# David Brooks and his fellow travelers. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 21, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522 "2016-08-21T17:59:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/61 "2016-08-22T17:45:00Z")
> [@aliensshow](#): > > In case you’re confused, no one gives a fuck who you give a “pass” to. HTH. You’re a new user whose stated goal is to anger people. The day when YogSothoth replies to you may be the most important day of your life, but for me, it was a Monday. This will be my only reply to you. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/62 "2016-08-22T17:51:56Z")
Fuck! It’s Monday? Well, shit… ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/63 "2016-08-22T17:53:01Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > David Brooks is one of those people whose support I welcome, but I would still hold at arm’s length. As one of those conservative-despised “intellectuals”, I’m sure he sees the pitchforks and torches in the mob of Tea Party lunatics coming for him should they ever completely take over the GOP. He’s doing this as a self-preservation tactic, nothing more, anyone can see that Trump’s going to lose badly. Like Ted Cruz, he’s positioning himself to say “I told you so” after the angry racist Trump supporters lose to their most hated foe. A real pivot would be to completely repudiate conservative Republican thought. Which brings me to this: > > > [@](#): > > > > You’re of the conservative/faux-libertarian bent. > > Nope. Rothbardian. > > > [@](#): > > > > What I said about Brooks applies to you. > > If you think you and people like you are going to get a pass just because you have a couple of differences here and there with the main GOP platform, Besides supporting lower taxes, I don’t agree with anything in the GOP platform, indeed you would agree to much more than I do. > [@](#): > > I’ve got news for you pal, you and your type are what enabled Trump and the Tea Party to take over the GOP. Bizarre statement. “My people” are a tiny, insignificant minority. > [@](#): > > No amount of ranting against a couple of GOP collaborators will make you out to be different than the I favor a Clinton victory. > [@](#): > > You think [taxes are extortion](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=690258). I was corrected in that thread: Taxes are legal extortion that are necessary for civilization. In other words, I was right without the modifiers. > [@](#): > > You think being [president is easy](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=756437), like a company trying to keep market share. No it’s much easier than that. > [@](#): > > You think [Obama supports torture](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=678497). No he loves Brennan, who supported torture. > [@](#): > > You somehow believe that Obama should appeal to your [personal standard of specific presidential qualifications](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=655594)when the other guy is much worse on pretty much everything. A guy can’t complain? Admit it, this one was just filler. > [@](#): > > Your [lack of understanding of how money is valued](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=798797) is dangerously ignorant. Of course your silence on the matter is as full of as much potential wit and wisdom as unhewn marble of great statue. In other words put up or shut the fuck up, this is growing quite trite. > [@](#): > > In short, until you stop trying to pretend to be the smartest guy in the room by railing against a few universally loathed positions Trump has, I am quite comfortable in saying that I am much farther than you from Trump on every political question. Maybe you should look around at your fellow authoritarians for what is really making you upset. Namely, democracy. > [@](#): > > you’re part of the problem, even if you temporarily suppress that to vote Not Trump in the election No. Statists of all stripes are the problem. Vote Johnson! Who’s next? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/64 "2016-08-22T17:55:52Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > I care. **YogSothoth** is a cool dude. And on the other hand, you haven’t figured out how to multiquote. I disagree with **Yog** way more than I agree with him/her, but I’d take 10 **Yogs** over one **alienshitshow** any day! ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/65 "2016-08-22T17:56:58Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Shouldn’t you be at the black-tie RT dinner party along with the rest of Donald Trump’s campaign? Hi-five. How do you find the time to mirror my one-liners while serving as bag-man for the Clinton Foundation? ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/66 "2016-08-22T21:27:47Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Still holding out hope those WMD’s will be found? They were, and American troops were injured by them. > **[BOMBSHELL: New York Times Reports WMDs WERE Found in Iraq!](https://thepoliticalinsider.com/bombshell-new-york-times-reports-wmds-found-iraq/)** > > How many times have we been told that there were no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq? I’m pretty \[…\] ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/67 "2016-08-22T22:41:24Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > They were, and American troops were injured by them. > > [http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/bombshell-new-york-times-reports-wmds-found-iraq/](http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/bombshell-new-york-times-reports-wmds-found-iraq/) That, of course, is one of the most dishonest “reports” ever submitted on the topic and its very nature precludes any informed or intelligent person from ever paying attention to anything that the authors and publishers have written or ever will write. Hussein clearly had gas weapons when he made war on Iran and his own people. The claim of the Bush administration was that he still maintained a huge stockpile of such weapons that he could (and probably intended to) use against the U.S. or his own neighbors. The reality is that his military was so inept that they did not even keep track of the weapons that they had available and there have been a number of occasions when people have stumbled into lost caches. Those weapons are the equivalent of the numerous warheads from WWI and WWII that are discovered each year in France, Italy, Germany, and Japan. (There is even a report of a 22,000 lb. “Grand Slam” bomb being used as the gate decoration to an airfield in the UK without being deactivated. Talk about failing to control one’s munitions!) Regarding them as part of a supply of weapons that Hussein "possessed,’ is simply a lie promoted by the silliest of pro-Iraq Invasion supporters. For that matter, in terms of Weapons of mass Destruction, there are still nine (or eight depending on how well one trusts the USAF) nuclear weapons that the U.S. has lost and never found. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/68 "2016-08-23T01:32:11Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Hi-five. > > How do you find the time to mirror my one-liners while serving as bag-man for the Clinton Foundation? I can never tell which of your posts are jokes and which you think are serious. They all turn out rather tragic. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/69 "2016-08-23T02:07:01Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I disagree with **Yog** way more than I agree with him/her, but I’d take 10 **Yogs** over one **alienshitshow** any day! I’d take 10 of the REAL Yog-Sothoth over this guy. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/70 "2016-08-23T04:08:10Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Hi-five. > > How do you find the time to mirror my one-liners while serving as bag-man for the Clinton Foundation? > [@Ravenman](#): > > I can never tell which of your posts are jokes and which you think are serious. They all turn out rather tragic. Well as a joke, it wasn’t too bad. Inane and utterly inapplicable to Ravenman, but it got a laugh out of me. Outside of that one, I’ll give Will a 5/10 for his random insults in this thread. We’ve seen a lot worse on this board. WillFarnaby. Not just another alienshitshow. ETA: We really should start piling on David Brooks around now. It would bring balance to this thread. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/71 "2016-08-23T10:45:47Z")
No leave Brooks alone, it’s clearly, to the American Statist, a much bigger crime to be against all avoidable wars than to support them. I should have known a board populated by Bernie Sanders supporters would value the chest-thumping health of the American state over the lives of evil foreigners who may Take Our Jobs! ---
**Author:** ![TheStake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@TheStake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheStake)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/72 "2016-08-23T11:53:13Z")
So being stuck between Hillary and Trump, whats the way to go now? I only ask, because I don’t know how someone from your unique political point stands. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/73 "2016-08-23T13:43:50Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > I should have known **a board populated by Bernie Sanders supporters** would value the chest-thumping health of the American state over the lives of evil foreigners who may Take Our Jobs! As the bagman for the Clinton Foundation, I’m offended. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/74 "2016-08-23T17:27:06Z")
> [@TheStake](#): > > So being stuck between Hillary and Trump, whats the way to go now? I only ask, because I don’t know how someone from your unique political point stands. Some favor Trump so he will bring the state crashing down. I prefer Clinton because she is weak and uninspiring. She lacks the ability to get the masses riled up to try some grand scheme. I do worry about her policy with Russia, however. What calmed my nerves a bit about that was finding out she was actually a Putin crony despite her tough rhetoric. Also, I do not want the next economic crisis to be blamed on anything other than interventionist economics, so Clinton it is. Trump is too convenient a scapegoat, like Bush II. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/75 "2016-08-23T17:51:19Z")
Bush was a feckless good ol’ boy until 9/11, when he discovered that he was a Leader of Men. Alas! ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/76 "2016-08-23T18:37:57Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > They were, and American troops were injured by them. Oh, Lordy Sweet Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![TheStake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@TheStake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheStake)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/77 "2016-08-23T18:39:49Z")
I feel very worried to put in with Hillary, because I think she is a horrible person and that she is so dishonest. I think she will change immediately as she makes it into the white house. I do not think Trump is the best bet either, but I think he will be less of a hazard to my basic rights. Also, he is an idiot now and he will be an idiot if he made it in, so I don’t think he would be as dangerous. I feel very fucked by my choices. Thank you for your input, because I am still very undecided. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522/78 "2016-08-23T18:42:12Z")
How many American troops were injured/killed by Iraqi WMD, in comparison to being electrocuted in a Haliburton-installed shower? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-brooks-and-his-fellow-travelers/763522.md?page=3)