didn't upmod you, his inherited downmod would have kept his comment below most users' thresholds. Matter of fact, most people don't check downmodded comments. But because people love fucking drama, when someone replies to a downmodded comment (YOU) other people are more likely to look at the downmodded comment.

Downmodded comments you reply to get almost 10x as many views as downmodded comments that people don't reply to.

You help them spread their bullshit.

People don't like other people telling them what they can read, and what they can't read. They never have, and they never will.

Why do you work on this platform if you don't want people to speak..if your truth is so weak it won't stand up to examination and confrontation it's not much of a truth.

You help them spread their bullshit

No, I put a bright red bullshit label on it. Censorship is not a way to combat lies and propaganda sunlight is. See now you have forced me to upvote Numbers...feels icky.

You increase the number of people that see their message. That's not up for debate. That's a fucking fact.

You mean that people who didn't read the first comment snuck in to view the second...wow. That is a fucking fantasy.

Most people don't fucking view the first comment if it doesn't have a reply. How are you not getting that? You reply, you increase their views.

First of all, I don't believe it. Downvoting if anything increases my curiosity...what the hell did they say this time. Think it's wrong to make he comment fade until it reaches a threshold...still me I would have to look.

Secondly these are not Fishes and #'s private thoughts. They get this from the feaver swamp and I for one think it is a good thing to keep up on...and hearing it here is better than going on Breitbart or Drudge that shit hurte my head.

Third I doubt they go anywhere else somebody counters their dilsiouns. exposing something to daylight has never been a bad thing.

Dude, I have a fucking metrics system. I watch it happen in real time. Why are you acting like you have some grand insight into how my own fucking site runs? You're not arguing against my opinion, you are arguing against my actual logs.

THIS IS A FUCKING FACT: YOU REPLYING TO TROLLS INCREASE THE VIEWS OF THEIR MESSAGE.

To be fair, bbq had no way of knowing at the time whether your statements about people's comment viewing habits were based on rigorous statistical analysis or gut feelings and guesswork.

And even now that you're claiming they're based on a metrics system, I don't see any particular reason to believe you. Anyone can call anything a fact and just typing the word in all caps with a "fucking" in front of it isn't the same as providing evidence.

I'm not saying you *don't* have data to back your claims, but obviously you're not going to share it with us, and your longstanding habit of launching into a "I'M PRIVY TO SECRET KNOWLEDGE YOU MERE MORTALS COULD NEVER COMPREHEND" two-bit wannabe cult leader rant every time an argument doesn't go your way or someone questions your alleged Grand Plan for SE and beyond (remember when you were gonna take over the world with Disney quizzes or whatever?) doesn't exactly inspire people to take anything you say at face value.

Which is of course why you don't like bbq acting like he has some grand insight into how your site runs: acting like you have some grand insight into *everything* is *your* schtick and you don't want anyone horning in on your action.

I still don't give a shit what you think about this. I think I've made it pretty clear that my opinion of your opinion on these matters have dropped through the floor. Whether it's defending norok, numbers, Taxman, whatever. You even eventually dropped your sub because holding that shit over my head didn't change my mind? Fine with me. I didn't let norok buy me off, what makes you think I'm gonna let you do it?

Hey remember when the quiz thing was essentially an organized brigading of social media and facebook's algorithms... geez why does that technique sound so familiar?

You two might want to get a room instead of doing this in front of the kids.

I can so see Ferrell as the pathologist with the bone saw recommending earbuds to his fellow psychopaths. Teaching it the way his daddy did and his daddy ...

Horse shit. We've argued about all kinds of shit over the years and I never once threatened to yank my sub over it. I was happy to keep paying my $20 a month *even though* the site was run by a delusional charlatan because I felt that this once great community deserved a quiet place to live out its final years in comfort. I only canceled my sub -- without a word to anyone, you'll note -- when your administrative decisions crossed a line to where I could no longer consider supporting the site an ethical use of my resources.

If I had wanted to "buy you off" or "hold shit over your head" or whatever, don't you think I would have posted about it, come up with a list of demands, tried to get other people to cancel, and all that shit, rather than just quietly unsubscribing without kicking up a fuss?

I remember how the quiz thing was supposed to be you using the magical guru superpowers you've never shown any evidence of actually possessing to go viral and drive all kinds of traffic to SE. How's that working out for you?

This took me one search to find. It may not have come up in our discussions, but there have been a number of times where you've said similar things while I was discussing with others how I was going to handle the trolls.

The quiz site is down until I can update the codebase, which probably won't be anytime soon, but I now have 1817 facebook pages. It's a bit lower than earlier this year because I got into some DMCA issues which required some culling. My favorite page is a newer anime meme page I just made a couple months ago and reached 20,610 facebook users in the past week, with 6500 post engagements. So I'm pretty happy with it. Not that it's any of your business.

I don't think it's unreasonable for a customer to tell you what might cost you their business, especially when it's something you've already decided not to do. Like, if you ran a burger joint and told me you'd decided against replacing the beef with ground kitten, it's hardly an act of horrible extortion for me to say, "good, then I won't have to stop eating here."

LOL, the thing that never happened is now totally not unreasonable. Sure, and my point still stands. Guy who constantly plays devil's advocate for the people who contribute to all the shit driving the site into the ground finally drops his sub because he doesn't like how I'm handling things? That doesn't make much of a difference to me. Our options are ultimately that the site runs below the number of subscribers that make it worth it for me and I pull the plug, it continues driving itself so deep into shithole territory that I have to pull the plug, or it actually pulls its head out of its collective ass and tries to moderate its content. But in addition to all my other ideas you love shitting on, I've spent almost 7 years now begging for the moderation thing to happen, and I wouldn't hold my breath for that if I were you.

The thing that never happened was me *threatening* to cancel my sub. "Do X or I'll quit" is a threat, "I'll pay for X but not Y" is customer feedback.

And since that's not what I said happened either, I guess we're in agreement.

Please tell me how your metrics shows you which comments I read...I call bullshit.

If you are saying that people click where there are comments well no shit that is why we are all here to see what other people think.

My metrics tell me when people click on individual comments which are required for people to view comments that run below their threshold. And given that the default threshold is -1 and less than 10% of our user base has changed that default, that means the only way people can see the content of comments scored -2 and below are to click them.

If I actually had the bandwidth and server resources I could just as easily do what facebook and all the other big sites do and run heatmap polling to track how long you spend with each comment visible on your page and record that. This isn't rocket science, it's not SECRET KNOWLEDGE; It's just website administration.

People love drama?

Wtf? When did we become facebook??

Like two million years ago?