# Banana Republic coming soon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 2, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160 "2013-10-02T03:13:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/41 "2013-10-02T20:23:49Z")
He’s the conservative gadfly who mocks the hypocrisies and pretensions of the left. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/42 "2013-10-02T20:24:11Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Well, it is no secret that I play right field here at the Dope, but fair is fair. 🆒 Could you please have a word with Shodan and Clothahump please? They never got the “fair is fair” memo. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/43 "2013-10-02T20:24:28Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I think you’d make a million dollars if you told Alex Jones about this. I think you’d be too late. Six hundred and fifty- **seven** thousand, six hundred and fifty- **eight** thousand . . . ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/44 "2013-10-02T20:25:33Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > He’s the conservative gadfly who mocks the hypocrisies and pretensions of the left. Well, actaully, I never before thought of Obama that way, but, come to think of it . . . ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/45 "2013-10-02T23:34:50Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > So in this scenario, what cheap exportable American product replaces the banana? > [@silenus](#): > > Mormons? 😛 Mormons are already self-exporting. Maybe if we stopped letting them back in… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/46 "2013-10-03T00:38:22Z")
As I said elsewhere, I’m sometimes tempted to see the President call for a general strike/ ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/47 "2013-10-03T01:08:32Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Could you please have a word with Shodan and Clothahump please? They never got the “fair is fair” memo. Well, with **Clothahump** , at least you know he’ll never side with the religious right (IIRC). ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/48 "2013-10-03T01:28:11Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > So, are these the latest Fox News talking points? Well, according to the backdrop graphic on Hannity’s show, it’s “The Obama Shutdown”. Meanwhile, regarding the OP, I haven’t seen a premise this overblown since the time one poster, in all seriousness, asked whether Hillary Clinton would establish a Marxist regime if she were elected President. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/49 "2013-10-03T01:42:54Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > This is silly. The President makes a speech, it’s to members of the armed forces, essentially designed to let them know they’ll still be paid… > > And you call that ‘stirring up the military’? Do you know anything about how the banana republics worked? Down there, stirring up the military was rabble-rousing speeches designed to provide justification for the overthrow of an elected legislature or the execution of opposition leaders. None of this is even remotely close to possibly being thought of as an idea that might sort of be on the table. > > I’d give you the benefit of the doubt but you follow that up with ‘a few bodies will appear.’ You seem to be thinking that the President would start ordering someone (who? the military? CIA? someone else?) to start rounding up Republicans and executing them. That is - indeed - third world stuff. But it’s silly to even suggest it here. To even say that you think it might happen is to confirm to all that you’re not thinking clearly. > > Protip: Seriously, this sort of thing only hurts your side. Dislike the President. Speak out against him. Hell, put up dart boards with he and Pelosi’s pictures on them. That’s all fine. But to posit publicly that the President is planning to use the military to deal a final blow against his opponents just drives away people from your position. It harms your side. > > For heaven’s sake. Think before you believe. "The President makes a speech, it’s to members of the armed forces, essentially designed to let them know they’ll still be paid… And you call that ‘stirring up the military’? No. (See B) A. I don’t like/dislike the President. I don’t care if he mates publicly with Pelosi or my grandparents. Don’t know him, don’t think about him (per se), so, get off of that tack. It’s irrelevant, anyway. B. I didn’t quote the part about the President making assurances of pay to say that he was stirring up the military. For the life of me, I can’t see where anybody in the Western world could even conceive that one would use that to say that a person was stirring anybody up. And for you to think that gives me cause for concern. Did you not read \*\*THEFUCKINGHEADLINE \*\*or the line where Obama said that they _deserve better than a dysfunctional Congress_? When you tell a military that they are being ill served by one of the branches of the government, and that said branch is ‘dysfunctional’, this is a bad thing. You may, if you are daring, as am I, call it '“stirring up the military.” You can tell that to a crowd at Madison Square Garden, but, not to the military. (And, I’m paying you the compliment that you will not start pedantic braying such as “He can say anything he wants…” You know what I mean.) Esp. when we consider that the fact that the President is Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces is true only as long as the Armed Forces believe it. C. I didn’t mention any ‘final blow’, so, please quit making stuff up. As a matter of fact, my entire concept was that this [would be/is/could be] an \*opening \*move. I didn’t even say that Obama is doing it as his attack; I said that it seemed like it could be to me. A workable scenario in a coup. I never said that he had Bill Clinton, or WTF it was that killed Vince Foster, on the phone with a ‘Go’ order. I was musing as to whether or not it was a possibility at this time. D.WTF, do you think that you’re the only person that knows what a banana republic is? Please. E. I didn’t say that ‘bodies will appear’. I said, mol, that “It sounds to me as if bodies will appear.” I’m not saying that this is the big move that the Illuminati has being waiting for. It could go either way. Bodies/No bodies. Show trials/No show trials. But, that the foundation is there. You entirely amuse me when you can see a President say:“You deserve better than a dysfunctional Congress” and then carry on about him/Him because he doesn’t make “…rabble-rousing speeches designed to provide justification for the overthrow of an elected legislature or the execution of opposition leaders.” Let me see…while telling the military that they are going to get paid, he assures the armed wing of the government, that they are being ill-served and have a dysfunctional elected legislature/opposition leaders…Yeah, I can see the diff. You seem to believe that “It Can’t Happen Here” because you like our government, and because we are ‘different’ than Third World nations. More civilized nations than ours have devolved to savagery within the last 100 years, so, don’t get too het up, or pleased with yourself. If we were to go the banana republic route, what, do you think that the President would announce that we are doing just that? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/50 "2013-10-03T01:46:18Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Do you have any conception of the political beliefs of the poster you’re replying to? Hmmmm…good point.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/51 "2013-10-03T01:52:20Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > A lockout is exactly the opposite of a strike. “Same thing with different motivators?” Trust a Republican to say “making love = rape.” You seem quite confused about a lot of things. Also, I’m not a Republican, and bringing in Rape/Making Love is coming from??? where??? WTF are you talking about? I’m sure you’re not doing that to conflate the issues, just because you are petulant, are you? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/52 "2013-10-03T01:57:46Z")
It’s not that it can’t happen here. It can happen anywhere. It’s just that, right this moment, it isn’t happening here. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/53 "2013-10-03T01:58:37Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > The mall’s already full of stores I never shop at. Sorry, neighbor, already trumped in #1. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/54 "2013-10-03T02:04:48Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > How? A government shutdown results from an impasse or deadlock at the funding-stage of the governmental decisionmaking process. A general strike results from a distressed labor environment combined with a left-leaning organized-labor culture. A government shutdown represents a government at a loss as to what to do next. A general strike represents a working class determined to do **something.** The two have nothing in common but that they disrupt peoples’ lives – in different ways. I’m sure glad that you didn’t read #19, especially about ‘different motivators’, and that you are going off on a rant about what causes a government shutdown and general strikes. And, you are wrong in how they disrupt peoples’ lives in different fashions; no money, no production =no money, no production. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/55 "2013-10-03T02:08:04Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Yeah, it sounds like people might actually not be falling for that line of crap this time. Exactly. Much smarter, now. Much, much smarter. As for the rest of your post, I can see you are just trying to get into a pissing contest, so… ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/56 "2013-10-03T02:11:51Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > As for the OP, the Banana Republic near where I live went all women’s clothes a few years ago, shutting us men out. Now, since Hillary is thinking of running for president, maybe the OP is onto something!! Sorry, neighbor, trumped in #1 and #22. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/57 "2013-10-03T02:23:43Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Even as an anti-Obama shit-storm, the OP doesn’t work. I’d say try again, but I can’t imagine where you could go from there outside of the Pit. Sorry, pally, you’re talking out of your ass. It isn’t Obama. I like him as much as any president we’ve had. No more, no less. If George W had said this about the Congress when he was in, knee jerks would start saying he was doing just what I suggested, and demanded impeachment, and you know it. I didn’t say Obama needs to be impeached, so, I’m much kinder to him than you are to the 'Pubs. Even if Obama were to do it, I shouldn’t care a whole lot, again, either way. Any bodies that would turn up wouldn’t be mine, I suspect, so, why can I say he would be in the wrong? Point being, you’re too busy loving on the guy. I, OTOH, don’t hate/love him, so, I can look at these things with amusement, and not be so het up as the rest of you. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/58 "2013-10-03T02:25:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It’s not that it can’t happen here. It can happen anywhere. It’s just that, right this moment, it isn’t happening here. Of course not! Because we are smarter, and better than those other people. \*They \*were fooled! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/59 "2013-10-03T02:53:44Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > If George W had said this about the Congress when he was in, knee jerks would start saying he was doing just what I suggested, and demanded impeachment, and you know it. Nonsense. This is standard-issue political posturing. Your OP was ludicrous hyperbole. Everybody sensible is simply discounting the rhetoric on both sides. If you are not, then you’re not being sensible. If you are focusing on one side, then you are anti-that side. You made an OP that can’t be taken seriously for a second and now you’re trying to backpedal by saying that it didn’t really mean what it actually said. Problem is, even your reduced statements don’t rise above the ludicrous. Nothing is going to happen out of this, any more than it did in 1995. I know this. You know this. The Dems and Reps know this. That this has no larger meaning is the one thing that is common and total bipartisan knowledge. Anything else is either partisan lunacy or tinfoil hat lunacy. Rant all you want, but more ranting on lunacy is proof of lunacy. That’s counterproductive, but it’s a far more likely future than the one you proposed. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160/60 "2013-10-03T02:56:37Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Sorry, pally, you’re talking out of your ass. It isn’t Obama. I like him as much as any president we’ve had. No more, no less. > If George W had said this about the Congress when he was in, knee jerks would start saying he was doing just what I suggested, and demanded impeachment, and you know it. I didn’t say Obama needs to be impeached, so, I’m much kinder to him than you are to the 'Pubs. > Even if Obama were to do it, I shouldn’t care a whole lot, again, either way. Any bodies that would turn up wouldn’t be mine, I suspect, so, why can I say he would be in the wrong? > Point being, you’re too busy loving on the guy. I, OTOH, don’t hate/love him, so, I can look at these things with amusement, and not be so het up as the rest of you. Yay. Another guy who seems to think that greater obnoxiousness equals greater truth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banana-republic-coming-soon/670160.md?page=4)