President Donald John Trump
Since its finally happened and the world hasn't spun off its axis nor has the world been destroyed
by a nuclear cloud lets have thread for the 45th President. Here, it really is all about him.
Campaign Trail Trump On Display As He Goes To CIA On First Day As President.
On his first full day in the White House, President Trump went to the CIA presumably to try and offer an olive branch to members of the intelligence community he often maligned over their conclusions that Russia had conspired to influence the U.S. elections.
Instead, he falsely denied that he had ever criticized the agency, falsely inflated the crowd size at his inauguration on Friday, attacked the media and told intelligence officers gathered to, "Trust me. I'm like a smart person."
:lol: Gotta love Bill Maher...Trump voters are druggies.
[YOUTUBEWIDE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4BWjaLqVqE[/YOUTUBEWIDE]
Obviously, cant verify any of this info, but if true.....:lol:
Filed under "Humor". Of course.
On his first full day in the White House, President Trump went to the CIA ... and told intelligence officers gathered to, "Trust me. I'm like a smart person."
Isn't this is the same CIA that didn't know a Director, appointed by the outgoing President, had previously given classified information to his mistress; or, that he even had a mistress? With vetting like that, how smart can the intelligence officers Obama left him be? :lol:
....but Trump was humping them bad.
It was a rambling speech that was reminiscent of many of his campaign rallies. But Trump did begin by praising the work that CIA officers do and the danger they put themselves in every day, saying they would be instrumental in "making us safe" and "making us winners again."
He made the speech in front of a wall of 117 stars representing those in the agency who had lost their lives in service. He called the memorial "very, very special" and said he had enjoyed touring the building prior to the speech.
"There is nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and the CIA than Donald Trump," the president boasted, referring to himself in the third person.
He said that the agency sometimes hadn't gotten the backing they deserved from the White House, and promised that "you're going to get so much backing, maybe you're going to say, 'please don't give us so much backing'" — adapting a line he said many times during the campaign.
He ended his remarks by telling those gathered that, "I love you. I respect you. There's nobody I respect more. You're going to do a fantastic job. We're going to start winning again, and you're going to lead the charge" in helping combat ISIS.
Trump Administration Goes To War With The Media Over Inauguration Crowd Size
But then Spicer went on to make his own estimate on the crowd size and incorrectly claimed that the number of people who used the Washington D.C. Metro on Friday had outpaced the number of people who used the service during President Obama's second inaugural.
In 2009, 317,000 people had, in fact, used the Metro by 11 a.m., according to WMATA, as Spicer cited. But the White House press secretary then claimed that 420,000 people had used the Metro on Friday; by 11 a.m. only 193,000 people had ridden Metro. For the whole day on Friday, 570,000 people used the system, but in 2013 there were 782,000 riders and 1.1 million riders in 2009 — both much larger than Trump's inauguration.
The Chinese hacked D.C.'s Metro system and changed the numbers.
Super Callous Fascist Bigot Extra Braggadocious
That there is brilliant.
And this picture....
[ATTACH]59214[/ATTACH]
Filed under "Humor". Of course.
Mahar leaves me cold as well. He is the echo chamber.
Sanders threw Trump a life preserver this morning.
During his inaugural speech President Trump said that he was going to represent working families and that: "We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action." Great. Let's get to work. Let's do what the middle class and working families of this country want. Let's raise the minimum wage to a living wage, let's establish pay equity for women, let's create millions of jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, let's join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all as a right, let's make public colleges and universities tuition free, let's have the billionaire class start paying their fair share of taxes. No more talk. Let's do it. We're waiting, President Trump.5:46 PM: Verbatim quote: "This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration. Period. Both in person and around the globe."
ie, the world population has increased.
[SIZE="6"]Oh my God I figured it out.[/SIZE]
It's not the income Trump is hiding in his taxes. That has never made any sense. First, his supporters have never cared about whether he's really rich, or really pays taxes. Second, he hires teams of professional accountants--they may take advantage of every questionable loophole, but I guarantee they're as clean as any other corporation.
It's the charitable donations, you guys.
He's hiding the fact that he wrote off a large donation to someone, probably one of the many white nationalist organizations with non-profit status. At this point it's the only thing that would turn Republicans against him, hard evidence that he's an out-and-out Nazi sympathizer.
Mark my words. It's something in the charitable donations.
probably Greenpeace
edit oh no obviously Planned Parenthood
I would like to believe, but here's why not. Trump has been in real estate in an extremely Democratic/lefty city for 40 years. He's had to watch over skeletons like that.
In his line of business, I'd figger every donation he's ever made has been in order to get something in return.
Lastly I don't believe we have seen much of an ideology out of this guy at all.
Lastly I don't believe we have seen much of an ideology out of this guy at all.
So Trump is pragmatic.
The Donald is in Shock and Awe ... of himself!
The Donald is in Shock and Awe ... of himself!
Can one really bomb himself?
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/23/brian-eno-not-interested-in-talking-about-me-reflection
Brian Eno has some interesting ideas about Trump, sort of a hard reboot. His bit on Hillary is spot on, the continuation of decline...
Just imagine if Hillary Clinton had won and we’d been business as usual, the whole structure she’d inherited, the whole Clinton family myth. I don’t know that’s a future I would particularly want. It just seems that was grinding slowly to a halt, whereas now, with Trump, there’s a chance of a proper crash, and a chance to really rethink.” Can one really bomb himself?
You've never heard of a suicide bomber?
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/23/brian-eno-not-interested-in-talking-about-me-reflection
Brian Eno has some interesting ideas about Trump, sort of a hard reboot. His bit on Hillary is spot on, the continuation of decline...
Just imagine if Hillary Clinton had won and we’d been business as usual, the whole structure she’d inherited, the whole Clinton family myth. I don’t know that’s a future I would particularly want. It just seems that was grinding slowly to a halt, whereas now, with Trump, there’s a chance of a proper crash, and a chance to really rethink.”
This is the best way to think of things.
Like Undertoad's broken bone that sets harder.
But if we don't "set" the fracture in proper alignment, we'll always have that limp, that scar, that bad memory when we look in the mirror.
That having been said, Eno is imagining the reformation as he would like it to go. That is almost certainly wrong. It will go the way it goes, which is certainly not the way we picture it going, however that may be.
The Civil War, you don't set out thinking well, 620,000 people are going to die but the resulting nation will be amazingly strong and resilient and uniquely prepared for the future.
ie, the world population has increased.
It's like people really enjoy screwing.
... Eno is imagining the reformation as he would like it to go. That is almost certainly wrong. It will go the way it goes, which is certainly not the way we picture it going, however that may be.
I believe this is what Peart means by his re-telling of the 'reed that doesn't break in the wind.' Yes, we don't break,
but... "we can only grow the way the wind blows."
You've never heard of a suicide bomber?
Civilized countries drop big bombs from B-2s. Never realized that terrorists would improvise.
We never associated a kamikaze with shock and awe - until now.
This is the best way to think of things.
Like Undertoad's broken bone that sets harder.
But if we don't "set" the fracture in proper alignment, we'll always have that limp, that scar, that bad memory when we look in the mirror.
That having been said, Eno is imagining the reformation as he would like it to go. That is almost certainly wrong. It will go the way it goes, which is certainly not the way we picture it going, however that may be.
The Civil War, you don't set out thinking well, 620,000 people are going to die but the resulting nation will be amazingly strong and resilient and uniquely prepared for the future.
I believe this is what Peart means by his re-telling of the 'reed that doesn't break in the wind.' Yes, we don't break, but... "we can only grow the way the wind blows."
All spot on.
A serious question, what do Republican Senators think rises to an impeachable offense?
Nothing, I'm betting. They'd rather keep an insane puppet than risk an unknown.
A serious question, what do Republican Senators think rises to an impeachable offense?
Perjury in a trial where the accused is not found guilty?
Only if it's the other team's guy.
Only if it's the other team's guy.
That goes for both teams... both other teams. :thepain: you know what I mean.
A serious question, what do Republican Senators think rises to an impeachable offense?
Mr. Clod and I were talking about this tonight, and we came to the conclusion that the Republicans basically have the biggest Get Out of Jail Free card ever.
Trump can push for the most right-wing policies of their wildest dreams, and if the results are disastrous, they can say "it's not our fault, that was Trump." Anything they genuinely don't like, they can just let it die on the table without funding. If they do have to actively push back against something, they can outnumber him any time they want to,
and they get to be heroes for going against their own guy for the good of the land.
If they hadn't won Congress, it would be a completely different balance of power. But as I'm pretty sure the saying goes, vote in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up faster...
Super Callous Fascist Bigot Extra Braggadocious
That there is brilliant.
You're welcome.
and a picMr. Clod and I were talking about this tonight, and we came to the conclusion that the Republicans basically have the biggest Get Out of Jail Free card ever.
Trump can push for the most right-wing policies of their wildest dreams, and if the results are disastrous, they can say "it's not our fault, that was Trump." Anything they genuinely don't like, they can just let it die on the table without funding. If they do have to actively push back against something, they can outnumber him any time they want to, and they get to be heroes for going against their own guy for the good of the land.
If they hadn't won Congress, it would be a completely different balance of power. But as I'm pretty sure the saying goes, vote in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up faster...
This seems likely.
For the other side, they need to figure out the difference between (bad) policy and criminality.
From Cellar member Kirk's
website...
Let's talk about hypocrisy.
If you voted for Trump because of Hillary's email "problem" but are not upset that the Trump administration is using a private email server and unsecured phones, you are a hypocrite.
If you believe Jesus was a persecuted refugee fleeing Herod, but support the ban on Syrian refugees, you are a hypocrite.
If you believe life begins at conception, but support defunding the countries number one source of prenatal care, planned parenthood, you are a hypocrite.
If you believe the mainstream media lies but believe Trump when he spouts verifiable lies, you are a hypocrite.
If you dismiss the AP, Reuters or NPR as biased media but accept everything Fox news says, you are a hypocrite.
If you think all life is sacred, but do not support reasonable gun control, you are a hypocrite.
If you think children are the future, but support reducing funds for SNAP, you are a hypocrite.
If you believe in education, but dismiss evolution or climate change as hoaxes, you are a hypocrite.
If you believe in the sovereignty of the United States, but support forced incursions on Native American lands, you are a hypocrite.
If you believe that we need to drain the swamp of Washington but support Trump's cabinet picks, you are a hypocrite.
If you believe in the Constitution, but support indiscriminate detainment and torture, you are a hypocrite.
If you believe our troops lives have worth, but support Trump's claims to foreign countries natural resources, you are a hypocrite.
If you believe that unborn black babies lives matter, but black lives don't matter, you are a hypocrite.
If you believe that we deserve life, liberty and happiness, but support taking away healthcare from millions of Americans, you are a hypocrite.
If you believe that the practice of your religion is more important than the practice of no religion or a different religion, you are a hypocrite.
If you believe in equal rights under the law, but don't support marriage equality and non discrimination for LGBTQ Americans, you are a hypocrite.
If you are glad that California or New York do not decide national policy for you, but insist on forcing your red state policies on others, you are a hypocrite.
If you believe in the first amendment, but call people who peacefully protest the President as hooligans, you are a hypocrite.
If you are an American but think dissent is disrespectful, you are a hypocrite.
If you think that anything that has happened over the last week is normal or acceptable, then you have not been paying attention.
Certainly a leftist, maybe some libertarian, viewpoint. But I can agree with much of it.
All the name-calling is why we have President Trump.
And nobody has learned this yet, so...
just the eight more yearsWouldn't it be weird if people were being told that other people are calling them names so often that they become indignant about something that isn't actually happening to them?
:mad2:
Heres the link...
http://americannewsx.com/politics/maher-trump-drug-addicts-video/
West Virginia's mascot is a dilated pupil.
lmao
All the name-calling is why we have President Trump.
And they're the ones who sneer at snowflakes who want safe spaces.
[YOUTUBE]GLG9g7BcjKs[/YOUTUBE]
All the name-calling is why we have President Trump.
[And nobody has learned this yet, so... just the eight more years
Shut up you bass thumping computer jockey. :lol2:
West Virginia's mascot is a dilated pupil.
Is that because the co-ed is dilated and about to have another illegitimate baby?
Maybe they're into mydriatic abuse.
Maybe they're into mydriatic abuse.
No effin way would I be into that...ever.
Maybe they're into mydriatic abuse.
George Jr said he looked into Putin's eyes and saw a good soul. What really was he looking into? Would mydriates have helped him better see a real soul?
If The Donald took them, would he see the real world?
Bannon is the new Cheney
But the defining moment for Mr. Bannon came Saturday night in the form of an executive order giving the rumpled right-wing agitator a full seat on the “principals committee” of the National Security Council — while downgrading the roles of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence, who will now attend only when the council is considering issues in their direct areas of responsibilities. It is a startling elevation of a political adviser, to a status alongside the secretaries of state and defense, and over the president’s top military and intelligence advisers.
In theory, the move put Mr. Bannon, a former Navy surface warfare officer, admiral’s aide, investment banker, Hollywood producer and Breitbart News firebrand on the same level as his friend, Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser, a former Pentagon intelligence chief who was Mr. Trump’s top adviser on national security issues before a series of missteps reduced his influence.
But in terms of real influence, Mr. Bannon looms above almost everyone except the president’s son-in-law, Jared D. Kushner, in the Trumpian pecking order, according to interviews with two dozen Trump insiders and current and former national security officials. The move involving Mr. Bannon, as well as the boost in status to the White House homeland security adviser, Thomas P. Bossert, and Mr. Trump’s relationships with Cabinet appointees like Defense Secretary Jim Mattis have essentially layered over Mr. Flynn.
God help us.
downgrading the roles of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence,
Smart move, this way they aren't needed in Washington when Trump sends them off to war. :rolleyes:
I guess we're officially in Yemen now...
The Bannon thing... makes me want to turn down my Nazi detector.
It is the democrats turn to bitch about executive orders, Christ it's almost time to turn back to the libertarians.
Is it true that the National Security Council has authority over the "we promise we'll only use it on bad guys" drone strikes on citizens without due process? I need the cellar to be my reality check, here, because I've had to swear off all political radio/TV/internet for a bit, it's too much.
Is it true that the National Security Council has authority over the "we promise we'll only use it on bad guys" drone strikes on citizens without due process?
US would kidnap citizens of other nations only on speculation or fictional accusations. Put them in secret prisons around the world. Or dump them in Guantanamo. Extremist said that is good - and legal. Extremists have returned to power.
We know over 700 of less than 800 prisoners in Guantanamo were innocent. What has changed to avert that stupidity? Nothing. It is still legal. Now we have a president who knows someone is evil only because he 'feels' it is true.
Every non-American in the world has good reason to fear. America can kidnap anyone and put them in secret prisons - without judicial process. Because the victim is not an American citizen. These same extremists (and The Donald) even says torture is good.
Mmkay, except not one word of that answered my question.
UT? It's not a leading question, I really want to know. I don't have the energy to figure this one out.
US would kidnap citizens of other nations only on speculation or fictional accusations. Put them in secret prisons around the world. Or dump them in Guantanamo. Extremist said that is good - and legal. Extremists have returned to power.
We know over 700 of less than 800 prisoners in Guantanamo were innocent. What has changed to avert that stupidity? Nothing. It is still legal. Now we have a president who knows someone is evil only because he 'feels' it is true.
Every non-American in the world has good reason to fear. America can kidnap anyone and put them in secret prisons - without judicial process. Because the victim is not an American citizen. These same extremists (and The Donald) even says torture is good.
Is it true that the National Security Council has authority over the "we promise we'll only use it on bad guys" drone strikes on citizens without due process? I need the cellar to be my reality check, here, because I've had to swear off all political radio/TV/internet for a bit, it's too much.
There. Are you happy now?
In an Obama administration, AG Holder said that in theory, the President has that authority within the borders of the USA. But it has never been exercised and would be highly unusual.
"As members of this Administration have previously indicated, the U.S. government has not carried out drone strikes in the United States and has no intention of doing so. As a policy matter, moreover, we reject the use of military force where well-established law enforcement authorities in this country provide the best means for incapacitating a terrorist threat. We have a long history of using the criminal justice system to incapacitate individuals located in our country who pose a threat to the United States and its interests abroad. Hundreds of individuals have been arrested and convicted of terrorism-related offenses in our federal courts.
"The question you have posed is therefore entirely hypothetical, unlikely to occur, and one we hope no President will ever have to confront. It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States. For example, the President could conceivably have no choice but to authorize the military to use such force if necessary to protect the homeland in the circumstances of a catastrophic attack like the ones suffered on December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001.
"Were such an emergency to arise, I would examine the particular facts and circumstances before advising the President on the scope of his authority."
Red Dawn Movie
An introductory montage shows the fallout of the economic crisis in the European Union and a weakened NATO alliance, amid increasing cooperation between an increasingly militant North Korea and ultranationalist-controlled Russia. The increased deployment of U.S. troops abroad leaves the mainland vulnerable.
A ridiculous fantacy that could never happen, amirite?
I only found this article which outlines the Obamadministration chain of command for drone strikes.
https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/the-kill-chain/That's interesting, I would expect the chain between 350C Task Force and the President is primarily FYI and rubber stamped at each step, until it gets to the top.
I would hope at the top they would scrutinize it more closely as well as take the political considerations into account.
When it's passed to JSOC I'd assume decisions are only on their ability to do it.
I still maintain Anwar al Awlaki was not a US citizen. He had renounced his citizenship publicly. While he had not done the defined deliver a letter to an embassy as spelled out in the rules, he had joined a foreign military fighting the US.
[SIZE="4"]
Unsettling Echoes: Joseph Goebbels (1933), Sean Spicer (2017), Steve Bannon (2017)[/SIZE]
http://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/unsettling-echoes-joseph-goebbels-1933-sean-spicer-2017-steve-bannon-2017/
An outspoken free press is one of the great obstacles to demagogues, who prefer simplistic propaganda to open public debate. The Trump government exemplifies this maxim. It loathes both honest reportage and critical opinion, it seeks to brand uncomfortable truths as lies, and through making direct contact with its audience it tries to evade the filters of fact-checking and sceptical assessment. Whether or not Trump and his entourage understand this, these moves propel them ineluctably into the realm of history’s past masters of political propaganda and the repression of dissent.
Jane Caplan is Emeritus Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford, and Emeritus Marjorie Walter Goodhart Professor of European History at Bryn Mawr College. She is a leading historian of Nazi Germany and the history of the documentation of individual identity. Professor Caplan was involved in establishing one of Britain’s first university courses in women’s studies. She is also an editor of History Workshop Journal.Trump asked them to pray for "Celebrity Apprentice" AT THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST!!! Oh, and he also hung up the phone while speaking to the PM of Australia, threatened Mexico, put IRAN on notice and insulted Prince Charles.
If you voted for Trump, for whatever reasons you had at the time, and you STILL don't feel like a moron, perhaps it's time to enter the WITLESS protection program.
His comments on Black History Month are pretty WTF to say the least. How is this not as embarrassing for Republicans as for the rest of us he represents (whether we like it or not)?
How is this not as embarrassing for Republicans as for the rest of us he represents (whether we like it or not)?
The people who voted for him are not scrutinizing his actions like the people who didn't vote for him. And the few actions that they do hear about, they are viewing from a bias of approval to begin with, so they simply don't see it as a problem.
He also "all lives matter"ed the Holocaust.
I agree.
Hey buddy, did you hear how Trump told them foreigners to fuck off?
Yeah, that'll show 'em we ain't takin' no shit from them.
If you voted for Trump, for whatever reasons you had at the time, and you STILL don't feel like a moron, perhaps it's time to enter the WITLESS protection program.
Insults are unconvincing. So, just the eight mo... aw forget it
Trump asked them to pray for "Celebrity Apprentice" AT THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST!!! Oh, and he also hung up the phone while speaking to the PM of Australia, threatened Mexico, put IRAN on notice and insulted Prince Charles.
If you voted for Trump, for whatever reasons you had at the time, and you STILL don't feel like a moron, perhaps it's time to enter the WITLESS protection program.
:lol2:
His comments on Black History Month are pretty WTF to say the least. How is this not as embarrassing for Republicans as for the rest of us he represents (whether we like it or not)?
When denial is your stock in trade, changing your opinion becomes challenging.
The people who voted for him are not scrutinizing his actions like the people who didn't vote for him. And the few actions that they do hear about, they are viewing from a bias of approval to begin with, so they simply don't see it as a problem.
True. cf above
yebbut........
I keep coming back to the Emperor's New Clothes and thinking we just need a child to shout the truth. Oh well, 2 weeks down, only 206 more to go....
Insults are unconvincing. So, just the eight mo... aw forget it
That was a good effort UT. You hung in there longer than I thought you would. What went around came around and they got what they bargained for. Now it's time to just kick back and enjoy the entertainment. I'm LMAO.
Here's a benchmark to refer back to.
Catching up on the "Bowling Green Massacre" this morning.
What are they doing? Even if there is a big kernel of truth in that two bad guys snuck in with refugees and were caught, talking about a non-existent massacre is only going to make you look like a stupid liar.
Are they incompetent? Or do they have a master plan that involves gaslighting the country as part of an intricate plan to become nazi dictators?
They can't be THAT incompetent, can they?
Catching up on the "Bowling Green Massacre" this morning.
What are they doing? Even if there is a big kernel of truth in that two bad guys snuck in with refugees and were caught, talking about a non-existent massacre is only going to make you look like a stupid liar.
Are they incompetent? Or do they have a master plan that involves gaslighting the country as part of an intricate plan to become nazi dictators?
They can't be THAT incompetent, can they?
They're either incompetent, liars, or "something else" ...
(the
ominous third-option-of-doom that Trump used to characterize Obama's actions)
I'm surprised there was no mention of the soccer pitch slayings.
That's different. That ain't no merica game, they had it coming.
Hey, leave my state out of this.
via
Strauss and Howe postulate that during this Fourth Turning crisis, an unexpected leader will emerge from an older generation to lead the nation, and what they call the “Hero” generation (in this case, millennials), to a new order. This person is known as the Grey Champion. An election or another event — perhaps a war — will bring this person to power, and their regime will rule throughout the crisis.
“The winners will now have the power to pursue the more potent, less incrementalist agenda about which they had long dreamed and against which their adversaries had darkly warned,” Strauss and Howe wrote in The Fourth Turning. “This new regime will enthrone itself for the duration of the Crisis. Regardless of its ideology, that new leadership will assert public authority and demand private sacrifice. Where leaders had once been inclined to alleviate societal pressures, they will now aggravate them to command the nation’s attention.”
...
“This is the fourth great crisis in American history,” Bannon told an audience at the Liberty Restoration Foundation, a conservative nonprofit, in 2011. “We had the Revolution. We had the Civil War. We had the Great Depression and World War II. This is the great Fourth Turning in American history, and we’re going to be one thing on the other side.”
...
The “Judeo-Christian West is collapsing,” he went on. “It’s imploding. And it’s imploding on our watch. And the blowback of that is going to be tremendous.”
War is coming, Bannon has warned. In fact, it’s already here.
It’s war. It’s war. Every day, we put up: America’s at war, America’s at war. We’re at war. White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, 2015
“You have an expansionist Islam and you have an expansionist China,” he said during a 2016 radio appearance. “They are motivated. They’re arrogant. They’re on the march. And they think the Judeo-Christian West is on the retreat.”
“Against radical Islam, we’re in a 100-year war,” he told Political Vindication Radio in 2011.
“We’re going to war in the South China Seas in the next five to 10 years, aren’t we?” Bannon asked during a 2016 interview with Reagan biographer Lee Edwards.
“We are in an outright war against jihadist Islamic fascism,” he said in a speech to a Vatican conference in 2014. “And this war is, I think, metastasizing far quicker than governments can handle it.”
In a 2015 radio appearance, Bannon described how he ran Breitbart, the far-right news site he chaired at the time. “It’s war,” he said. “It’s war. Every day, we put up: America’s at war, America’s at war. We’re at war.”
To confront this threat, Bannon argued, the Judeo-Christian West must fight back, lest it lose as it did when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453. He called Islam a “religion of submission” in 2016 — a refutation of President George W. Bush’s post-9/11 description of Islam as a religion of peace. In 2007, Bannon wrote a draft movie treatment for a documentary depicting a “fifth column” of Muslim community groups, the media, Jewish organizations and government agencies working to overthrow the government and impose Islamic law.
“There’s clearly a fifth column here in the United States,” Bannon warned in July 2016. “There’s rot at the center of the Judeo-Christian West,” he said in November 2015. “Secularism has sapped the strength of the Judeo-Christian West to defend its ideals,” he argued at the Vatican conference. The “aristocratic Washington class” and the media, he has claimed, are in league with the entire religion of Islam and an expansionist China to undermine Judeo-Christian America.
This sort of existential conflict is central to Strauss and Howe’s predictions. There are four ways a Fourth Turning can end, they argued, and three of them involve some kind of massive collapse. America might “be reborn,” and we’d wait another 80 to 100 years for a new cycle to culminate in a crisis again. The modern world — the era of Western history that Strauss and Howe believe began in the 15th century — might come to an end. We might “spare modernity but mark the end of our nation.” Or we might face “the end of man,” in a global war leading to “omnicidal Armageddon.”
Now, a believer in these vague and unfounded predictions sits in the White House, at the right hand of the president.
“We’re gonna have to have some dark days before we get to the blue sky of morning again in America,” Bannon warned in 2010. “We are going to have to take some massive pain. Anybody who thinks we don’t have to take pain is, I believe, fooling you.”
I find it scary how many people hang on his every word. :thepain:
I find it scary how one person in particular does.
https://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=523
I was a big fan of the book, as I believe was SteveDallas. Ask Me Anything
I find it scary how one person in particular does.
Shades of Park Geun-hye.
I find it ironic that Bannon uses "Judeo-Christian West" as code for "white people," even though he hates the Judeos.
I agree that crisis was/is inevitable, and that America will fall someday, but only because these things happen everywhere forever. Where are the great Turnings in other cultures and societies? I guess you could argue that it's the very fact that ours happen so close together that makes their results so extra dramatic...
Michael Flynn is the first casualty of the Trump administration cabinet. If the allegations are true, he should be prosecuted.
WASHINGTON — Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser, resigned on Monday night after it was revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other top White House officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Mr. Flynn, who served in the job for less than a month, said he had given “incomplete information” to about a telephone call he had with the ambassador in late December about American sanctions against Russia, weeks before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. Mr. Flynn previously had denied that he had any substantive conversations with Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak, and Mr. Pence repeated that claim in television as recently as earlier this month.
But on Monday, a former administration official said the Justice Department last month warned the White House that Mr. Flynn had not been fully forthright about his conversations with the ambassador. As a result, the Justice Department feared that Mr. Flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow.
In his resignation letter, which the White House emailed to reporters, Mr. Flynn said he had held numerous calls with foreign officials during the transition. “Unfortunately, because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian Ambassador,” he wrote. “I have sincerely apologized to the President and the Vice President, and they have accepted my apology.”
I'm not sorry to see him go. I found him frighteningly drunk on the Trump Kool-Aid. Yes to torture, calling Islam an ideology and not a religion, etc, etc. Good fucking riddance.
WARNING: random thoughts falling, paranoia...
This is kind of interesting because there is a fair chance the leaks are really just opposition to Trump's stated goal of improving relations with Russia. Apparently Presidents fall somewhere below the national security apparatus in the pecking order when choosing enemies, because the NSA has dirt on everyone. I'm kind of a fatalist on this progression of the surveillance state; W reacted, Obama made it permanent, and Trump maybe pays the price... feel safer? If they were doing this to Saint Hillary how would Democrats react? She hates Russia sufficiently for the complex though.
I dislike Trump a fair amount but this particular dog should have been put down a long time ago.
Our Allies are investigating his business dealings, that dog may hunt. It may force us to confront our kleptocracy. Nah, we'll let the system slide, but maybe punish this one guy for over-reach.
This is all over the place but it comes back to the Executive Branch appearing too powerful and the Legislative Branch being too broken to provide balance. The two of them are trying unsuccessfully so far to wreck the judicial. It's popcorn time.
I'm kind of a fatalist on this progression of the surveillance state; W reacted, Obama made it permanent, and Trump maybe pays the price... feel safer?
I'm pretty sure that tapping the Russians predates W by a few decades. I'm with you on the general theme, but in this particular instance, that call would have been tapped just as certainly in the '50s or '70s as it was in the '10s.
And there have been traitors on both sides since the Rosenbergs.
Start by eliminating some fictional emotions. ISIS is a mythical threat similar to Saddam. Timothy McVeigh types remain, by far, a greater threat. Fear only exists because wackos promote it.
We support allies who are at risk due to ISIS. Support does not constitute and should not be considered war. It is their threat and their war. And only they can solve it by first acting in an informed and unified manner - a statement directing attention to Turkey and Israel.
Second, we have no idea what Flynn and Putin discussed. Those details are essential long before making any conclusions. And those details should be considered by Justice to make appropriate decisions.
Ironically, Trump fired Flynn for lying. Then blames the press for his 'resignation' rather than admit his administration said, "Your fired." How many apprentices were also forced to resign by the press?
Third, a whole third issue exists with cozy and constant communication between Russian spies and top Trump officials. That third issue also required extensive vetting in part because we know lying in the Trump administration (for advancing Trump; not America) is situation normal.
Start by eliminating some fictional emotions.
It's
alternative logic. Your vernacular is out of date. :D
Sweden, FFS? Using it as an excuse to shop at IKEA.....
One of the many things I find frustrating and disheartening about President Trump is the regular, endless contradiction in his communications.
When he, himself contradicts himself, and just breezes right by it, it erodes my confidence in him. My ability to trust what he says has been ground down. It is compounded when he just makes shit up like the incandescent non-issue of the attendance of his inauguration, and when he gets shit wrong from an obvious absence of critical thinking like his remarks about trouble in Sweden. And there's a special kind of contradiction that I find deeply worrying. It's the thinning, the dilution of meaning.
Today's news gives a perfect example, though hardly unique, hardly even unusual. Trump spoke today about his plans and instructions for deportation:
"We're getting really bad dudes out of this country, and at a rate that nobody's ever seen before," Trump said Thursday. "And they're the bad ones. And it's a [SIZE="4"]military operation[/SIZE]."
He added: "You see what's happening at the border. All of a sudden for the first time, we're getting gang members out. We're getting drug lords out."
That, my friends, is news. Hello?! We have a military operation inside the borders of the United States? WTF.
But just wait, here comes the dilution, the smoke and mirrors, the Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.
A White House spokesperson said Trump did not misspeak by calling deportations a '[SIZE="4"]military operation[/SIZE],' but clarified the President meant "military" as an "adjective."
Come on. Just on the face of it when Trump says military and his spokeperson says "military is not military, it's an adjective".... shut up. What does it mean? And from the lips of the people very close to the situation, discussing it in the same room as their counterparts from Mexico, our Secretary of State Tillerson and the Head of Homeland Security Kelley said:
Trump, though, is not using the military to deport undocumented immigrants. Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told reporters in Mexico City Thursday that there would be "no use of military force in immigration operations, none,"
So, *not* war? Ok, good, good.
A lot of the people around this administration *do* think before speaking, like Kelly and Tillerson (so far). Many just ... don't . Spicer, Conway, Bannon, Preibus. And most of all Trump. (Let's not get started about "alternative facts" and the media as the "opposition of the American people", that is huge, deserving of it's own conversation.)
I feel like when I'm tracking what's being said, and the words are ALL OVER THE GODDAMN PLACE, and some are pretty scary--let's face it, the stakes are high, I'm definitely not the only one paying attention--it's overwhelming. I'm getting zapped and stabbed and tagged from every direction. One of my most effective sanity preserving reactions is to turn the volume down on the words and look at the actions. What the fuck is actually going on? What's the vibe here? Where is the center of gravity? Feel it... Like Luke lowering the blast shield of his helmet to better understand what the fuck is going on and (this is key) respond appropriately. By reducing the distracting and contradictory input from the main (visual channel), he understood the situation better.
I'm not encouraged by his actions.
I used to think that the calls for diagnosing his mental health from a distance were just kinda bullshit, but he clearly does not think and communicate like practically everybody I interact with (even at a distance, like I do with him). But I've noticed some similarities in the communication styles of Trump and of other people of my long and close acquaintance that I consider mentally unhealthy. Now I wonder more. It seems clear, he's a privileged, old, white guy that just doesn't connect with the kind of people I know in my life. "A champion of the working man" just.. just makes me laugh. He betrays ZERO knowledge or empathy of anyone who lives paycheck to paycheck. Worse, he thinks he does and sees others through the lens of his own experience. I think his capacity for empathy is near zero.
There's consistency and predictability to Trump, but it doesn't come from just paying attention to what he's saying. That's largely a diversion.
Though apparently intelligent, he appears to be dyslexic, and works with what snippets he's told. Kind of like Charlie McCarthy.
Rhetoric bullshit won the campaign so he's sticking to it. I don't think he realizes many of his voters would accept it during the campaign but now they want concrete results.
I think his core support wants the spectacle of the left getting a thumb in the eye not actual results.
BigV is putting into words so much of the thoughts I've been too overwhelmed to get out, off my chest.
How many people here, and people you know in your life, are completely mentally and emotionally exhausted? I know I am.
Because we've all dealt with unstable people in our lives. This is nothing new.
The worst part of having a person like this in the White House is that WE KNOW what causes a person to act like that, WE'VE SEEN this before. Who hasn't ever been in a bad relationship? Who hasn't ever had a toxic, malignant narcissist in their family or circle of acquaintances? Who hasn't had an older relative whom we've lost respect for as we see them succumb to magical thinking, and/or flat-out dementia?
This is tired, worn ground, and WE KNOW WHERE IT LEADS. It doesn't get better. It never gets better because people like that don't ever change, because they don't care. It's not a problem for them. They don't see what everyone else sees.
Here is what I believe: EVERYONE knows this. E V E R Y O N E
The opportunists in congress who want to get their bills signed, of course they know. The Trump voters who like the general shape of his policies, they know. You can't NOT know, you can only overlook it if you think you're getting something you want out of it.
This is completely non-political. Trump is a patently psychologically unstable person, and having someone like that in a big, important job that can affect billions of lives ... is beyond ill-advised.
Many things will be broken that can never be put back the same way, ever again. Even if you like the direction of these changes, the trust and respect in our institutions, our highly vaunted "way of life" --these things cannot change overnight, and they can only take so much pressure before snapping. It's irresponsible.
This is not hyperbole. This is not hysteria.
Everyone who is reading this knows exactly what I mean. I believe that. Even if you're okay with it. You know it's a gamble.
Many things will be broken that can never be put back the same way, ever again. Even if you like the direction of these changes, the trust and respect in our institutions, our highly vaunted "way of life" --these things cannot change overnight, and they can only take so much pressure before snapping. It's irresponsible.
I think you're right, I also think the people who voted for him were unhappy about what the country has become and wanted to shake up the system. They all had their own vision of what they wanted to be the result of that shake up, and I doubt many will be happy with the outcome.
That's the way it is with a loose cannon.
That's the way it is with a loose cannon.
Destruction can happen in minutes or days. Construction takes years or decades. Example: TPP.
Destruction is easy. Being stupid and hateful is man's DEFAULT state. Appealing to fear-based, "black and white" thinking is the easiest, most effective way of getting the most people to listen to you. Even if you have no ideas, no solutions.
To me, the national divide is a much bigger tsunami than Trump, muuuuch bigger problem. Let's put it this way:
Didn't we say Bush was a Fascist? Of course.
So now we're at an unsustainable level of histrionics? Of course!
Wouldn't half of us be absolutely losing our shit almost just as bad if Ted Cruz was our POTUS? Naturally!!
So... isn't Trump's personal style really just an excuse to lose our shit entirely? Because that's what we wanted to do anyway, and how convenient that he makes such a marvelous target?
~
I gotta tell you that the narcissist label is a very interesting one in this case. Having just dealt with a 10 out of 10 narcissist, I find I'm able to spot them easily enough. The answer is yeah, he is. BUT THEY ALL ARE, DID YOU NOT NOTICE? OMG, what do you say, when a very likeable bloke is not only plowing tail with the hot blond on the campaign trail, but making a baby -- while the wife sits at home dying of cancer? Politicians are narcissists, that is in the job description.
But there's this fly in the ointment of the public psychoanalysis that I can't get over, and it is this:
By all accounts, Trump's adult children are bright, well-adjusted, and perhaps nicer than he is, and they want to be a part of his life.
Inasmuch as picking a POTUS is picking the national parent, we should turn out so well. At the least it doesn't appear to have been a disaster.
Royal families used to like each other so much that they interbred until horrible genetic mutations were commonplace.
Ted Cruz would have destroyed the separation of church and state, much as I think Pence would if Trump kicks, but I doubt either would be as unpredictable as Trump.
A competent (insert your opposition here) would be more of a threat in many ways.
A competent (insert your opposition here) would be more of a threat in many ways.
Of course.
OF COURSE.
But, what about the psychological unhinging of vast swaths of people, reeling to reconcile their stable reality with this Godzilla of unpredictability?
It's so destabilizing, to the fabric of society. The REAL fabric of society, such as "can people sleep at night?"
Edit to add:
Your "good dad" analogy is horrible. A "good dad" is STABLE and COMFORTING.
A "good parent" does not teach his children, Fuck others as you think they would fuck you given a chance. Nor does he teach them to stick close or you move from us to them.
Not normal. Not okay.
No, they don't equate, not normal can be a shitlod of variations but not all of them are bad, as a matter of fact many are better than normal. But they could be perceived as a threat by normals and even different non-normals.
To me, the national divide is a much bigger tsunami than Trump, muuuuch bigger problem. Let's put it this way:
Didn't we say Bush was a Fascist? Of course.
Of course, nothing exacerbates the national divide like the two Presidents who lost the popular vote, and had the lowest electoral college victory of any other presidents since Reagan, right?
What about a guy who repeatedly claims he has the HIGHEST electoral college victory (almost exactly opposite the truth) and when called on it, says, "Uh, well, that's what somebody told me. I heard that somewhere." ƒUCKING LITERALLY HE SAID THIS.
But, of course, the snowflake libtards are just being hysterical, in both cases, right?
Bad, bad, horrible example, UT.
When most people don't want that President, don't like that President, and didn't vote for that President, they push back. Calling it hysterical is asshole-ish gaslighting.
But, what about the psychological unhinging of vast swaths of people, reeling to reconcile their stable reality with this Godzilla of unpredictability?
It's so destabilizing, to the fabric of society.
Oh, that! We failed to notice how torn it was to begin with. We didn't notice how we relentlessly and deeply despise the opinions of the half of the country that grows all our food and trucks all our stuff in. We didn't notice that we fought the very infrastructure that makes our cities, and hence our liberalism, possible in the first place.
Trump isn't encouraging it so much as opening the wound. I can't tell whether this may not actually be beneficial. Like I said before, this may need to be something we go through - something to get to another side that we can't see and can't predict.
If you're scared, get a dog. Also, if you're not scared, get a dog, because dogs are cool.
Wouldn't half of us be absolutely losing our shit almost just as bad if Ted Cruz was our POTUS? Naturally!!
So... isn't Trump's personal style really just an excuse to lose our shit entirely? Because that's what we wanted to do anyway, and how convenient that he makes such a marvelous target?
Yes, I would be losing my shit about Cruz. I'm not Christian, and don't want to be a 2nd class citizen because of that.
BUT in 2012-- I voted for MITT ROMNEY, a REPUBLICAN who was NOT batsh!t ƒucking insane. Who was a businessman, a leader with experience, a STABLE "dad" figure.
What does you condescending theory say about that??
Is it that "ANY" Republican is a good target, or is it just SH!TTY Republicans??
Is it that "coastal elites" just "hate" middle America, or is it that Republican POLITICIANS have become increasingly divisive and extreme??
You get a dog, stupid face.
Wouldn't half of us be absolutely losing our shit almost just as bad if Ted Cruz was our POTUS? Naturally!!
I don't think so, no. They'd be throwing around the "fascist" label, because everyone likes to throw around labels at the other guy, and that's stupid for all the reasons that you've brought up. But there would not be mass protests at the airport, or riotous town halls for state politicians that people couldn't even name last year. It wasn't like this when Bush II was president, not even close. Shame on folks for thinking they had it bad back then, but that doesn't mean it's fair to brush off what's happening now.
The working class has been stigmatized and mistreated and unfairly condemned, yes. But it has largely suffered this from the
rich, not the
liberal, two demographics that I think overlap 50/50 at best.
Oh, that! We failed to notice how torn it was to begin with. We didn't notice how we relentlessly and deeply despise the opinions of the half of the country that grows all our food and trucks all our stuff in. We didn't notice that we fought the very infrastructure that makes our cities, and hence our liberalism, possible in the first place.
Let's not drag half the country into this. The election numbers say <1/4 is saying it about <1/4. Both parties are guilty but the rest of us? Maybe we're guilty of not calling bullshit before the parties foisted a non choice on the rest of us.
I don't think so, no. They'd be throwing around the "fascist" label, because everyone likes to throw around labels at the other guy, and that's stupid for all the reasons that you've brought up. But there would not be mass protests at the airport, or riotous town halls for state politicians that people couldn't even name last year. It wasn't like this when Bush II was president, not even close. Shame on folks for thinking they had it bad back then, but that doesn't mean it's fair to brush off what's happening now.
The working class has been stigmatized and mistreated and unfairly condemned, yes. But it has largely suffered this from the rich, not the liberal, two demographics that I think overlap 50/50 at best.
Beautifully put.
What I really don't like, and it's something I saw over here too, in the run-up to Brexit, is the equating of educated, and/or liberal, with elite and out of touch -v- less educated and/or working class as salt of the earth, 'real' people (unless they're unemployed in which case they're scum)
It's a false divide and it is dangerous. The generations that made America and Britain great places where opportunities existed for the many valued education - valued critical thinking - valued art and philosophy and science and also valued employment and hard work.
The disparagement of 'experts' to the point that the word has effectively become an insult and political code for out of touch and fundamentally untrustworthy is not healthy. The overweening sense of personal entitlement that fosters as assumption that every opinion is equally valid, and should be equally weighted in public discourse, regardless of knowledge, expertise, or evidence is dangerous.
It's also fucking stupid. I have a doctorate and am a left-wing liberal, pro-europe and anti-nationalist. Does this mean I'm in the elite?
I'm pretty sure I wasn't a member of the liberal elite when I was trying to prove to the job centre that I had made sufficient job applications that week to not have my benefits sanctioned - or when I was going into the housing benefit office to show them my wage slips from my part-time, work from home, zero-hour contract telecanvassing job.
I have never owned property and most likely never will.
I'm not off in a white tower and out of touch, I am just as fucking 'real' as the people who voted for Brexit.
You know who always asks me about the so-called divide between working class people and liberal elites? It's disgruntled working class people, whom I respect 100% and have no pre-existing disagreement of any kind with, whom somehow divine from my appearance that I voted differently from them, and accordingly start instantly accusing me of "hating their way of life" although I've made no indication that I do, and insist that this is not the case.
The FALSE NARRATIVE that I must disrespect them is SO INGRAINED that they simply cannot ever grasp the concept that we could talk things through as two people whom mutually respect each other.
Do you understand, Undertoad? The "divide" you speak of is being exacerbated because people (like you) INSIST it exists, and therefore it does. NOT because of how *I* actually feel about anybody. There's a barrier there that THEY can't get past, because someone else* told them it exists. It's stupid, it's wrong, it's corrosive to society, and ƒuck you for feeding it.
This is my anecdotal experience.
*someone who has political gains to be made by dividing people
It's not a class divide at all! It's entirely political.
It wasn't like this in the past, because it wasn't like this in the past! That is to say,
People weren't batshit insane in Carter/Reagan because they didn't divide along political lines for the most part.
People started to get batshit insane in Clinton Bush because they started to divide along political lines
The divide is now complete and becoming utter, and the consequences are dire;
It didn't express itself during Obama because, amongst other things, race changed the nature of the divide and prohibited the media's involvement; this in fact caused it to "bubble under" until excited by the viability of a true outsider candidate, whose personal style of gamesmanship encouraged it; and here we are.
All this is just a silly wild-ass guess on my behalf because I am not everyone.
I agree, there was a bubble under Obama. A terrible, society-ending bubble.
Sadly, it appears that we are now back-lashing against positive accomplishments of the last eight years that a majority of people were happy with.
It's not a class divide at all! It's entirely political.
We didn't notice how we relentlessly and deeply despise the opinions of the half of the country that grows all our food and trucks all our stuff in.
It is, by definition, a class divide when you describe it this way. You are causing the problem by describing the problem.
The disparagement of 'experts' to the point that the word has effectively become an insult and political code for out of touch and fundamentally untrustworthy is not healthy.
You don't know any more than I do about history, because I wasn't there and you weren't either. You just gathered information from those elite experts, whom I know better than to trust. If it hadn't been for that damn Newton we wouldn't have to worry about shit falling on us.
Is that it? :lol:
What I really don't like, and it's something I saw over here too, in the run-up to Brexit, is the equating of educated, and/or liberal, with elite and out of touch -v- ...
What is observed today is how German opinions changed in the late 1920s and early 1930s. They were even told to "disparage the bourgeoisie and intelligentsia". No intent was to say anything that made sense. Logic was totally irrelevant. Lies and deceit were good as long as it inspired emotion. Since emotion (not informed knowledge) portrayed in soundbytes was why so many Germans changed by in 15 years.
Change is that subtle. How many notice large numbers who support Trump even when he says things that contradict their long held personal beliefs? Mistake is trying to understand this logically. And yet I keep citing how so many adults think - like children. Trump can lie all he wants - and be popular. Because emotion is how he inspires - religiously - that 19.x%.
They will even ignore their own knowledge to believe (worship) what he says. Just like 1930 Germany. Similarities between late 1920s Germany and this current political environment is stunningly similar. Worse, most have no idea how similar.
Trump is discussed everywhere today. Hitler was discussed constant (same) in late 1920 and early 1930 Germany.
Trying to understand all this logically only creates puzzlement and despondence. Opinions based in emotion cannot be understood logically. Understand why his game works. So many do not think in an adult manner. Only their emotions are relevant. Worse, too many adults do not even understand the difference between emotion and logical thought. Have never really learned how to think (step by step) through a problem. Will even get angry when a reply does not provide an immediate answer.
Why did so many remain to their death in Branch Davidians (in Waco)? They were not unique. A large number of adults are that easily manipulated. The more educated (logical) among us have difficulty understanding that so many adults are that easily manipulated only by soundbytes. Again, well over 60% of Americans *knew* smoking cigarettes increased health. None of this makes sense if trying to understand it logically.
Does anyone here represent and agree with Trump? Friends who voted straight Republican for 40+ years are even disparaging Trump.
Trump was empowered to humble the know-it-alls. He has been and will continue to be effective at it. Those who can't adapt and so fall by the wayside are acceptable losses. Collateral damage is a figment of the imagination. Don't complain. This is your life now.
You don't know any more than I do about history, because I wasn't there and you weren't either. You just gathered information from those elite experts, whom I know better than to trust. If it hadn't been for that damn Newton we wouldn't have to worry about shit falling on us.
Is that it? :lol:
*grins*
well done.
[YOUTUBE]jC-p8rUC8eE[/YOUTUBE]
I think it's worth remembering that there are reasonable and engaging people on both sides of the political divide.
Donald Trump regularly assailed President Barack Obama for playing golf, then spent the first weekends of his own presidency doing just that. He attacked Obama for using Air Force One to campaign, and did it over the weekend just a month into the job. He mocked Obama for heading out of Washington at taxpayer expense, but appears to have no qualms about doing so himself...
"Donald Trump has zero worry about contradicting himself, because he does it all day long," said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian who has met with Trump. "He figures he can get away with it because he does it all the time. There is no worry about it. He says one thing and then does another, and his supporters don't hold it against him.
"Trump said last August that if he became president, he wouldn’t have time for golf. "I'm going to be working for you, I'm not going to have time to go play golf," he said at an event in Virginia.
Trump was empowered to humble the know-it-alls.
Trump only does one thing. Throws shit and lies at the wall. Whatever sticks in any one event becomes his new mantra.
He started as a potential Democratic politician. When his rhetoric created personal grief (especially at that famous correspondent's dinner), he then discovered his rhetoric worked better in the Republican party where others such as Ted Cruz did same - just not as well.
His agenda is to preach whatever makes him better to a core constituency. Does not matter if it is a lie. His constituents don't care what is reality - only emotions.
He should be hated by Christian Evangelicals. But he discovered what sticks to a wall best when preaching to them. It need not be truthful or accurate. Only what makes them feel better.
You and your candidate lost to him. :p:
I'm curious, how will President Trump characterize this news about his AG Sessions.
Fake news, or serious leak?
Is there anyone in Trump's gang that wasn't talking to the Russians during the campaign?
Bill was impeached by Republicans for lying (about sex) under oath in a deposition in a civil case. If that is their standard and where they place the bar, it seems like lying under oath to Congress about dealing with a foreign adversary is a bigger deal.
I'm curious, how will President Trump characterize this news about his AG Sessions.
Fake news, or serious leak?
Response from the Republicans:
Cruz Calls Sessions' Meeting With Russian Ambassador A 'Nothing Burger'
Source:
Talking Points Memo
By ALLEGRA KIRKLAND Published MARCH 2, 2017, 9:33 AM EDT
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Wednesday called Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ two meetings with the Russian ambassador during the 2016 campaign a “nothing burger,” breaking with several senior Republican leaders.
“What we are seeing is a lot of political theater,” Cruz said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Cruz Calls Sessions' Meeting With Russian Ambassador A 'Nothing Burger'
Response from the Democrats:
McCaskill Calls For Attorney General Jeff Sessions To Resign
Source:
Talking Points Memo
By MATT SHUHAM Published MARCH 2, 2017, 10:14 AM EDT
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) joined several other Democrats in calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions' resignation Thursday, after the Washington Post reported that Sessions met twice with the Russian ambassador to the United States during the presidential campaign.
Sessions told the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation process in January that he had not met with any Russian during the campaign, though his spokesperson told TPM Thursday that Sessions “met with the ambassador in an official capacity as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is entirely consistent with his testimony.”
McCaskill called for Sessions to resign Thursday, saying in a statement published by NBC's Frank Thorp “it’s clear Attorney General Sessions misled the Senate–the question is, why? I’ve been on the Senate Armed Services Committee for 10 years, and in that time, have had no call from or meeting with, the Russian ambassador. Ever. That’s because ambassadors call members of the Foreign Relations Committee. Attorney General Sessions should resign.”
I loved that well reasoned, thought provoking reply from Cruz on the Right. More proof that a steady diet of Fox is bad for the brain. :cool:
Is there anyone in Trump's gang that wasn't talking to the Russians during the campaign?
Bill was impeached by Republicans for lying (about sex) under oath in a deposition in a civil case. If that is their standard and where they place the bar, it seems like lying under oath to Congress about dealing with a foreign adversary is a bigger deal.
Yeah, but...
...
...
...
Make America Great Again?
... Bill was impeached by Republicans for lying (about sex) under oath in a deposition in a civil case. If that is their standard and where they place the bar, it seems like lying under oath to Congress about dealing with a foreign adversary is a bigger deal.
I think you've touched on the difference. Like the old saying - "
A thief who steals from a thief is pardoned for one hundred years."
A politician who lies to politicians ... etc.
An honest man always backs up this accusations with examples, facts, and numbers. Obama was spying on Trump. Somehow that proves the Russians were not operating in conjunction with the Trump campaign?
Apparently this latest lie (thrown to a wall to see if it will stick) created a major yelling match between Trump and some top administration people.
Nixon got this way in the last days of Watergate. Where is the football?
Never forget what top Nixon people did when Nixon was in denial.
I could not get on Nixon's enemies list. Is it easier to get on The Donald's enemy list?
The Donald needs just one person on his list and it isn't you. The only thing the Dems have really got going for them is the Obama legacy. When the Dems gang up on Trump, he doesn't need to fend them all off. He just attacks their base of influence, Obama. It's nothing personal, it's just [strike]business[/strike] politics. The Dems won't wise up, not by the mid-terms, not by the next presidential election. They won't change their MO; because, you can't teach the old donkeys new tricks. Their fiasco with Hillary proved that.
I anticipate a Presidential tweet where he says the CIA did all the hacking and blamed the Russians.
When the Dems gang up on Trump, he doesn't need to fend them all off. He just attacks their base of influence, Obama.
Even moderates routinely insult Trump. Long term Republicans, who only voted Republican, are disparaging that president.
Trump needs reams of paper for his enemies list. Since his tweets make enemies daily. Of course his list is secret - to everyone except the Russians. He knows where friends can be found.
Trump is now doing 'Wag the Dog'. America's dumbest citizens love wars such as 'Mission Accomplished' or VietNam. Trump will use war so that dumbest Americans will cheer him on. Marines are now being deployed for unrestricted combat in a war that is not our problem. We are now moving from a support function of friends into unrestricted combat on something that was not a threat. Expect larger deployments - just like Nam.
Trump may seek any excuse to invade N Korea. Trump sees destruction as a fast path to promotion. George Jr successfully massacred almost 5000 Americans to promote himself. Expect Trump to match and probably exceed that.
Campaigning for a position on his enemies list. Unfortunately there is plenty of competition.
I anticipate a Presidential tweet where he says the CIA did all the hacking and blamed the Russians.
No Trump tweet yet,
but Hannity said it.
Its the weekend. He's down in FL drinking again.
"Did you hear what my man said today!" I can hardly wait.
Paddy Power, the Irish gambling website known for its over-the-top marketing stunts, says wagers associated with Mr. Trump have been more popular than any other novelty bets it has offered in the last year, including bets associated with Britain’s referendum on whether to leave the European Union.
Now, Paddy Power is hiring a “head of Trump betting” to oversee bets related to the American president and his administration.
The company, which is part of Paddy Power Betfair, a bookmaking business based in Dublin, is advertising the three-month contracted position amid sustained interest in Trump-related bets.
:lol2: :eek: :mecry: :o
CNN Analyst citing anonymous sources that Flynn has made a deal with the FBI to testify against Trump.
Meanwhile, the
press pool following Trump say he has been in a "meeting" at one of his tennis resorts for four hours, refuses to say with whom. They are getting tennis tips from instructors while they wait.
Oh my, do you think Trump grabbed Flynn's pussy?
After which she was madly in love with him, and her unrequited love drove her to testify.
Trump's lawyers will say her unrequited love drove her mad, so unfit to [strike]squeal[/strike] testify. :haha:
Your "good dad" analogy is horrible. A "good dad" is STABLE and COMFORTING.
That is not the point at all.
The point was, the common belief is that he is a narcissist, but narcissists of the variety he is suspected to be, do not have good, close relationships with their adult children.
From what I've heard in conversations of Celebrity Apprentice players, he does have a narcissist-level need to be liked. And his public actions certainly appear to be narcissistic. His children tell us that it is not so drop-dead simple. His particular variety of narcissism may be a little more complex.
A "good dad" is STABLE and COMFORTING.
Some narcissists will give you exactly that. When narcissists are successful, it's because they project a believable self-confidence. It IS stable and comforting, as long as they are at a distance. They are in sales, for that reason.
this post has been delayed for a month, to allow the poisonous emotional atmosphere of the thread to clear before making the pointthis post has been delayed for a month, to allow the poisonous emotional atmosphere of the thread to clear before making the point
Not on my watch, disagreeing scum! Your points are laughable--HA HA HA--I laugh.
Also, I largely agree that your interpretation of the political atmosphere is an accurate, real thing. I don't agree with the degree with which you're using it as a lens to seemingly interpret every single political discussion, but considering it's a thing that's worth saying, that isn't said often enough, maybe you're just eager for people to acknowledge the thing, thus mitigate the damage it might do. So, I acknowledge the thing.
But, I don't think it's going away, because people are upset about legitimate, real things, that are bad, and that do need to change. Whether that changes the minds of the 20% of angry idiots that it takes to elect a garbage president--of course it won't. But do we fear saying the right thing, because it make make angry idiots get angrier and stupider? Well, that might be strategic, but OF COURSE we don't just avoid saying what's true and right. Society doesn't get better by being polite in the face of bad judgement, by excusing bad ideas. It's like raising a kid--making excuses for a bad kid creates a monster.
Most content filled, most florid Flint - speak post this administration.
I approve of that message.
But do we fear saying the right thing
"Do we fear saying..."
No we do not. We're super into making sure everyone hears what we say, so we say it with bombastic proclamations. Because it is not about conversation, not about convincing others. It is entirely about
[SIZE="4"]Virtue signalling[/SIZE]
"...the right thing"
People don't say the "right thing". It is not important to say the "right thing". We say "the thing that we want to reinforce in our pack because our side believes in it and the other side doesn't".
Political people, when presented with facts or alternate points of view, just become
angry. That's how you know. It's not about "right".
This is more primal as sports. People are behaving as the apes that they are, dividing into packs and establishing alphas.
I have no idea what to think of this:
Mike Flynn Offers to Testify in Exchange for Immunity
That sounds like he doesn't think the investigation is going away, though it's hard to say what could force Nunes to do anything. Maybe he thinks that FBI indictments are coming?
He can't count on a Presidential pardon, sooooooo...
Maybe he want's enough publicity to give him "authenticity" so he can write a book.
Trump the job creator.
That sounds like he doesn't think the investigation is going away, though it's hard to say what could force Nunes to do anything. Maybe he thinks that FBI indictments are coming?
By giving testimony to a friendly committee, he then gets immunity from others who are more interested in reality and can prosecute him for crimes.
Never confuse this with Clinton's murder of Vince Foster. Or intentional lies of Kerry's Swift Boat. Those were invented by fake news. And believed by the "easiest to brainwash".
Clear evidence, from people not playing politics and not from bots creating lies, suggest Flynn is quite likely guilty. (Exactly what needs better definition.) Sounds so much like Bridgegate - where purpose was to protect a guilty boss. They also did not get immunity because honest people suspected crimes existed. Conclusion: crimes did exist - which says so much about attitude and knowledge of that boss.
BOOM goes the dynamite.
The U.S. military launched 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian military airfield late on Thursday, in the first direct American assault on the government of President Bashar al-Assad since that country’s civil war began six years ago.
The operation, which the Trump administration authorized in retaliation for a chemical attack killing scores of civilians this week, dramatically expands U.S. military involvement in Syria and exposes the United States to heightened risk of direct confrontation with Russia and Iran, both backing Assad in his attempt to crush his opposition.
President Trump said the strike was in the “vital national security interest” of the United States and called on “all civilized nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria. And also to end terrorism of all kinds and all types.”
...
The missiles were launched from two Navy destroyers — the USS Ross and USS Porter — in the eastern Mediterranean. They struck an airbase called Shayrat in Homs province, which is the site from which the planes that conducted the chemical attack in Idlib are believed to have originated. The targets included air defenses, aircraft, hangars and fuel.
...
Syrian state TV said a U.S. missile attack hit a number of military targets inside the country, calling the attack an “aggression,” according to the Associated Press.
...
The assault adds new complexity to Syria’s prolonged conflict, which includes fighters battling the Syrian government and others focused on combatting the Islamic State, which despite over two years of American and allied attacks remains a potent force.
He put his missiles where his mouth was. I hope we don't look back on this episode and realize this is where we made a mistake.
a few hours earlier:
Clinton: US should take out Syrian airfields
I'm not reeeealy in favor of a she said he said with a former candidate but we always sorta forgot that she was a big hawk.
probably got it from the livestream of the tapp on Trump.
I wonder if she was tipped off in advance, she has a lot of friends in the government and military?
Oh I know, Trump called her up and asked her to say that so critics wouldn't beat him up. :lol2:
Yep, he pulled a Clinton.
I'm not super comfortable with the universal love Trump got for the missiles. He's getting hate for everything else. They (the press and deep state) are shaping his behavior towards blowing shit up.
It's a trick. They're just trying to get him so enthusiastic about blowing shit up that he'll become a suicide bomber. :D
After he was asked about the gassing incident in Syria, he said he was elected Potus of the US, not Potus of the world. I don't think it's universal love, but approval of the signal he sent allies, so they could breath a sigh of relief, and enemies to wonder WTF would this nut do next.
The attack itself wasn't very effective, but the signal was strong.
Did anyone think of sending a 'Dear John' letter to the president? Or would that be too personal?
Happy Easter tw. The Easter Bunny decided The Donald needs your input and left this link for you:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/reorganizing-the-executive-branch
No hurry, you have until June 12th. Have a good time!
Oh that's cute. Now they can weedwack the way they've told by the corporate masters and blame it on the public.
But, but, this is what the people wanted. I'm sure every lobbyist's staff is busy ghostwriting posts. :rolleyes:
You would think there would be a lot of conversation about this past remarkable week.
There's everything to say, but at the same time, where do you even begin? So there is not much to say.
Except that none of this is normal.
You guys, this isn't normal.
It's not.
Trump is the new black. :(
Except that none of this is normal.
You guys, this isn't normal.
It's not.
This has always been normal for Trump. Nothing new. As obvious in the presidential campaign over 1 year ago.
When was the last time you got the impression that tw liked you; or, valued your opinion and wasn't just feigning interest so you'd continue to listen to his rhetoric [rhetorical]? Tw is just a propagandist abusing this venue. Nothing new. As obvious in the Cellar since over 1 year ago.
He is beginning to send the stock market the other way. That is the only sin in modern 'merica.
Here's what you got, multiple times...
An unnamed source ponies up unsubstantiated information to a propagandist rag, one overtly skewed against Trump.
Promptly, other propagandist outlets, all overtly skewed against Trump, snatch up on the story, each and every one declaring him guilty (without real investigation, without trial).
Sound and fury, signifying nuthn'.
Trump ain't goin' nowhere.
And even if he does...
https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Presidential_line_of_successionMost of the stories have been substantiated numerous times over by multiple sources. They are unnamed only to the public. The newspapers know their names. If their names were shared, then they would stop talking freely.
Papers like the Washington Post and NYT may slant their stories by their choice of words, but they don't make shit up.
In fact, the White House comes out after these stories and say they are absolutely false, and then confirm them as they talk about each individual detail. Like the sharing top secret info with the Russians story.
"Most of the stories have been substantiated numerous times over by multiple sources. They are unnamed only to the public. The newspapers know their names. If their names were shared, then they would stop talking freely."
I see...I should 'trust' the propagandists...cuz they're 'reporters', have 'ethics', are 'moral'. And the anons, I should 'trust' them too...cuz they offer up 'fact' while wearing a mask.
Mueller, with the wide scope of his lent power, may just put an end to all that unnamed sourcing...hell, he'll have to...the accused always gets to face his accuser in court.
#
"Papers like the Washington Post and NYT may slant their stories by their choice of words, but they don't make shit up."
When the Post printed that Comey wanted more resources for the 'Russia Investigation' and AD McCabe sez 'no, that didn't happen, we have adequate resources', what was that?
When some rag reported the DoJ's Rosenstein had a conniption and threatened to quit, and Rosenstein sez 'no that didn't happen', what was that?
Honest mistake, or propaganda...the Shadow knows (and soon, so will we, by way of Mueller).
#
"Like the sharing top secret info with the Russians story."
Trump's sin here is bein' knocked off-kilter, gettin' flustered, shootin' his mouth off. That, and bein' surrounded by (perhaps) well-intentioned advisors givin' him god-awful advice. He does sumthn' well within the scope of his office and he gets slammed, supposedly cuz he outted Israel...funny, I ain't heard one word of complaint from Netanyahu...mebbe cuz he'd given his blessing to that disclosure before hand?
I don't know...I'm thinkin' the press doesn't know either (but, damned straight, they will write stories claiming they do).
Understand, I'm not a Trump apologist...he was, as I explained elsewhere, the lesser of two evils to me (and still is)...if he done wrong, let that wrong be aired, proven, and dealt with, in court. This flaying away at him, this declaration -- subtle or gross -- of his guilt by folks who are supposed to convey fact, not color it, is small and wrong. I'll no more climb up on that haywagon than I will the other where all riders say Trump can do no wrong.
I'll applaude when he does good; condemn when his wrong-doing is proven...till then: this cheese stands alone.
if he done wrong, let that wrong be aired, proven, and dealt with, in court. This flaying away at him, this declaration -- subtle or gross -- of his guilt by folks who are supposed to convey fact, not color it, is small and wrong.
Apparently you were not around for Watergate. A seriously corrupt president was removed only because facts were provided in a same manner. This is democracy doing things right. Reporting facts. As learned from Watergate, it can take years of facts to finally get rid of a president - who even massacred tens of thousands of Americans in Vietnam to protect his legacy.
Some presidents work for a nation. Others work to promote themselves. At this point, nobody can deny it. Trump is the latter. The constant drip... drip... drip... necessary in a healthy democracy makes that obvious.
Trump is not an honest man. That much was obvious so long ago. So much so that psychiatrists even ask if his lying is a symptom of mental illness. Not yet known is if any impeachable crimes have been committed. And so we absolutely need a constant drip... drip... drip... At this point, it would be the only thing that keeps Trump from committing impeachable crimes.
Putin got the type of President he wanted. Trump is a perfect patsy for a chess player like Putin.
"Not yet known is if any impeachable crimes have been committed"
Bingo!
Nice of you to admit it.
It would be equally nice if 'the press' could admit it too.
There's no such thing as an "impeachable crime"; it's purely up to Congress. Their guidance is "high crimes and misdemeanors", but in the end it's just whether 50%+1 of the Representatives, and 67% of the Senators want you out.
There's no such thing as an "impeachable crime"; it's purely up to Congress. Their guidance is "high crimes and misdemeanors", but in the end it's just whether 50%+1 of the Representatives, and 67% of the Senators want you out.
Actually, it's about half that. If 50% + 1 of the Representatives vote in favor of impeachement, the President is impeached. Period.
The Senate may or may not convict with a 2/3 vote in favor, but the President is still impeached, cf. Clinton.
... Not yet known is if any impeachable crimes have been committed. ... At this point, it would be the only thing that keeps Trump from committing impeachable crimes. ...
There's no such thing as an "impeachable crime" ...
There seems to be a disparity here.
There are impeachable crimes, they just aren't written into law.
You mean like fashion crimes?
Eligible crimes are not stated, so whatever crimes prod the congress critters to impeach even fashion crimes.
Well then I think what I said before still goes:
If it is of any consolation, a Trump will be easier to impeach than a Clinton. Depending on what your definition of is, is, of course.
If Pence can round up enough support.
There's no such thing as an "impeachable crime"; it's purely up to Congress.
And so, at that time, a blow job from an intern is impeachable. Is that an impeachable crime today? Or something that is nobody's business?
Unfortunately, even the US Constitution will not discuss it.
You mean like fashion crimes?
:lol2:
The view from across the pond :P
[YOUTUBE]h8C5Ik6q7Xk[/YOUTUBE]
But those are furriners jealous of how great we are again.
We used to export cotton, then steel, then technology. Now we're #1 world's supplier of comedy material.
That's why Kim Jong-un hates us, we usurped his country's position.
Totally, nobody gives a flying fuck what that amateur has to say any more. There's a new king of the mentalists in power now.
[YOUTUBE]U5ihA6oTG9Y[/YOUTUBE]
Wow.
When asked if he would make a statement under oath, he said "100%", but then veered off into saying that he didn't ask Comey to 'pledge allegiance under oath', so he may have been, deliberately or not, misinterpreting the question (which itself had some verbal flubs).
If he says he's willing to go under oath it means he knows some woman named Oath.