Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

[Bob Butler]

It would be more accurate to say that Biden isn't fully in control of his own presidency and ends up doing things that the far left wing of the Democratic Party push.

It might be more accurate to say he has bought into the far left wing policies, at least if Warren and Sanders are the standard. Obama didn't, trying to buy GOP votes and watering stuff down and ending up with nothing. Biden is instead intending to push a bunch of stuff at once with a very narrow majority, trying to go around the Republican delay and obstruction. I'm not sure he can do a lot with the filibuster still in place, but if the Republicans are obvious about fighting everything, about fighting the most popular bills, they will provide an excuse for the filibuster to go.

[Bob Butler]

More and more Americans are preferring Iran over Saudi Arabia, and it's not because of Democrat vs. Republican politics. Twenty years after 9/11, they are catching on the fact that the vast majority of Islamist terrorist attacks (including virtually every incident that has occurred on our soil since the 1993 WTC bombing) can be traced back to Saudi Arabia and not Iran. They are thus concluding that Saudi Arabia was the greater evil all along and must be treated as such going forward.

One element is that Iran and Saudi Arabia were both shaped by colonialism, giving the elite a lot of power in exchange for getting a lot of oil out of it. The Shah was just more clumsy about it, provoking a revolution sooner and shaping the hostile relationship with the west.

These days it is Saudi Arabia which is beginning to see their privileged position resisted and memories of the Shah’s time are fading. The American people are just a bit more sympathetic with the locals, less willing to look the other way to get cheap oil.

Just one element…

I'm not sure of your accreditation of the blame. Bin Ladin disliked the Saudi royals. The US has long been an ally of the Saudi royals. The shift in sympathies are recent and true, but perhaps not that recent.

[DaKardii]

I'm not sure of your accreditation of the blame. Bin Ladin disliked the Saudi royals. The US has long been an ally of the Saudi royals. The shift in sympathies are recent and true, but perhaps not that recent.

Saudi Arabia has been playing both sides in the so-called "War on Terror" from the beginning.

[John]

** 05-Feb-2021 World View: Colonialism

> One element is that Iran and Saudi Arabia were both shaped by
> colonialism, giving the elite a lot of power in exchange for
> getting a lot of oil out of it. The Shah was just more clumsy
> about it, provoking a revolution sooner and shaping the hostile
> relationship with the west.

I spent a long time writing a book on the history of Iran and Islam,
and this bears no relationship to anything that happened.

I suggest that you invest a few bucks in my book and read it.

John Xenakis is author of: "World View: Iran's Struggle for Supremacy
-- Tehran's Obsession to Redraw the Map of the Middle East"
(Generational Theory Book Series, Book 1) Paperback: 153 pages, over
100 source references, $7.00
https://www.amazon.com/World-View-Supre ... 732738610/

[Bob Butler]

I spent a long time writing a book on the history of Iran and Islam,and this bears no relationship to anything that happened.

I suggest that you invest a few bucks in my book and read it.

Colonialism and the oil bears no relationship to anything that happened? This just shows how your lack of understanding of motivations is not limited to blue America. Reading a book that does not think this is important would be absurd. You just do not understand what you do not feel like understanding.

[John]

** 05-Feb-2021 World View: Donald Duck

> Colonialism and the oil bears no relationship to anything that
> happened? This just shows how your lack of understanding of
> motivations is not limited to blue America. Reading a book that
> does not think this is important would be absurd. You just do not
> understand what you do not feel like understanding.

You're absolutely right that you reading a book is absurd, unless it
has a lot of pictures. Here's one about Donald Duck in ancient
Persia:

• Donald Duck in Persia

You should invest a little money and get a copy of that. You should
have an easier time understanding that.

[Bob Butler]

Yep. Censorship and name calling are your primary response to criticism. You claim that the west did not indulge in colonialism, was not interested in the oil? Obviously incorrect. You are totally incapable of defending your position.

[Bob Butler]

John's perspective comes from the Industrial Age and tribal thinking. The Middle East is not a horrible place for that, especially if you are not familiar with the concepts. He is weaker on how the leaders and elites steer things as well as the motivations of the majority of Americans. The leaders and elites will try to optimize power and wealth, and sometimes in clinging to power will antagonize the people into revolting. He has a xenophobic attitude towards the blue, tending to demonize. Americans now are more likely to sympathize with the locals that go for the cheap oil.

In order to understand a problem, you have to look at it from all relevant perspectives. If you are focused on one narrow perspective to the exclusion of all others, your view of things get out of kilter. John just isn't good at seeing many perspectives, but shifts into a juvenile insulting behavior if other angles are pointed out.

[Bob Butler]

Gonna have to agree with anyone who said the Boomers fucked up the whole shitshow. Here's a great vid of Boomer asshats in action.

I see a lot of folks who blame all boomers for half the boomer's action. The generation is split between the red and the blue, with signature issues and times related to each half. You seem to be speaking of the blue boomers who came of age with the hippies and the early part of the awakening. There are also the reactive red boomers who did not like all the changes of the time and tried to lock it down, fight to bring back the old, of late to make America great again. The two halves of the generation were and remain equal, opposite and disliked by the other half.

I am a bit more accustomed to blue folks ranting about the red, but it seems to go both ways. It slants more the other way in the more blue web sites. But it's not just the one generation. The boomers just set the pattern, but the subsequent generations got as much into the red blue pattern as the boomers did.

[Bob Butler]

In the future, any flame posts targeting DaKardii should be posted directly in DaKardii's Topic. Thank you.

While everyone is at it, you can dump flame post directed at me in the ‘A place to dump bad posts’ thread. Posts based on fact and logic would be fine here.