Ask Me Help Desk - The forerunner of things to come

So don't be surprised if you get more of it!

It will not surprise me in the least.

You knew I threw rocks when you got here, you throw them too, so drop the you're always right crap, like you're an innocent victim of the liberal agenda. You are NOT. You have an agenda too! In that you have been consistent in insisting your way is the only way, and while I admit to liking Kool Aid, I have been quite clear in not liking your flavor of Kool Aid. Too much Fire and Brimstone for me. Not enough sugar to make the medicine go down. Only takes a small spoonful for mine, but no amount can take the bad taste and torture of what you are serving away.

what ever happened to Yemen?

have you noticed? Yemen is no longer news? Turkey invaded Syria and Yemen is no longer news and suddenly Syria is no longer news. I know the answer, the US has abandoned the fight and it is no longer news

Paraclete: Saudi Arabia was attacking Yemen and butchering civilians while Obama was in office, same kind of thing that was going on in Syria with John McCain's "Moderate" Rebels (who were actually fundamentalist radicals)…..but the Saudis are horrible military men and are getting their arse's handed to them by a bunch of ragtag guerillas.....Then Saudi Arabia had it Oil Refinery hit by drones: They backed off. The U.S. is trying to back away from the M.E.: It just doesn't have the same attractiveness to us now that we are Oil Independent that it did when we were Oil Dependent. The troops recently sent there are a show but, I think, not much else in terms of combat intentions.

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the US has abandoned the fight and it is no longer news

I view it as we are finally learning to mind our own business. We spend an unsustainable amount on defense trying to defend countries who spend far less of their GDP on their own defense ((such as Australia and the European countries) than we do. I'm all for it. Along with all fed spending, our defense budget must be cut and by more than a little bit. So the rest of the world needs to step up to the plate or plan on losing their own freedom at some point.

Absolutely nothing has changed in Yemen, there is just other stuff taking up the news. Like impeaching the dufus, The IG report, saying no spying of the dufus just getting his rogue sycophants, and passing the NAFTA II trade deal with more worker protections with little else changing.

No, nothing changing in the Yemen: Yemen was a victim of Obama's Arab Spring initiative, which is responsible for killing over a million people at this point....only thing happening in Yemen is that Saudi Arabia, a supposed U.S. ally that keeps sending people over to the U.S. and killing U.S. citizens, is getting the hell beat out of its troops by some sandal wearing guerillas.

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Originally Posted by jlisenbe

I view it as we are finally learning to mind our own business. We spend an unsustainable amount on defense trying to defend countries who spend far less of their GDP on their own defense ((such as Australia and the European countries) than we do. I'm all for it. Along with all fed spending, our defense budget must be cut and by more than a little bit. So the rest of the world needs to step up to the plate or plan on losing their own freedom at some point.

And some people have big mouths, don't include us in your Trump based rant. I didn't see any americans when Timor Leste needed support for freedom. Australia does a lot more than your so called allies and our expenditure is appropriate and we have big defense contracts, Australia's military expenditure is ranked twelfth in the world which matches its economic status

Now Clete let the loonies enjoy themselves while they can with their delusions of superiority and granduer.

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And some people have big mouths, don't include us in your Trump based rant. I didn't see any americans when Timor Leste needed support for freedom. Australia does a lot more than your so called allies and our expenditure is appropriate and we have big defense contracts, Australia's military expenditure is ranked twelfth in the world which matches its economic status

My comment was not intended to be a knock against Australia. I, like most other Americans, consider them to be a valued ally. But when you say, "Our expenditure is appropriate," that's what everyone wants to say. Well, that's fine with me. You spend 1.9% of GDP on defense. We spend 3.2%. That's OK with me as well. I just want to see us cut our defense spending substantially and just tell everyone else, including the Aussies, that they better get ready to defend themselves if need be because we are finished with being the world's policeman.

Trump based rant? I never mentioned Trump. If you knew what you are talking about, and you don't, then you would know that Trump has increased defense spending substantially, just the opposite of what I'd prefer.

And yes, perhaps you can, by yourselves, undertake the rigorous and demanding task of doing whatever needs to be done to support the vast territory of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste with its population of ONE million. If you can take care of that by yourself, I guess we'll try to continue to help take care of the remaining 99.999% of the world.

Tal, your "loonies" comment gets old. As I often say, it's the last desperate strategy of someone with nothing useful or informative to say. In fact, coming from you, it's a real compliment. Anytime a Trump-hating lib thinks I'm loony, then I know I'm on the right course.

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Originally Posted by jlisenbe

My comment was not intended to be a knock against Australia. I, like most other Americans, consider them to be a valued ally. But when you say, "Our expenditure is appropriate," that's what everyone wants to say. Well, that's fine with me. You spend 1.9% of GDP on defense. We spend 3.2%. That's OK with me as well. I just want to see us cut our defense spending substantially and just tell everyone else, including the Aussies, that they better get ready to defend themselves if need be because we are finished with being the world's policeman.

Trump based rant? I never mentioned Trump. If you knew what you are talking about, and you don't, then you would know that Trump has increased defense spending substantially, just the opposite of what I'd prefer.

And yes, perhaps you can, by yourselves, undertake the rigorous and demanding task of doing whatever needs to be done to support the vast territory of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste with its population of ONE million. If you can take care of that by yourself, I guess we'll try to continue to help take care of the remaining 99.999% of the world.

Tal, your "loonies" comment gets old. As I often say, it's the last desperate strategy of someone with nothing useful or informative to say. In fact, coming from you, it's a real compliment. Anytime a Trump-hating lib thinks I'm loony, then I know I'm on the right course.

Trump based rant, let me put it to you this way, in demanding we spend more you are channeling your inner Trump, our industries have been decimated by the multinational, read american, withdrawal of manufacturing capacity from my nation. You now disingenuously demand we spend more, and who would benefit, our industries or yours? We cannot afford a fleet of aircraft carriers, which China is ramping up its defense to protect itself from. But what we also know is that such fleets are as much dinosaurs in the twenty-first century as the battleships were in the twentieth. If we had an army of hundreds of thousands our expenditure would reflect yours but what would we do with them as waging war is not our primary policy?

Nations in our part of the world don't tend to be over populated, but we would just as much move to defend larger nations as we have done in the past, we lost many in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, so don't denigrate what we do. You speak of me not knowing what I am talking about, but actually, it is you who are talking out of that place where the sun don't shine. Googling statistics doesn't tell you anything about what we do and our capability

We helped to free Timor-Leste from the tyranny of Indonesia, what did you do? We may yet have to free west Papua from that same tyranny. Why don't you tell the tribesmen of that part of the world to defend themselves. I doubt you know they exist. McArthur certainly didn't in WWII

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in demanding we spend more you are channeling your inner Trump,

I've already said I don't care what you spend. My concern is for the United States. We are stupidly borrowing money by the boatload. Something has to give. You have the right to spend whatever amount you want, but you don't have the right to count on us making up the difference.

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we lost many in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam,

Australia has a history of valor. No one is questioning that, but when you bring up East Timor like it was some kind of historic military intervention, you are exaggerating greatly.

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it is you who are talking out of that place where the sun don't shine. Googling statistics doesn't tell you anything about what we do and our capability

Kind of like you did when you said your defense spending was 12th in the world? When people don't like the truth, they start the old, tired strategy of name calling. You can compare notes with Tal.

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We helped to free Timor-Leste from the tyranny of Indonesia, what did you do?

What did we do? Really??? Well, let's see. We led the coalition that reclaimed the independence of Kuwait. We destroyed Hussein's regime in Iraq. We have almost single-handedly restrained the madness of N. Korea and Iran. We have, again almost single-handedly, preserved the existence of Israel. We are currently preserving the liberty of The Ukraine against the aggression of Russia. We have destroyed much of the extreme Muslim terrorist elements.

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Originally Posted by jlisenbe

I've already said I don't care what you spend. My concern is for the United States. We are stupidly borrowing money by the boatload. Something has to give. You have the right to spend whatever amount you want, but you don't have the right to count on us making up the difference.

Let be ask you, how did that start? When did we ask you to borrow money to defend us. When did we ask you to create bases in Australia? to bring your troops here? In WWII we were a convenient staging area, in the Vietnam area a convenient R&R destination, right now we are a convenient place for listening stations. We are aware that we cannot take on China alone, but we don't need to, since we haven't picked a fight with them, so that difference you speak of is only necessary because of your foreign policy.

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Australia has a history of valor. No one is questioning that, but when you bring up East Timor like it was some kind of historic military intervention, you are exaggerating greatly.

our intervention was belated we should have been there in 1975, but again I ask you, what did you do when the Indonesians marched in

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What did we do? Really??? Well, let's see. We led the coalition that reclaimed the independence of Kuwait. We destroyed Hussein's regime in Iraq. We have almost single-handedly restrained the madness of N. Korea and Iran. We have, again almost single-handedly, preserved the existence of Israel. We are currently preserving the liberty of The Ukraine against the aggression of Russia. We have destroyed much of the extreme Muslim terrorist elements.

That has nothing to do with the question I asked. You really should look behind some of the history in those conflicts

Leave it to the wingers to tell you how great they are and how much they have done for you and wonder why you aren't more gratefull for their generosity. The truth is an insult and how dare you question their version of ...anything. That's why they love the dufus! He does that crazy stuff they like as no other can and can spin yarns like nobody else ever will.

I've never seen them so happy!

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Let be ask you, how did that start? When did we ask you to borrow money to defend us. When did we ask you to create bases in Australia? to bring your troops here? In WWII we were a convenient staging area, in the Vietnam area a convenient R&R destination, right now we are a convenient place for listening stations. We are aware that we cannot take on China alone, but we don't need to, since we haven't picked a fight with them, so that difference you speak of is only necessary because of your foreign policy.

And I'll say it again. I don't care how much you do/don't spend on your own security. I want a balanced budget here. To do that, spending must be cut in every area.

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our intervention was belated we should have been there in 1975, but again I ask you, what did you do when the Indonesians marched in

We did what we should have done. We let someone else handle it, and that someone else seems largely to have been the U.N.

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That has nothing to do with the question I asked.

Oh? This was your question. "We helped to free Timor-Leste from the tyranny of Indonesia, what did you do?" I was telling you what we did.

Is this the Australian assistance you were referring to? "It was revealed in 2013 that the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) planted listening devices to listen to the East Timorese government during negotiations over the Greater Sunrise oil and gasfields. This is known as the Australia–East Timor spying scandal." Perhaps your motives were not quite so pure as you portrayed them???

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Originally Posted by jlisenbe

And I'll say it again. I don't care how much you do/don't spend on your own security. I want a balanced budget here. To do that, spending must be cut in every area.

Then you should look at our methods, our budget is balanced with a 2% military spend

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We did what we should have done. We let someone else handle it, and that someone else seems largely to have been the U.N.

don't talk to me about toothless tigers, they need enforcers you know

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Is this the Australian assistance you were referring to? "It was revealed in 2013 that the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) planted listening devices to listen to the East Timorese government during negotiations over the Greater Sunrise oil and gasfields. This is known as the Australia–East Timor spying scandal." Perhaps your motives were not quite so pure as you portrayed them???

when we use US business methods you berate us for it, where did we learn duplicity, do you think?

You probably don't have business practices like this. That's just a few companies of the thousands in America. LEGAL stealing is the term that fits. I think those cuts start with the tax code to be honest.

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Originally Posted by talaniman

You probably don't have business practices like this. That's just a few companies of the thousands in America. LEGAL stealing is the term that fits. I think those cuts start with the tax code to be honest.

We have them here, the same companies being prosecuted for tax evasion

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Then you should look at our methods, our budget is balanced with a 2% military spend

I applaud you for that. I want us to do the same thing, which means many other countries will have to spend more or prepare to be at risk.

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when we use US business methods you berate us for it, where did we learn duplicity, do you think?

It must be wonderful in your fantasy world where nothing is ever your responsibility

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Originally Posted by jlisenbe

I applaud you for that. I want us to do the same thing, which means many other countries will have to spend more or prepare to be at risk.

It must be wonderful in your fantasy world where nothing is ever your responsibility

Didn't you know this land is called OZ. When you take the blame for climate change we will look to our responsibility

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When you take the blame for climate change we will look to our responsibility

You mean the climate change you claim that CO2 is not responsible for?

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Originally Posted by jlisenbe

You mean the climate change you claim that CO2 is not responsible for?

I was just pointing out the idiocy of your position

You point out the idiocy of my position by making an appeal to climate change which you say in not man-made, and which I have commented very little about? Sounds to me like you need to look to yourself first.

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Originally Posted by jlisenbe

You point out the idiocy of my position by making an appeal to climate change which you say in not man-made, and which I have commented very little about? Sounds to me like you need to look to yourself first.

I make as much sense as you do

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I make as much sense as you do

Since you consider my position "idiotic", then is this an admission that yours is likewise???

I admit nothing, I comment

I don't see where haggling over a few bucks solves anything at all when the whole point is cooperation whether you can afford it or not at the time. The dufus comes in like a slum lord and hollers mo'money, without saying how he is going to fix stuff, or make it better while busting treaties and raising a stink, as he makes up stuff to take credit for.

Accomplishments NADA!

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Originally Posted by talaniman

Accomplishments NADA!

I think the problem is belief Tal, you didn't believe him when he said

Build a Wall
Reduce Taxes
Repeal Obamacare
Withdraw from unfair treaties
Bring the troops home
Put America first

and what has he done?

well politics is the art of the possible;

So more wall has been built
The draconian tax of Obamacare is no more
Taxes have been reduced
Treaties have been torn up
Troops have been withdrawn
Tariffs have been imposed on China

I think you should take off your rose coloured glasses, only a Syth deals in absolutes

So more wall has been built-A LIE, he has built no wall just repaired what existed.
The draconian tax of Obamacare is no more-Another LIE repubs have failed repeatedly at repealing it, or dismantling it.
Taxes have been reduced- Every repub president does that. EASY PEASY.
Treaties have been torn up-Which has accomplished exactly what?
Troops have been withdrawn-How many where and what for?
Tariffs have been imposed on China-Putting farmers on welfare was a brilliant move and I'm sure as they lose those farms they will be grateful.

Like I said NADA, unless you count chaos, deceit, and misery as an accomplishment. Whose wearing those rose colored glasses?

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Originally Posted by talaniman

So more wall has been built-A LIE, he has built no wall just repaired what existed.
The draconian tax of Obamacare is no more-Another LIE repubs have failed repeatedly at repealing it, or dismantling it.
Taxes have been reduced- Every repub president does that. EASY PEASY.
Treaties have been torn up-Which has accomplished exactly what?
Troops have been withdrawn-How many where and what for?
Tariffs have been imposed on China-Putting farmers on welfare was a brilliant move and I'm sure as they lose those farms they will be grateful.

Like I said NADA, unless you count chaos, deceit, and misery as an accomplishment. Whose wearing those rose colored glasses?

Y

Youu believe what you want, but things are different, and only history can tell you what has actually been accomplished.

You know my position on tariffs and the rest of it, well you should try bi-partisanship some time. One thing we learned years ago, consensus can be a powerful tool

Things would work better for us if we did work together, but this is as polarized as I've ever seen. Maybe that's what we have now is another CIVIL(?) war. In that case hold your hats folks.

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this is as polarized as I've ever seen.

I would agree with that.

Talaniman: NEWS FLASH: American Farmers have been on Welfare for decades! It was called the Allotment System. Farmers were told HOW MUCH OF WHAT THEY COULD PLANT and THEY WERE PAID TO LET LAND LIE FALLOW. Government took control of Farming a long time ago, and they are very AUTHORITARIAN about it.....In effect, the Government set out to take control of Farming years ago and they have accomplished that end.

Only a rightie could conflate crop rotation and agricultural policies in place for decades with the welfare they endure today because of trade policies.

As I understand it, any farmer can simply opt out of the program by not accepting the subsidies.

I have not checked and you may be correct and if so is that a good business practice? That there are few who opt out to my knowledge can lead you to believe they don't mind accepting the subsidies and the conditions that go with it. Is that also what you have found?

I really don't know how "invasive" that program currently is. It was started during the Great Depression when the prices of cotton and wheat had fallen into the basement.

Talaniman & jlisenbe: This farm subsidy stuff is akin to CRACK and once a farmer takes a hit, he's hooked! Like I said: Its Farmer Welfare, really no other word can make it smell any better: its like putting lipstick on a pig! SOCIALISM FOR FARMERS.....When they started enforcing the allotment programs on our farm, based off a bad drought year, no less, which meant we could not produce ANY MORE TONNAGE than we did in that poor growing year, Daddy told them to go to hell and sold his allotments to neighbor farmers and we went full-tilt into beef cattle, exclusively.

Maybe your dad was right, I don't know but farmers are going bankrupt and may be forced to sell and do something else for a living. No doubt some rich guys will eventually acquire the abandoned lands at a cut rate discount in the near future. The banks will lose nothing. Never do.